Military Standards Research Articles

Cerium-based conversion coatings as alternatives to hex chrome: Rare-earth compounds provide resistance against corrosion for aluminum alloys in military applications

Rare-earth compounds are corrosion inhibitors for aluminum alloys that show promise as replacements for hexavalent chromate compounds. Cerium-based conversion coatings can be applied with spontaneous spray or immersion processes as well as an electrolytic process. The coatings can meet military standards by providing corrosion protection for up to 14 days in ASTM B117 salt spray. As with any surface finishing operation, the performance is a function of the parameters used in the deposition, but the process is reproducible and robust. Development efforts are continuing to optimize the deposition process, to enhance the long-term corrosion resistance of chromate-free systems, and to integrate CeCCs into non-chromate coating systems that include primers, topcoats, or multifunctional UV-curable coatings in addition to CeCCs.

Single Sample Cylinder for RGA Correlation

A large portion the manufacturers of high reliability microelectronic devices must have those devices tested to be proven “dry”. A mass spectrographic technique, referred to as Residual Gas Analysis (RGA) has been the primary means of demonstrating that the devices contain less than the 5000 parts per million(ppm) of moisture. However, there are no standards for determining moisture levels of this nature when tested in this manner. Too often, the pass/fail criteria for a given production lot is exceeded and recourse becomes time consuming and expensive. A small group of technologists has successfully fabricated and tested a Single Sample Cylinder (SSC) wherein moisture-laden air can be taken from one analytical facility to another for comparison analyses. The need for such a device is explained by a brief review of why “identical” microelectronic devices from the same production line have been found to contain different chemistries when analyzed via Residual Gas Analysis, per Test Method 1018 of the military standards. The SSC is over two liters in volume; hence it can deliver hundreds of “air samples” that have the same chemical composition. It is maintained at 100° C during test but is kept at room ambient during non-analytical periods. Several major problems had to be overcome in order to be able to continuously generate samples of the same chemistry. The primary two were moisture adsorption to all of the various exposed surfaces, and second was hydrogen diffusion from the materials of construction, with subsequent oxide reduction to form more water. Some anomalies were experienced during initial preparation of the SSC and the early hours of equilibration. These again are believed to be adsorption/desorption related. Thereafter it was shown that the SSC could deliver samples that were within 2% of each other, or better, within a sample set. The level of precision between sample sets was +/− 2.5%. This study was developed on a statistical basis, involving over 100 data points and was carried out over 1450 hours. The gas analyses were performed in a Defense Supply Center Columbus (DSCC) certified testing facility. This study was conducted with the support of an additional analytical chemist and a statistician to assure that data generated met the goals of the stated objective.

Calibration Method of Electric Field

The calibration method for the balloon-borne double-sphere electric field instrument, the micro-rocket-borne electric field instrument and the ground mill fieldmeter is introduced. The atmospheric electric field, relating with space physics and space environment, is a key parameter for studying various phenomena in earth science, such as lightning and earthquake, so the atmospheric electric field is becoming more and more important. With the lack of the national standards and military standards for the measurement and calibration of electric field, a set of calibration system is designed and developed to calibrate electric field instruments of different structures. The results are consistent with the theoretical calculation, and provides the foundation for the reliability of the electric field measurement data.

Croatia and NATO: Moving Toward Alliance Membership

NATO's “Open-Door” policy continues to generate much enthusiasm from aspiring countries across eastern and southern Europe. This paper examines Croatia's efforts to meet NATO's membership standards and assesses its reforms and policy changes across three issue areas, including civil-military relations, military modernization, and recent foreign policy directions. Our research suggests that Croatia has made significant improvements in moving toward NATO's political and military standards. While it still faces reform challenges due to its historical legacy under Franjo Tudjman and low public approval ratings for NATO, recent policy developments still indicate that NATO's willingness to expand produces a powerful incentive for ongoing reform.

