A United States Defense Standard, often called a military standard, "MIL-STD", or "MIL-SPEC", is used to help achieve standardization objectives by the U.S. Department of Defense. The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department, is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ...

Standardization is beneficial in achieving interoperability, ensuring products meet certain requirements, commonality, reliability, total cost of ownership, compatibility with logistics systems, and similar defense-related objectives [1]. In statistics, the reliability of a set of data; In experimentation, the reliability of an experiment. ... Inside Nexus Distribution, a United States logistics provider. ...

Defense Standards are also used by other non-Defense government organizations, technical organizations, and industry. This article discusses definitions, history, and usage of Defense Standards. Related documents, such as Defense Handbooks and Defense Specifications are also addressed.

Definitions of military standards, specifications and handbooks

Although the official definitions differentiate between several types of documents, all of these documents go by the general rubric of "military standard", including defense specifications, handbooks, and standards. Strictly speaking, these documents serve different purposes. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), military specifications "describe the physical and/or operational characteristics of a product", while military standards "detail the processes and materials to be used to make the product." Military handbooks, on the other hand, are primarily sources of compiled information and/or guidance. The GAO acknowledges, however, that the terms are often used interchangeably. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the audit, evaluation, and investigative agency of the United States Congress. ...

Official definitions are provided by DOD 4120.24-M Defense Standardization Program (DSP) Policies and Procedures, March 2000, OUSD (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics):

• Defense Handbook - A guidance document containing standard procedural, technical, engineering, or design information about the materiel, processes, practices, and methods covered by the DSP.

• Defense Specification - A document that describes the essential technical requirements for purchased materiel that is military unique or substantially modified commercial items.

• Defense Standard - A document that establishes uniform engineering and technical requirements for military-unique or substantially modified commercial processes, procedures, practices, and methods. There are five types of defense standards: interface standards, design criteria standards, manufacturing process standards, standard practices, and test method standards.

• Standard - A document that establishes uniform engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes and practices.

• Specification - A document prepared to support acquisition that describes the essential technical requirement for purchased materiel and the criteria for determining whether those requirements are met.

For purposes of this article, "defense standards" will include standards, specifications and handbooks.

Formats

As you might expect, the DOD has standards about the format of standards:

• MIL-STD-961E, Defense and Program-Unique Specifications Format and Content, 1 August 2003, Dept. of Defense

• MIL-STD-962D, Defense Standards Format and Content, 1 August 2003, Dept. of Defense

Origins of military standards

Defense standards evolved from the need to ensure proper performance of military equipment. For example, about 1300 British soldiers died in the Zulu war, in part because they could not open the ammunition cases (van Opstal, 1994). Defense standards provide many benefits, such as minimizing the number of types of ammunition, ensuring compatibility of tools, and ensuring quality during production of military equipment. This results, for example, in ammunition cases that can be opened without tools. The proliferation of standards had drawbacks, however. It was argued that the large number of standards, nearly 30,000 by 1990, imposed unnecessary restrictions, increased cost to contractors (and hence the DOD), and impeded the incorporation of the latest technology. Responding to increasing criticism, Secretary of Defense William Perry issued a memorandum in 1994 that effectively eliminated the use of most defense standards. This has become known as the "Perry memo". Many defense standards were cancelled. In their place, the DOD encouraged the use of industry standards, such as ISO 9000 series for quality assurance. Weapon systems were required to use "performance specifications" that described the desired features of the weapon, as opposed to requiring a large number of defense standards. In 2005, however, the DOD partially reversed itself and issued a new memorandum that permits use of defense standards without obtaining a waiver, but did not reinstate any cancelled defense standards. The Battle of Rorkes Drift The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between Britain and the Zulus, and signalled the end of the Zulus as an independent nation. ... Boxes of ammunition clog a warehouse in Baghdad Ammunition is a generic military term meaning (the assembly of) a projectile and its propellant. ... Jump to: navigation, search ISO 9000 specifies requirements for a Quality Management System overseeing the production of a product or service. ...

According to a 2003 issue of Gateway, published by the Human Systems Information Analysis Center [2], the number of defense standards and specifications have been reduced from 45,500 to 28,300. However, other sources noted that the number of standards just before the Perry memorandum was issued was less than 30,000, and that thousands have been cancelled since then. This may be due to differences in what is counted as a "military standard".

See also

• Standard
• Standardisation
• Military_technology_and_equipment
• Standards organizations
• International standard
• American National Standards Institute

The word standard has several meanings: Originally, standard referred to a conspicuous object used as a rallying point in battle. ... Standardisation or standardization (sometimes abbreviated s13n), in the context related to technologies and industries, is the process of establishing a technical standard among competing entities in a market, where this will bring benefits without hurting competition. ... This article lists military technology items, devices and methods. ... Standards Organizations are bodies, organizations and institutions that produce, and in some cases measure, standards. ... Standards are produced by many organizations, some for internal usage only, others for use by a groups of people, groups of companies, or a subsection of an industry. ... The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit standards organization that serves as a facilitator for the standardization work of its members in the United States. ...

