Department of Defense (DoD) Fiscal Year 2021 Agency Report

1. Please provide a summary of your agency’s activities undertaken to carry out the provisions of 

OMB Circular A-119, “Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus 

Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities” and the National Technology Transfer and 

Advance Act (NTTAA). The summary should contain a link to the agency’s standards-specific 

website(s) where information about your agency’s standards and conformity assessment related 

activities are available. 

The primary goal of the Department of Defense (DoD) is to support our nations warfighter in the most 

efficient, effective, and cost-conscious manner possible while meeting mission objectives. Standards and 

standardization are essential elements to ensuring cost containment and operational effectiveness are 

achieved during the development and continued maintenance of DoD systems and subsystems. More 

information on the Defense Standardization Program can be found at https://www.dsp.dla.mil. 

DoD relies on voluntary consensus standards (VCS) to gain access to cutting edge technologies within 

the global marketplace while reducing total acquisition costs. Currently, DoD has adopted 8,343 VCS 

approved for use within the Department of Defense. Each of these 8,343 VCS is cataloged with an

adoption notice in the ASSIST database (https://assist.dla.mil), which gives visibility of the VCS so that 

others within DoD may use that standard in implementing their own systems or programs. Each 

adoption notice provides contact information for the adopting activity should any potential DoD users 

have questions regarding the technical content, or how to get a copy of the document. To promote the 

use of VCS by DoD, publishing an adoption notice is highly encouraged, but it is not a mandatory

prerequisite for their use. 

Therefore, the number of adoption notices for VCS is only a partial representation of their use in DoD. 

Many additional VCS documents are called out in DoD acquisitions and used in defense systems. 

Thousands more VCS are cited as normative references in DoD standardization documents. Similarly, 

normative references to VCS are found in International Standardization Agreements, and are used by 

DoD in the implementation of U.S.-ratified International Standardization Agreements. The extensive use

of VCS allows DoD to gain access to cutting edge technologies and to be interoperable with our allies 

and partners. 

In Fiscal Year 2021, DoD adopted 53 VCS in several areas, including: Construction Building Materials; 

Non-Destructive Testing and Inspection; Welding, Soldering, and Brazing; Parachutes; Electrical 

Insulators and Insulation Materials; Metal Castings; Electrical and Electronic Equipment and 

Components; Plastics and Fabricated Materials; Oils and Greases; Chemical Testing; Hardware and 

Abrasives; Human Factors; and Configuration Management. DoD also canceled 236 military unique 

documents and replaced 12 of them with VCS.

DoD uses VCS for many different purposes and has had a long history of working with VCS bodies and 

industry to ensure DoD’s needs can be met using VCS. As an example, in Fiscal Year 2021, a team from 

the U.S. Army’s DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center led an effort to modify existing performance 

specifications to support the abatement of Hexavalent-Chromium/Cadmium as a corrosion protective 

coating on fasteners commonly used on the Army’s fleet of ground combat systems. This team edited 

sixty-one (61) VCS documents to reflect the preferred and alternate use of Zinc-Nickel plating. They 

then sent these edits to the appropriate commercial industry review boards for approval. Further, this 
team received approval from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) to change ASME 

B18.24 to accommodate the use K-Factor (torque modifiers) requirements, and from SAE International 

and Aerospace Industry Association (AIA), both of which have begun updating their standards for the 

use of Zinc-Nickel plating. Implementation of the changes will improve personnel safety, significantly 

reduce environmental impact, improve system maintainability and reliability, and reduce cost. Creating 

options to eliminate hazardous materials in the Army’s fleet will have the potential to save millions of 

dollars in disposal costs. 

2. Please list the government-unique standards (GUS) your agency began using in lieu of voluntary 

consensus standards during FY 2021. Please note that GUS which are still in effect from previous years 

should continue to be listed, thus the total number in your agency's report will include all GUS 

currently in use (previous years and new as of this FY):

This agency reports voluntary consensus standards usage on a categorical basis.