85: Unhealthy dieting practices are associated with weight dissatisfaction in adolescent and young adult female military recruits

Unhealthy dieting and disordered eating practices among adolescents and young women serving active duty in the military have been blamed, in part, on the pressure to meet strict military body composition standards (McNulty 2001; Haddock et al. 1999; Lauder et al. 1999). The Marine Corps has the strictest standards for military women: at the time of this study, female Marines were required to maintain a body mass index (BMI)< 23.5 kg/m2 or a circumference-based body fat of <26%. We surveyed factors related to weight dissatisfaction in adolescent and young women within 2 weeks of recruitment into the Marine Corps to determine the characteristics that may predispose the development of eating disorders. To examine demographic, anthropometric and behavioral factors associated with weight dissatisfaction among adolescent and young adult women entering recruit training for the U.S. Marine Corps. A total of 2157 (94%) recruits completed a self-report questionnaire as part of a baseline of a longitudinal study. The sample was young (19.1±2.0 yrs, 75.5% were 17-19 years old) and ethnically/racially diverse. The primary variable of interest was weight dissatisfaction, indicated by disagreeing strongly or somewhat in response to the question: “I am happy with my current weight.” The questionnaire also assessed factors related to weight dissatisfaction, including BMI and dieting practices. Outside of a very narrow range of BMI, women reported significantly higher rates of weight dissatisfaction. Women with BMIs 18.5-21.9 kg/m2 reported the lowest rates of weight dissatisfaction (19.4% were dissatisfied). By comparison, those with higher BMIs were more weight dissatisfied (66.0% of those with BMIs 23.0-23.9 kg/m2, 76.0% with BMIs> 24 kg/m2); as were those with lower BMIs (38.3% with BMIs below 18.5 kg/m2). This suggests a very narrowly defined “ideal” body type for women joining the Marine Corps. The majority of new recruits (77.3%) reported engaging in at least one unhealthy dieting behavior prior to enlisting (vomiting, pills and/or laxatives for weight control). Furthermore, these unhealthy behaviors were significantly associated with weight dissatisfaction (OR 3.81, CI 2.64-5.48). This study indicates a strong relationship between weight dissatisfaction, current BMI and a history of dieting behaviors in new Marine Corps women recruits. Our findings indicate that many of these recruits bring a significant history of unhealthy dieting practices and a high degree of weight dissatisfaction to the military that may predispose them to the development of eating disorders once exposed to strict weight or body composition standards. The elucidation of these predisposing factors in women who have just enlisted in the military contributes to our understanding of the development eating disorders among enlisted women; however, the cross-sectional nature of this analysis does not allow us to examine the impact of weight standards on the trajectory of risk.

Modelling risks in supply chains using Petri net approach

In supply chains, risk analysis involves the process of identifying threats and system vulnerabilities to determine consequences and estimate the expected loss. To analyse any risk environment, it is vital to know the paths of threat and the probability associated with each. Therefore, a complete structure and inference engine are required to determine the most probable path and the relative probabilities of occurrence for any chain of events. Petri Nets (PNs) are considered best to model the discrete event system. This paper introduces a novel approach that uses PNs to model the discrete event behaviour of supply chains and incorporates the max–min inferencing method used in fuzzy reasoning to incorporate the subjective probabilities of events associated with the supply chain process. The proposed approach generates its model based on matrices and performs inferencing automatically. The proposed model uses subjective probability thresholds based on military (MIL) standards and can derive risk analysis results under a changing environment.

스마트무인기 콘솔의 설계 및 진동.충격해석

This paper presents a design concept of smart UAV console system and the analysis of its dynamic response to shock and vibration. The console system design is determined by two main elements; the shape design and the mechanical design. The shape design refers to the human engineering aspects according to the military standards for ship borne equipment. The goal of the mechanical design is to provide the required shock and vibration endurance. The endurance of the system is numerically verified by means of Finite Element Method. The results of verification show that six resilient mounts installed on the console allow to sufficiently decrease the influence of the input impact wave on endurance of the system.

