1.1   SCOPE

The scope and purpose of this document is to define requirements for NAVSEASYSCOM, its equipment and spares contractors, and Class A and B depots for conducting Environmental Stress Screening (ESS) during Full Scale Development (FSD), production and reprocurements, spares and repair on Weapons and Combat Systems. It is intended for use by Navy Program Managers as the baseline minimum ESS requirements for contract Statements of Work (SOW), and by design and manufacturing engineers and depot repair facilities for implementation. The requirements presented herein represent  fundamental requirements at the part level, Printed Wiring Assembly (PWA), and higher indenture  levels.

NAVSEA procuring, spares, and repair activities must address those aspects of ESS which are associated with specifying ESS requirements, and must be involved with the equipment, spares, and part manufacturer to ensure the requirements are being met. Equally important in the ESS process is the selection of an equipment/spares contractor or Class A/B depot willing and capable of implementing the requirements in this manual. A fundamental criteria in FSD, production, spares and repair facilities selection must be the user’s stated, perceived, and demonstrated ability to comply with these minimum requirements.

The concept that ESS is simple or should be developed by the equipment contractor or spares/repair facility leads to insufficient SOW requirements during contract preparation, insufficient corporate funding, and buy-in by inexperienced and otherwise unqualified companies, and inadequate planning/budgeting by the repair facilities. Equipment specifications, program budgets, contractor bids, program and manufacturing/repair plans which fail to impose the requirements of Section 2 herein must be considered suspect with regard to providing “quality products to the Fleet.” It is incumbent on NAVSEA, our equipment contractors, and our repair facilities to understand, plan, design, and implement these ESS requirements to ensure that Fleet readiness is not compromised by part and/or workmanship  defects. Contractors and repair facilities are responsible for using sound engineering principles to develop an ESS plan. Once this is complete, deviations from the standard will be considered. This manual provides both ESS requirements and application information concerning the implementation of ESS. Part screening, upgrade screening, and part rescreening are all considered part of ESS. The requirements for these screens are contained in Section 2 and must be reflected in all contract SOW requirements. Section 3 provides detailed  information on the application of ESS at the part level along with tailoring considerations. Section 4 contains application information  for Thermal Cycling Stress Screening (TCSS), and Section 5 the same for Random Vibration Stress Screening (RVSS).

The remainder of this section focuses on how to utilize this manual and provides some basic definitions that are applied consistently throughout to establish a baseline of terminology.