For Training Use Only 1 For Training Use Only
Topic:
Western Region
Chris Woods - Applications Engineer
cfw@panduit.com (303) 257-1655
Mil-Spec Tools and Components
United States Military Standard
A United States Defense Standard, often called a Military Standard, “MIL-STD”, “MIL-SPEC”, or (informally) “MilSpecs”.
"MilSpecs" are used to help achieve standardization objectives by the U.S. Department of Defense. Standardization is
beneficial in achieving interoperability, ensuring products me et certain req uirements, commonality, reliability, total cost of
ownership, compatibility with logistics systems, and similar defense-related objectives. Defense Standards are also used
by other non-Defense government org anizations, technical organizations, and industry. This PMail discusses
definitions, history, usage of Defense Standards, as well as Panduit Tools and Products.
The Military doesn’t actually use Mil-Spec as a standard any longer (see a discussion of this in
the Origins section below and on page 13 of this lesson). Mil-Spec still exists as a tight
tolerance reference used by many builders. Although the official definition is different between
types of documents, all the documents referred to in this PMail go by the genera l title of
"military standard", including defense specifications, handbooks, and standards. The
Government Accountability Office (GAO), says that military specifications "describe the
physical and/or operational characteristics of a product", while military standards "detail the
processes and materials th at are used to make the product." Military handbooks, on the other
hand, are primarily sources of com piled information and/or guidance. However, the GAO
acknowledges that the terms are often used interchangeably.
Official definitions are provided by DO D 4120.24-M Defense Standardization Program (DSP) Policies and Procedure s,
March 2000, OUSD (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics):
Defense Handbook - A guidance document containing standard procedural, technical, engineering, or design
information about the materiel, proces ses, practices, and methods covered by the DSP.
Defense Specification - A document that describes the essential technical requireme nts 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 standard s, standard practices, and test
method standards.
Standard - A document that establishes uniform en gineering 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.
Defense standards evolved from the ne ed to ensure proper performance and maintainability of military equipment. For
example, due to differences in dimensional tolerances, in World War II American screws and bolts did not fit British
equipment properly and were not fully interchangeab le. Defense standards provided many benefits, such as minimizing
the number of types of ammunition, ensuring compatibility of tools, and ensuring quality during production of military
equipment.
The proliferation of standards had drawbacks. It was a rgued that the large number of standards, nearly 30,000 by 1990,
Definition of Document T ypes
Origins