List of DOD Standards and Specifications in Wikipedia

Note: This may need to be moved to a separate article.

• MIL-STD-105, Sampling Procedures and Tables for Inspection by Attributes
• MIL-STD-188, a series related to telecommunications
• MIL-STD-202, quality standards for electronic parts.
• MIL-STD-498, on software development and documentation
• MIL-STD-1234, sampling, inspection, and testing of pyrotechnics
• MIL-STD-1246C, particle and molecular contamination levels for space hardware (has been replaced with IEST-STD-1246).
• MIL-STD-1553, a digital communications bus
• MIL-STD-1589, JOVIAL programming language
• MIL-STD-1750A, an instruction set architecture (ISA) for airborne computers
• MIL-STD-1760, smart-weapons interface
• MIL-STD-1815, Ada programming language
• MIL-STD-1913, Picatinny rail, a mounting bracket on firearms
• MIL-STD-2196, pertains to optical fiber communications

MIL-STD-105 is a defense standard that provides procedures and tables for sampling by attributes based on Schuchard, Harry Romig, and Harold Dodge sampling inspection theories and mathematical formulas. ... MIL-STD-188 is a series of U.S. military standards relating to telecommunications. ... BlackBerry 7100t Telecommunication refers to communication over long distances. ... MIL-STD-498 (Military-Standard-498) is a United States military standard whose purpose is to establish uniform requirements for software development and documentation. ... MIL-STD-1234 (Military-Standard-1234) is a United States military standard that describes the general methods of sampling, inspection, and testing pyrotechnics for conformance with the material requirements of various pyrotechnic specifications. ... Pyrotechnics are used in the entertainment industry Pyrotechnics used in the 1812 overture include sparklers and gas cannons Pyrotechnics is a field of study often thought synonymous with the manufacture of fireworks, but more accurately has a wider scope that includes items for military and industrial uses. ... MIL-STD-1553 is a serial data bus designed for use with military avionics. ... A bus is a large wheeled vehicle, intended to carry numerous persons in addition to the driver. ... JOVIAL stands for The International Algorithmic Language part of the name is from ALGOL. This high order language was developed to write software for the embedded systems of military aircraft by Jules Schwartz in 1959. ... A programming language or computer language is a standardized communication technique for expressing instructions to a computer. ... MIL-STD-1750A or 1750A is the formal definition of a 16-bit computer Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), including both required and optional components, as described by the military standard document MIL-STD-1750A (1980). ... An instruction set, or instruction set architecture (ISA), describes the aspects of a computer architecture visible to a programmer, including the native datatypes, instructions, registers, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external I/O (if any). ... Ada is a structured, statically typed imperative computer programming language designed by a team lead by Jean Ichbiah of CII Honeywell Bull during 1977–1983. ... The Picatinny rail is a bracket used on some firearms in order to provide a standardized mounting platform for scopes and other accessories such as tactical lights and laser sighting modules. ... Optical fibers An optical fiber is a transparent thin fiber, usually made of glass or plastic, for transmitting light. ...

References

• Christensen, David S., David A. Searle, and Caisse Vickery, (1999), "The impact of the Packard Commission's recommendations on reducing cost overruns on defense acquisition contracts", Acquisition Review Quarterly, v 6, no. 3:251-262. [3]
• DOD 4120.24-M, (2000), "DSP Policies & Procedures", Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics), March.
• Fowler, Charles A., (1994), "Defense acquisition: Grab the ax", IEEE Spectrum, v 31, no. 10:55-59.
• Kratz, Louis A., (2005), "Elimination of waivers to cite military specifications and standards in solicitations and contracts", Policy Memo 05-03, Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Logistics Plans and Programs), Department of Defense, recorded in Defense Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, July - August 2005, p 91. [4]
• McNally, William P., (1998), "Will commercial specifications meet our future air power needs?", Acquisition Review Quarterly, v 5, no. 3:297-316. [5]
• Perry, William, (1994), Memorandum from the Secretary of Defense to the Secretaries of the Military Departments, "Specifications & standards -- A new way of doing business", June 29, The Pentagon, Office of the Secretary of Defense. [6]
• Poston, Alan, (2003), "The current state of human factors standardization", Gateway, Human Systems Information Analysis Center, v 14, no. 2:1-2. [7]
• Reig, Raymond W., (2000), "Baselining acquisition reform", Acquisition Review Quarterly, v 7, no. 1:33-46. [8]
• U.S. General Accounting Office, (1994), Acquisition Reform: DOD Begins Program to Reform Specifications and Standards, Report to Congressional Committees, October, GAO/NSIAD-95-14.
• U.S. Department of Defense, (2000), MILSPEC Reform Final Report - An Ending: A New Beginning, April, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology & Logistics), Defense Standardization Office.
• van Opstal, Debra, (1994), "Roadmap for MILSPEC reform: A national imperative", Program Manger, v 23, no. 1:10-13.

External links

• Department of Defense Single Stock Point for Military Specifications, Standards and Related Publications