Maybe I’m being naïve, but I always seem to give people ‘the benefit of the doubt’. If we assume the naval personnel are not stupid, and that they didn’t plan to leave the aircraft out in these conditions, then there must be a good reason why they ended up as they did. But I can’t figure it out for the hell of me. Maybe the weather conditions deteriorated unexpectedly. Can’t think of another reason.
Maybe we need some ex-naval types to give us an insight.
I've experience of trying to maintain equipment in a salt laden environment, I'd consider that machine a 'write off' after having seen that video (a complete strip down at least).