Reliability assurance-the UK Ministry of Defence approach

The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) is conducting a high-level campaign to secure improved levels of reliability and maintainability in new weapons and equipment. As part of this campaign, emphasis is being placed not only on the front-end specification and design activities, but also on the methods of assurance. The use of an in-service reliability demonstration serves not only to establish the achieved level of reliability when equipment enters service, but is also seen as a means of motivating the contractor to attain or surpass the requirement, particularly if there are associated financial incentives. The author describes the UK MOD´s experience to date with in-service reliability demonstrations, the lessons learned, and how these will be applied in the future