What Does ‘Military Grade’ Really Mean? скачать в хорошем качестве

What Does ‘Military Grade’ Really Mean?

#bigquestions #military #militarygrade Search for the term “phone case” on Amazon and you’ll be greeted with a daunting number: over 100,000 results. You can, of course, narrow it down by color or design, but case manufacturers are also keen on differentiating their products in another way: Claiming their case is “military grade.” The consumer is left to infer their phone could survive a shelling or chemical warfare—or at least being dropped on the kitchen floor. You can also find the term on everything from vehicles to LED flashlights to baseball bats. But what does “military grade” really mean? The short answer: Whatever manufacturers want. Like a lot of vaguely worded consumer product labels, “military grade” can be applied by anyone for any reason. There is no third party—much less the United States government—evaluating it for durability. It’s nothing more than a marketing strategy meant to persuade people into thinking an item is trustworthy enough for military operations. It’s true there is a military standard developed by the Department of Defense, dubbed MIL-STD-810, which lays out testing protocols for equipment intended for government use. And it’s also true that product manufacturers can apply those protocols to their own products. But it’s by no means mandatory to apply any or all of them. More importantly, manufacturers conduct their own testing. It’s not as though a product has passed or failed a government-supervised inspection. “Military grade” can simply mean it measured up to at least one standard for materials, shock absorption, temperature resistance, vibrations, or other variable. It can also mean someone did no testing at all.