MIL-STD-810F - Appendix B - Detailed Program Management Guidance

APPENDIX B (continued)

E. Testing materiel for environmental effects. Developmental and evaluation plans must consider environmental effects outlined in the life cycle environmental profile. Both chamber tests and field/fleet tests serve useful purposes. Apply them at appropriate times during the acquisition cycle. Except for reasons of safety, chamber tests cannot be substituted for field/fleet development tests because unknown synergistic/antagonistic effects from combined/induced environments cannot be built into chamber/laboratory test methods. An example where chamber testing may be substituted for field/fleet testing is ammunition conditioning prior to test firing. Following are some guidelines for laboratory testing, natural field/fleet development testing, and operational testing.

1. Laboratory testing. Conduct laboratory tests early in the development stage to screen materiel for environmentally caused problems that may degrade materials, performance, or reliability. Conduct laboratory tests according to the general tailoring guidance in Part One and the specific testing guidelines in Part Two of this standard.

2. Natural field/fleet development testing. Conduct natural environmental field/fleet development tests to determine the true effects of the real environment. This will allow system assessment of synergistic/antagonistic effects of natural environmental factors combined with human factors and induced factors such as shock/vibration, smoke/obscurants and electromagnetic interference. Use established natural climatic test centers and standard test procedures to obtain data that may be compared to previous/following test data and to develop data bases that may be used for simulations.

3. Operational testing. Conduct operational testing in natural environments that are as realistic as possible. When operational testing cannot subject materiel to the desired ranges of environmental stresses and deterioration that may be encountered during actual operation, storage, and transit, development test environmental effects data may be substituted for operational test environmental effects data.

F. Analytic alternatives to testing actual hardware. In some instances, there may be analytic alternatives to testing actual systems or hardware prototypes in laboratories or in field/fleet environments. An EES can help to establish an engineering basis for selecting and implementing such alternatives. When alternatives to testing actual hardware or prototypes are chosen, Task 401, Environmental Engineering Master Plan, must contain the rationale for their selection including an explanation of the cost savings, other benefits and risks to system effectiveness/safety. (See Part One, paragraph 4.1.2.b; Appendix A, Task 401; and Appendix B, paragraph F.) Analytic alternatives include, but are not necessarily limited to the following.

1. Modeling and simulation. Modeling and simulation (M&S) is useful in representing conceptual systems that do not exist, nascent technologies, and extant systems that cannot be subjected to actual environments because of safety requirements or the limitations of resources and facilities (DoDI 5000.2). Modeling and simulation techniques should be used only to the extent that their predictive validities have been verified. They are not intended to be substitutes for tests in natural field/fleet environments. Simulation can reduce high costs involved in producing and testing hardware prototypes. Although artificial intelligence and software simulations may be integral parts of models, neither these types of data nor data from laboratory tests should be used to validate models. The most sound criteria for developing and validating models and simulations come from real world, field/fleet data or knowledge bases. To that end, all fields of science and engineering can help to save costs through simulation by developing or contributing to lessons learned data bases or knowledge bases that cover the entire domain of environmental effects (DoDD 5000.1). (See Appendix C, paragraph B, below.)

2. Testing coupon samples. In some instances, particularly in laboratory tests and natural field/fleet exposure/surveillance tests, there may be significant savings by using coupon samples instead of entire systems when specific materials are the central acquisition issue.

3. Acceptance by similarity. In cases where materiel considered for testing is nearly identical to materiel already tested, and there is no reason to believe that the differences between them would pose an environmentally induced problem, the program manager may consider accepting the materiel by virtue of its similarity to the similar materiel already accepted.

G. Type classification process. Environmental considerations influence the type classification process. For materiel that is designated by the combat developer to be critical to combat success, type classification or fielding may be barred if environmental testing reveals that environmental effects were not considered adequately and incorporated in the design of the system. Additionally, successful system performance and reliability in natural environments are listed as critical issues in Milestone III (production) decisions.

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