For the other perspective, from the same article, right before your sentence, corrosion over the entire country consumes 3% of the national GDP (this is basical

For the other perspective, from the same article, right before your sentence, corrosion over the entire country consumes 3% of the national GDP (this is basically the cost of entropy...), at an average of $1000 per person per year. The stated $114.5 billion dollars per five years, given 1.5 million active personnel works out rather favorably then, when compared to the overall average. Also, can we not call it a factoid. The proper definition (a statement of questionable validity/truthfullness), nor the standard misused definition of it (random trivial, yet interesting fact) doesn't really apply here, as the 'factoid' is clearly related, and not trivial to the original matter at hand.