Last month, a U.S. House of Representatives committee asked the Missile Defense Agency to consider the use of Highly Accelerated Life Testing and Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HALT/HASS) for identifying possible reliability issues in critical ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems and components.

The committee also believes HALT testing can help ferret out unreliable counterfeit parts that enter into the missile defense supply chain.

From the report:

“Effective utilization of modern methods and equipment for highly accelerated life testing and highly accelerated stress screening (HALT/HASS) during early design stages has been demonstrated to yield significant improvements in reliability and more effective product designs, as well as cost savings. Through modern HALT/HASS testing, key components and subcomponents are subjected to overstresses, revealing latent design flaws (including those based on the use of faulty or counterfeit parts) that can go undetected with legacy testing approaches.”

The House committee asks the Director of the Missile Defense Agency to conduct an assessment of the value, feasibility, and cost of greater utilization of modern HALT /HASS testing equipment and processes to:

• Shorten design and development timelines
• Reduce system and component testing and lifecycle costs
• Enhance reliability of critical missile defense systems and components
• Help address the growing problem of detecting and preventing the introduction of counterfeit parts

The Missile Defense Agency Director is asked to provide his recommendations regarding use of HALT/HASS by January 15, 2014.

Learn why HALT tests are superior to traditional reliability tests in a free HALT webinar next week. 

Ask to tour MET’s HALT testing setup in one of our environmental simulation labs.