Generalized exchange and propensity for military service: The moderating effect of prior military exposure

The propensity for military service (PMS) of young Americans is an important issue for our Armed Forces. Since the 1990s, the PMS of young Americans has steadily declined. Overtime, a declining PMS may cause military mission degradation, lowering of military recruitment standards, base closures, and reinstatement of the unpopular military draft system. This paper investigates the moderator effect of prior military service on the Generalized Exchange–PMS relationship. Generalized exchange is when indirect benefits such as preserving freedom and the American way of life accrue to the larger society because of an individual's military service. This paper uses a structural equation modelling approach to analyse the moderating effect of prior military exposure on prospective recruits regarding their PMS. Findings indicate that the group of prospective recruits with prior military exposure had higher levels of PMS than the group without such exposure, that is, the young people with prior military exposure are more likely to enlist in the military than the young Americans with no prior military exposure.

Interlaboratory Comparison at 10 V DC

An interlaboratory comparison at 10 V DC has been made among 16 national, industrial, and military standards laboratories in North America. The comparison used a set of four traveling Zener dc reference standards. A pivot laboratory made measurements at the beginning, at the end, and at four other times during the comparison. The measured differences and their uncertainties are reported and used to demonstrate equivalence between each participant and the pivot, and between each participant and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). All of the differences fall within two parts in 10/sup 8/.

Topographic-cartographic system according to the new military standards

The article deals -with producing new military topographic maps that differ from the inherited cartographic system as mathematic base and margin contents. It is treated ellipsoid, cartographic projection, scale system and format of maps. Since existent geotopographic materials can be adopted with new standard, the paper looks back on essential characteristics of transformation data to new reference system.

Software dissimilarity debate revisited

This paper highlights the controversy surrounding the use of dissimilarity for improved safety. It compares dissimilarity at the system level versus software level and uses examples from the commercial and military safety-critical standards to highlight this controversy. It proposes a solution by identifying those systems which can find dissimilarity beneficial and those that may find dissimilarity detrimental regardless of whether dissimilarity is implemented at the system level or at the software level. Practical examples are cited to highlight how these concepts can be used in the real-world.

2.6.2 Systems Engineering Sizing in the Age of Acquisition Reform

AbstractAs organizations develop more complex systems, increased emphasis is being placed on Systems Engineering (SE) to ensure that cost and schedule are within budget. Correspondingly, the failure to adequately plan and fund the systems engineering effort appears to have contributed to a number of cost overruns and schedule slips, especially in the development of complex ground and space systems. Government and commercial organizations have recently placed increased emphasis on accurately planning the SE function and on understanding the factors that influence the resources needed to implement and perform SE.In an attempt to better quantify the SE activity, the DoD acquisition community has been exploring Systems Engineering Revitalization and migrating back to a reinstatement of prescribed military standards. Several models and tools have become available to aid in forecasting systems engineering resource needs, but few guidelines exist to help engineers and program managers determine which approach is best suited for estimating any particular effort.To provide such guidelines, this paper provides an overview of eight existing cost models ‐ three of which focus on software and five on hardware. These models include SE components and employ unique approaches to sizing the SE effort. An overview of the genesis and assumptions of each model shed some light on their individual applicability. To complete the paper, future research topics are discussed along with recommendations on tasks to enhance the accuracy of SE sizing.

Opinion Item: Cancelled US-Military Specifications

The US Military Specification and Standard system has evolved over the years from simple documents to today's complex documents containing the collected knowledge of both the government and industry. Specifications define materials & processes, performance, quality assurance, and packaging of everything from nuts & bolts to weapons systems, and handkerchiefs to gunpowder. Standards identify preferred or acceptable materials, processes, and procedures. Handbooks contain compilations of data regarding particular subjects. The US Military Specification and Standards system was modified as part of the DoD Acquisition Reform program, resulting in cancellation of many of the specifications, standards, handbooks, and supporting documents.

