Why buying a cover isn’t really about buying a cover.

No, this is not some sort of existential exercise, it’s about what you’re really buying when you purchase a protective cover for military equipment.

When you purchase a cover what you’re really buying is readiness, corrosion-prevention, protection from the elements, a barrier against damaging UV rays, and a reduction in maintenance costs. Covers are the means to an end.

If all you wanted to do was slap a cover on something, you’d throw a basic tarp over your artillery, tank, or helicopter and call it a day. But a tarp, along with many other types of covers, doesn’t buy you any real protection. If anything, a cheap cover has the opposite effect. It can promote corrosion, allow water intrusion, expose your equipment to damaging UV radiation, and more.

There was a time when it was safe to say there wasn’t much difference between one cover and another. But with the advent of new technical textiles and new technologies for combining those textiles, there is now a big difference between covers.

When you consider the increase in extreme temperatures and humidity, increasingly severe storms, and highly corrosive environments such as INDOPACOM, it’s never been more important to protect assets from the elements in order to maintain equipment readiness.

So when you go to purchase protective covers, we encourage you to think about what you’re really buying - and to make sure that you don’t end up paying a high price for that cheap cover.

If you’d like more information on what makes for an effective cover and the issues to consider in making a purchase, please visit our Protective Covers page or contact us directly to speak with a subject matter expert.

Image Courtesy Spc. Tin P. Vuong.
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