This standard is intended to be referenced, as applicable, in acquisition contracts involving the manufacture of parts or equipment to be used in space and launch vehicles. To ensure the required high quality of the parts, stringent in-process controls must be imposed and a comprehensive test program conducted on the completed parts. A key ingredient of the test program is the assessment of part lot quality based on the destructive examination of samples randomly selected from each production lot. (NOTE: Many of the specifications listed in the Requirement section do not currently have DPA requirements as part of the individual specification requirements. As such, this standard may have requirements that are above and beyond what is required within baseline specifications. In addition, many of the specific requirements listed in the Requirement sections are more stringent than those listed in the referenced specifications that do require DPA. For these reasons, standard product may not meet the additional requirements spelled out in MIL-STD-1580. Therefore, if the intention is to receive product that will meet all of the MIL-STD- 1580 requirements and MIL-STD-1580 requirements are not imposed in the acquisition documents, the supplier cannot be held accountable for non-compliances to the MIL-STD-1580 unique requirements.) This DPA is used to verify the internal design, materials, construction, and workmanship of the "as-built" sample parts to preclude installation of parts having patent or latent defects. DPA can also be used to monitor processes to evaluate supplier production trends and for failure analysis. As such, DPA can be a source of information to assist in counterfeit part investigations. DPA can also be used to derive information to aid in defining improvement changes in design, materials, or processes or to aid in dispositioning parts that exhibit anomalies.