FEATURE MILITARY, AEROSPACE & DEFENCE
Taking commercial products into the military domain
E
conomic constraints have driven national defence programmes to
the realisation that they can no longer afford to invest in monolithic, bespoke, systems. Instead, they must focus on value for money through the use of COTS components and final products that will deliver interoperability between different battlefield systems, as well as ‘more from less’ through Defence Line of Development (DLoD) optimisation. The commercial marketplace, driven by consumer demand for increasingly smart gadgets and lifestyle applications, has created an environment where funding for innovation within this sector vastly outstrips budgets available to all but the most well-funded military research programmes. There are therefore obvious technological and cost benefits from integrating COTS components and final products into military systems. This pace of technological development
creates substantial opportunities for the smart acquisition of capability, where military and civilian requirements are found to be compatible. This has the potential to reduce the time needed for the transfer of leading edge technologies into useful military products, providing substantial benefits to the end-user. In the commercial world, there are
some 25 European directives that require CE marking, with some specifying exclusions for military equipment and some not. For example, the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive (2014/30/EU) has no exclusions for military equipment.
ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY The use of commercial equipment in the military domain often requires electromagnetic barriers, such as shielded racks and filters, to reduce equipment susceptibility to harsher electromagnetic environments than those normally experienced in the commercial environment, and enhance compatibility with sensitive military systems. In order to assess if any electromagnetic protection is required when developing military equipment, the risk assessment process of Def Stan 59-411 can be used. Using the guidance in Def Stan 59-411 Part 1, a ‘gap analysis’ process can be used to determine whether the compliance
20 JUNE 2018 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS
evidence is more or less stringent than the Def Stan 59-411 test limit. Any shortfalls identified will help to specify the degree of additional protection that is required, such as shielding or filter attenuation. As this is a common issue, many
manufacturers now offer suitable RF shielded racks and enclosures, within
Fast technological development is creating substantial opportunities for the smart acquisition of capability, where military and civilian requirements are found to be compatible. This approach has great potential to reduce the time needed for the transfer of
leading edge technologies into useful military products. Pete Dorey, TÜV SÜD Product Service and TÜV SÜD BABT, comments
THE IMPACT OF THE ENVIRONMENT The ability of military products to operate and survive against physical stresses such as extreme climate, changes in temperature, vibration and shock, is paramount and therefore requires a rigorous testing regime – such as in accordance with Def-Stan 00-35. As there are so many variables,
which the equipment can be housed without modification so that the validity of the CE marking for the commercial equipment can be preserved.
POWER PROTECTION Ensuring that a power supply is safe and appropriate for a particular product is a complicated process, with typically at least fifteen separate testing considerations to be taken into account. Also, as the military typically operates at 50, 60 or 400Hz, while domestic supplies operate at 50Hz, this will affect the power components selected when developing a product. Power quality tests for military
equipment are harsher than those that would be applied for a commercial product to meet CE marking requirements, as equipment upset by power surges is not acceptable for mission-critical defence equipment. The electrical power environment can also be very different in naval vessels, military vehicles and where soldiers rely on batteries or generators in field operations, rather than the consistency of electrical supplies normally experienced in the commercial world.
There are obvious technological and cost benefits from integrating COTS components and final products into military systems
extra unknown factors may come into play in the real world. For example, while you may have tested for a humid environment, you may not have anticipated that one particular user would leave the product in the sun for long periods of time, before rain rapidly cools it. It is therefore possible to develop tests that combine environments to simulate such ‘real life’ scenarios, reproducing these physical environments in the laboratory under repeatable conditions to simulate the actual environment. BS EN 60068-2 is a general standard
which gives guidance on how to conduct environmental testing. Meanwhile, the defence sector has its own specific requirements which sit alongside this, such as the USA military environmental testing standard, MIL-STD-810. However, as BS EN 60068 is not market or product specific, it is a useful tool to tailor environmental tests specific to each individual product need. Manufacturers of commercial equipment that want to take a step into the military market, may assume that this is a complex and costly issue. Indeed, some may over complicate the test process, resulting in unnecessary duplication of compliance-testing. However, testing can be minimised by using gap analysis between Defence Standards and the commercial standards, such as those for CE marking.
TÜV SÜD Product Service
www.tuv-sud.co.uk
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