Compliance Mark Definitions

Equipment sold to the military in the United States must be tested for compliance to the Military Standard 461 / 462 (MIL STD) EMI/EMC specifications. Additionally, testing for shock, vibration and environmental testing must be accomplished on the equipment before delivery to the military procuring agency.

Testing for compliance to EMI / EMC specifications is done in a laboratory environment. An EMI control plan is required by most procuring agencies to start the route to EMI compliance. A test plan is written for the EMC testing prior to initiation of qualification testing. The test plan is approved by the procuring agency prior to the equipment going into testing.

Emissions testing - both magnetic and electric field radiated fields - as well as conducted emissions are measured from the equipment when it is in a typical end-user configuration. Various conducted susceptibility tests are performed on the equipment that are dictated by its environment of use. Numerous radiated susceptibility tests are also a part of the compliance testing for the MIL STD; again, the susceptibility voltage density is set by the equipment's environment of use.

Upon successful completion of testing, a formal engineering report will be submitted to the procuring agency.