Defence Online

Defence testing: proving for all practicalities

October 12, 2016

When it comes to defence technology, the proof is in the proving. The only way to provide soldiers with reliable equipment is through rigorous testing, but with new technologies come new challenges to this process.

Stuart Brown, General Manager at Element Materials Technology

Here, Stuart Brown, General Manager at Element Materials Technology’s Warwick laboratory, tells MOD DCB features editor Julie Shennan how suppliers and buyers can optimise this process.

Stuart Brown has been involved in environmental testing for over 30 years, working with world-leading aerospace companies in that time. Currently, as Element Warwick’s General Manager, he is responsible for continually developing the environmental and analysis operations at sites in both Warwick and Wimborne.

Mr Brown said: “Element Materials Technology has 61 locations globally in product qualification testing and materials testing. We operate six product qualification testing sites in the UK; we employ around 230 people and work from Hull in our North base to Dorset in the South. About 50 per cent of Element’s business comes from the aerospace and defence markets in the UK.”

The company is a longstanding testing provider for the Ministry of Defence, as Mr Brown explained: “What is now Element started as a network of companies which provided a service testing bomb tails for the MOD in 1952.”

This network of companies merged though time, realising gaps in the market and collaborating with others to fill them.

Mr Brown said: “We started off working with Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, before starting to deal with primes; we really gained a foothold in the defence marketplace when we had enough services of interest to the primes.”

Although remaining secretive about the products they test, Mr Brown outlined the size of Element’s UK portfolio.

He commented: “Element works on a variety of defence initiatives. Although we are unable to disclose the clients behind those projects specifically by name, we work on the majority of projects led by the integrated project team leaders in places like MOD Abbey Wood in the UK.”

These projects demand the highest defence testing standards.

“We test across two major specifications needed in the UK and US defence marketplace: DEF standards and MIL standards. In our Warwick facility we perform environmental resilience testing – making things heat, cold, water and altitude resistant,” Mr Brown said.

He added: “We work to make our products effective in very challenging climates, from deserts to rainforests to boats – a real range of conditions. We do this across products for all three of the military Services: Army, Navy and Air Force.” 

Defence materiel suppliers must all put their products through similar tests, to ensure that they deliver in the field. Mr Brown explained the challenges this testing brings.

He said: “Suppliers to defence often face the challenges of balancing rigorous testing with tight delivery timescales.

 “These challenges can be reduced by thorough preparation and development work, with suppliers ensuring they understand the specifications and the type of testing that will be trialling their equipment.”

This can be done, Mr Brown suggested, by having conversations with the customer before tendering for a project.

This will allow suppliers to understand the quickest direction to market, pass qualification testing first time and move on to development testing.”

This process, however, does not always run smoothly.

Mr Brown cautioned: “The biggest mistakes from clients that we see are when suppliers come into the tender process unprepared and fail qualification testing – if suppliers fail to do this they will end up having to re-do this testing at what should be their development stage and it will take longer.”

This pitfall, Mr Brown warned, was of particular risk to transferrable technology companies.

He explained: “One of the most common mistakes suppliers make when transferring a piece of technology from the commercial to the defence marketplace is starting the process without fully understanding the product specifications. 

“If you are seeking to supply a commercial product to defence – such as IT or healthcare – you must understand that while the functionality might be identical, the conditions the product will have to endure will be vastly different and this may mean that it will need to be re-designed.”

Mr Brown advised suppliers to engage with experts and testers at the early stages of the tender.

“This will make all the difference,” he said. “A lot of our customers transfer their technology from the commercial to the defence marketplace and it can be difficult if they don’t heed advice.”

Mr Brown urged suppliers and buyers to work together to deliver better testing practices.

He said: “One of the most common mistakes that buyers make is not properly engaging with their supply chain and passing on their information. If buyers know there is going to be an area of difficulty in testing they often don’t communicate this with the supply chain, but just throw down a standard set of specifications instead of directing their suppliers.

“Another buyer issue is not engaging early enough with the internal and external environmental experts, which is interesting as it is an action required by the STANAG (NATO Standardization Agreement) and AECTP (Allied Environmental Conditions and Test Publications).”

These high standards, Mr Brown explained, have helped defence testing come on leaps and bounds since its early days.

He remarked: “Over the last 10-15 years we have seen the shift of defence specifications being designed for tailored testing against measured data, rather than generic spectrums.”

This means soldiers’ equipment is tested to fit with individual defence platforms – such as specific models of helicopters – and exact measurements of environmental pressures.

Mr Brown said: “More specific testing benefits the soldier in the field because their equipment is tailor-tested to the specific environment they will actually face when working. This is all fed back from measurements gained in the field over years, which work to form the testing data.”

He added: “The product will deliver the way it should; not fail in the field because it is faced with too big a grain of dust or excessive vibration. So the end user gets a device that is fit for the real world, not a theoretical one.”

These exacting standards, Mr Brown said, will only become more advanced with time.

He said: “I think the future will bring more tailored testing, incorporating more information. Just now we are not always sure what our customer is going to test, but once we are we prepare for it.” 

Mr Brown predicted new test techniques and materials would be the next big development in defence testing, especially focusing on testing composite materials.

He concluded: “Testing always lags behind technology; when testing for new issues we are often using old techniques, which then need to evolve – over time – to match this new technology.”

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Element Materials Technology Equipment MOD technology

Post written by: Julie Shennan

Features Editor of MOD DCB Magazine and MOD DSS Yearbook. Content Marketing Executive at BiP Solutions (Defence Online's sister company). Editor and founder of Artsnfaffs Online Magazine.