PERFORMANCE OF MILITARY CIRCUMFERENCE EQUATIONS COMPARED WITH SKINFOLD MEASUREMENTS TO ESTIMATE BODY COMPOSITION

United States military personnel are required to meet a standard weight or body fat percentage, and military personnel are subject to circumference measurements when their maximal allowable weight is exceeded. Each military branch has an independently derived circumference-based equation (C) to predict body fat percentage, with the Navy and Air Force being equivalent. If a service member fails to comply with body fat standards, disciplinary action may be taken. In this validation study, we examined the performance of Army and Navy/Air Force C's in 1,191 civil service employees (firefighters), and compared them with percent body fat estimated by skinfold measurement (S). PURPOSE To determine the correlation between military C and S to predict body fat percentage. We also compared the Army and Navy/Air Force C's in order to evaluate the efficacy of C to determine body fat. Lastly, we evaluated the variation between C and S to identify non-compliant personnel. METHODS Girth measurements (neck, abdomen, and hips) were taken on 1,191 male firefighters using a spring-loaded tape measure. S were taken in circuit on the same 1,191 men using Lange calipers at the chest, abdomen, and thigh. RESULTS Mean age of the subjects was 37.9 ± 7.9 years. The percent body fat was estimated lowest for S (18.4 ± 6.1) followed by Navy/Air Force C (20.4 ± 5.8) and Army C (20.6 ± 5.2). There was a strong correlation coefficient between S vs. Army C (r = 0.79) and S vs. Navy/Air Force C (r = 0.79). Non-compliants were estimated higher by Army C than S (231 vs. 153) and by Navy/Air Force C than S (336 vs. 213). CONCLUSIONS The Navy/Air Force C and Army C yielded similar results in predicting body fat percentage and the data shows a strong correlation between S and C. However, when compared with S, C predicts a higher percentage of body fat. Therefore, when employing C standards a greater number of subjects were classified as non-compliant according to military body composition standards.

Failures of bolts in helicopter main rotor drive plate assembly due to improper application of lubricant

The main rotor drive plate of the helicopter is defined as a flight safety part. Failure to follow maintenance instructions might result in an accident involving serious injury or death of crew members and/or serious damage to the helicopter. In this work, the failure of five of the shear bolts in this assembly during installation torque wrenching was analyzed. Visual inspection, fractographic and metallographic examinations, chemical analysis and mechanical testing (static tensile and hardness tests) did not indicate any deviation from the requirements of the aeronautical military standards. A specially designed bolt force sensor, which is based on strain gauge technology, was used to monitor the actual load that develops in the bolt when it is torque-wrenched into a nut. Based on comparison of the behavior of bolts that had been lubricated in different ways with antiseize material, it was concluded that the bolts failed because of improper application of the antiseize material, which led to development of overloads.

U.S. military weight standards: What percentage of U.S. young adults meet the current standards?

Purpose Each branch of the U.S. military enforces maximum allowable weight standards that must be met to join the military. We wanted to determine what percentage of U.S. civilians between the ages of 17 and 20 years met these standards. Methods The height and weight of adults between the ages of 17 and 20 years, as measured in the nationally representative sample of the Third National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey, were matched against the height/weight charts of the military services. The percentage of men and women in each population subgroup who weighed more than the maximum allowable weight was calculated. Results The percentage of young adults whose weight exceeded the military weight standard ranged from 13% to 18% for men and 17% to 43% for women. When stratified by race, 15% to 20% of non-Hispanic white men and 12% to 36% of non-Hispanic white women were over the weight standards, 11% to 19% of non-Hispanic black men and 35% to 56% of non-Hispanic black women were over the standards, and 13% to 24% of Mexican American men and 26% to 55% of Mexican American women exceeded the military weight standards. Conclusion A large percentage of the young adult population from which the U.S. volunteer military is drawn is over the military weight standards, particularly among minorities, who comprise a disproportionately large proportion of the military. There is a marked discrepancy between the weight standards for men and women, and the appropriateness of these standards needs to be assessed.

