Dstan/20/1/3 4 Feb 03 CEN BT/WG 125 WS 10 EUROPEAN HANDBOOK ON THE USE OF STANDARDS IN DEFENCE PROCUREMENT Template/Questionnaire with reference to para 5.1.1 of the Business Plan: Overview of the current policies and procedures for defence procurement, focussed on standardisation issues 1. Organisation a) In general terms, describe your country s principal organisation(s)/agencies responsible for procuring defence materiel. In the Italian system the Armament Secretariat is the Agency responsible for armament policy (relations with industries and international organisation) and for the administrative co-ordination. The Secretary General, directly below the Minister of Defence, is responsible for the Policy and is responsible of the procurement funding. In the Armament Secretariat there are 6 Directorates: - ARMAEREO, which deals with all the procurement aspects of Air Force related equipment and materiel; - NAVARMI, for all procurement aspects of Navy related procurements; - DGAT (General Directorate for Terrestrial Armaments), for the Army; - DIFESAN, for medical equipment; - TELEDIFE, for all procurement related to telecommunications; - GENIODIFE, for infrastructures. There are other Directorates but they do not deal with procurement/acquisition. 1
b) Provide organisational charts of the respective organisation(s)/agencies. Available organisational charts are attached to this file. c) Describe how these organsations/agencies are integrated into / linked to the overall structure of your country s Ministry of Defence. The General Armament Directorate receives political guidance by the Minister of Defence and the Secretary General is responsible for the implementation of the political guideline. The NAD is the general fund manager for the procurement/acquisition funding and is responsible to the Minister that all procurement/acquisition activities are in line with the political mandate. Under the authority of the NAD are also all relations with national industry and the participation to international activity related to armament procurement, acquisition or development of related equipment. The six Directorates receive political guidance from the General Armaments Directorate, who is also the controlling Agency for implementation of the guidelines, and Operational needs from the Armed Forces HQ and start the acquisition/procurement procedures to fulfil the operational shortfall. According to the need they can produce a binding document for the industry, in which all the technical aspect are described and industry, in order to partecipate to the bidding must fulfil the requirements, or a general document allowing the industry to conduct studies and propose solutions. d) In general terms describe the main features of your country s acquisition/procurement policy. - political guidelines issued by the Minister of Defence; - MoD produce operational requirements; - Armament Secretariat/NAD contacts industries, makes the contracts together with the financial specifications; 2. Types of Standards and Standard-like Specifications used for for Armaments Projects/Procurement of Defence Materiel a) Which types of standards and standard-like specifications (e.g ISO, CEN, Mil Std, Def Stan, VG-Norm) are in use in your country for procurement of materiel and services required for the armed forces?. In the Italian system the standard specifications adopted are: ISO, UNI (national industry standards), Stanag for Military standards, and national Military Standards and Def Stan (UK) which are used in some particular cases as a reference. b) Describe your country s policy regarding the application of national (civil and military) standards/specifications. 2
All industries must comply with the recognised standard. Industries must be ISO/UNI compliant and follow the military standard. c) Describe your country s policy regarding the application of international standards/specifications (civil and military such as ISO, EN, STANAGs etc). ISO and MIL Standards are normally adopted. e) Are the standards/specifications generally performance/functionally based or are detailed standards/specifications used? All standards/specifications are both functionally and detailed based, according to the need. f) Are the standards/specifications generic or are they specific to an environment (Land, Sea, Air) or specific to particular projects/equipment? In general terms both type of standards are used according to the equipment/materiel to be procured/acquired. All general standards must be applied to all equipment plus the specific standard to particular projects/equipment if required. g) Are military standards/specifications restricted to MoD contracts/work or are they available for industry to use on non MoD contracts.? Military Standards are available, but, if not specifically required, Industries apply civil regulations (RINA-civilian naval regulations-, RAI-civilian aeronautical standards-, and so on). This apply because normally Mil Standards are more severe. 3. Selection of Standards for Armaments Projects/Procurement of Defence Materiel a) Is there a hierarchy/priority in effect in your country for the application of standards for armaments projects/procurement of defence materiel? Yes, Mil Standards come first. ISO are the basic set of standards requested to industry. This apply unless differently requested. b) Who decides which standards/specifications are to be selected for armaments projects/procurement of defence materiel? The Directorates are responsible to determine the military standards to be used, because Directorates represent the Certification Governmental Agency 3
