The use of commercial standards in place of military standards in Army NDI acquisitions - M915 trucks

Abstract

This paper examines the United States Army's use of commercial standards in place of military standards (MIL-STDs) for the acquisition of Non Developmental Items (NDI). The recent acquisition of M915 series trncks is examined. The use of commercial quality standards in place of military quality standards is discussed. In addition, the future commercial quality standard, the ISO 9000 family of standards, is looked at. The paper begins with a discussion of current and future commercial quality standards. Then the MIL-STDs used and the MIL-STDs replaced by commercial standards in the acquisition of M915 series trucks are discussed. Benefits and concerns arising from the use of commercial standards are followed by the final chapter which contains the paper's conclusion that the use of commercial standards for Army NDI acquisitions makes sense, and recommends that the Army move toward mandating the ISO 9000 commercial standards.