‘One in, all in?’ NATO's next enlargement

In 1999 NATO heads of state invited three states to join the alliance and are set to invite yet more states to join in November 2002 at the Prague summit. At present there are ten states that have declared their interest in gaining accession to NATO councils, and the prospect is that even more states will most likely be interested in joining in the years to come. The question for NATO is no longer whether to enlarge but how to manage enlargement. This article argues that NATO should invite seven of the ten currently declared aspirant states to join the alliance, on the condition that before actual accession occurs, each state must subsequently meet political, military, economic, security and legal standards that are set forth in an annexe to the official invitation. Furthermore, NATO should determine to hold a summit meeting of the North Atlantic Council triennially, for the purpose of assessing the candidates’ membership progress in meeting the criteria, and to this end establish a mechanism, in the form of identified bodies, for the assessment of the candidate members’ progress. Such a formal process sets forth a graduated yet assured process that aspirant states must progress through that will result in guaranteed accession to NATO councils and protection. A formal process such as this will ameliorate many of the problems that will almost surely arise from proceeding in a more ad hoc, piecemeal manner, while at the same time keeping the door open to other states who may want to join in the future.

In This Special Issue the Naval Engineers Journal Features Reliability‐Based Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) Guidelines for Surface Ship Structures

For many centuries, ship structural design has been accomplished under conditions of uncertainty about materials, loads, structural behavior, and failure modes. Structural engineers traditionally use factors of safety to deal with uncertainty and produce acceptable designs. Existing Navy design practice is documented in design data sheets, the Navy's surface ship structural design manual, and ship specifications. The collection of papers presented in this special issue provides an insight into advancing the state‐of‐the‐art of Navy structural design by rational and purposeful treatment of uncertainty. Partial safety factors are used for various design variables instead of a single safety factor as currently employed. These partial safety factors, that correspond to load and strength variables, permit a rational allocation of a desired safety margin to its source in a proportional manner.These papers summarize the last decade of work in reliability‐based design methods and provide the basis for future development in this area of design. A Navy design guideline document currently in preparation will ultimately complement the currently used design approaches provided in the U. S. Navy design manual and the Design Data Sheets (DDS). However, this guideline will not necessarily supercede existing DDSs, Naval Sea System Command (NAVSEA) instructions, military standards, or other design criteria and practices documentation.The authors of these papers provide us with a window on the future of structural design of surface ships. These papers represent a milestone towards transforming our design practice from working stress design to reliability‐based limit state design.

The Myopic Panopticon: The Social Consequences of Policing Through the Lens

The article describes the possible effects of video surveillance and related technologies on policing, not at the instrumental level but from a symbolic perspective. It is shown that actual effectiveness of the technology has little impact on procurement and development, that it is the discourse of surveillance that is transforming official social control. The vision of crime afforded by the camera is "myopic" because it reduces crime to behavior and crime control to incident response; and doing so threatens to transform policing into a purely reactive activity inspired by military standards and technologies.

Stomas and Trauma

The use of stomas for the surgical treatment of abdominal trauma has generated controversy for the last two decades as surgeons have questioned the propriety of applying military standards of care to civilian injuries. While diversion has been advocated in the treatment of colon injuries to obviate the potential morbidity associated with anastomotic leak, multiple retrospective and prospective trials have consistently demonstrated improved outcomes with primary repair or resection and anastomosis. Initially, primary repair was proposed only in selected patients without shock, high CIS or ATI scores, or extensive fecal contamination. However, these negative variables contribute to an adverse outcome independent of the type of bowel repair. Colon injury itself logically predisposes patients to increased infectious complications but colostomy may actually increase morbidity, particularly if the risk of subsequent surgery to restore bowel continuity is factored in. High-velocity gunshot wounds are still best treated with diversion.