scope:

The guidance and information contained in this Standard is structured to cover environmental conditions that are relevant to the complete life of an item of defence materiel; ¡.e. from leaving its place of manufacture to the end of its Service use or disposal. Nevertheless, this Standard cannot be expected to be exhaustive in its treatment of all environments, some of which require considerably detailed analysis before they can be characterised effectively. The depth of treatment for some environments or related matter may have been determined by the availability of information on the subject, in conjunction with its importance in the light of contemporary environmental engineering problems. Although environments and their effects are covered in some detail in this Standard, methods for minimising degradation of performance or reliability are only specifically addressed in Part 4 for natural environments.

The guidance contained in this Standard covers any method of procurement having an influence on environmental engineering and testing between the two extremes given below: 

The procurement authority specifies the host platforms, the regions of the world for operational use, and the modes of transport and storage. In this case the supplier is required to determine and verify the environmental conditions, and to select and conduct the relevant tests.

The procurement authority specifies the relevant test methods to be conducted, together with the associated test severities covering, for example, temperature, pressure, humidity, vibration and shock conditions. In these circumstances the procurement authority is responsible for the definition of the environmental conditions.

In addition this Standard provides guidance on environmental engineering aspects associated with the procurement of "Off the shelf" materiel.

The guidance contained in this Standard covers any environmental engineering control and management strategy that falls between the two extremes given below:

The severities for the critical environments to which an individual item of defence materiel is to be subjected are measured and the materiel is designed and tested to meet those critical and other environments. This strategy is particularly suited to sensitive materiel intended for use on one platform type or in one climatic region.

The materiel is designed and tested to a series of "minimum integrity" environmental test methods and severities quoted in this Standard. This strategy is particularly suited to materiel where a significant measure of over-design can be tolerated, and is usually applicable to materiel intended for use on several host platform types and/or climatic regions.

Certain paragraphs in this Standard may indicate situation in which an environment is likely to occur and suggest possible applications for a test. The examples quoted therein are in no way mandatory.