c) Who provides support to project managers in the selection of standards/ specifications? Each Directorate has a specific branch responsible to provide support. d) Is there any standards mandatory for all or for particular armaments projects or types of defence materiel? Standards are normally mandatory. e) Is there a documented process for selecting and specifying which standards should be used in acquisition contracts Yes, inside the Certification/Standardisation Office in each Directorate. f) May standards be modified/tailored for certain applications or must they be invoked in their entirety? Yes, if existing standards are not sufficient to fulfil a particular need. g) If standards conflict, how is this resolved? Mil Standards are the master documents. If in conflicts with other standards, the Certifiation/Standardisation Office will decide on a case by case procedure. h) For standards (civil and military) that have to be purchased, are they bought/supplied centrally by your country s MoD or is it delegated? Military Standards are supplied by the MoD, civilian standards are supplied by UNI. Are there any other comments you would like to make? Nihil 4
Template/Questionnaire with reference to para 5.1.2 of the Business Plan: Overview of the current national policies, procedures for standards and standard-like specifications used in defence procurement. 1. Organisation a) Describe the organisation responsible for your country s military standards/specifications policy and how this organisation is integrated into / linked to the overall structure of your country s Ministry of Defence. The Standardisation/specification Offices are into the: - technical-operational organisations (MoD, Defence HQ); - technical-administrative organisation (Armament Secretariat and Directorates) b) Provide some details on the organisation, e.g: - Organizational chart - Personnel resources - Budget - Location/address - Head of the organisation (Name/Rank) - Point of Contact: Name/Phone/Fax/E-mail - Homepage of the organisation For the time being the Italian organisation is under revision. A new structures will be available in the future. b) Is the organisation also responsible for tasks other than national military standards/specifications? (E.g. International Standardization; STANAG, Codification, Quality Assurance etc.) Yes. c) Is there a process to increase the scope of national civil standards by adding specific defence material requirements into the standard. 5
Yes. Industry may require to certify some components under military standards. For example Naval civilian certification organisation (RINA) added a units called RINA MIL to request Military Certificatifications. d) Describe the relationship of the organisation with other civil and military Standards Agencies. Civilian representatives are usually allocated inside the military organisations. e) How is civil and military standardization linked in your country? Civil and military standardisation are linked, though the representatives, in particular cases (RINA MIL, for naval certification, ARMAEREO, for certification of flying equipment) and only if requested or required. g) Does your government subsidize or sponsor the civil standardization efforts of civil standardization organisations? yes 6
2. Preparation, Issue and Implementation of standards and standard-like specifications a) How and by whom is the need for a new standard/specification identified? How: in particular cases and for particular program/project. Whom: it depends from the program/project, it can be the industry or the certification/standardisation governmental offices. b) Describe the processes and the responsibilities for the establishment of military standards/specifications in your country. It could be required by laws or programs/projects processes through the Certification/Standardisation Governmental Offices. c) How are international standardisation agreements (e.g. NATO STANAGs) accounted for in military standards/specifications? International standards are accounted for to solve specific cases/problems. d) Which civil and/or military bodies are involved in the processes? Civilian: UNI, RAI (aeronautical standards), RINA (Naval standards) Military: Certification/standardisation Offices, ARMAEREO, NAVARM etc. e) How is industry s expertise taken into account during the development of military standards/specifications? It is specifically requested to the industries to give contribution in some cases. f) How and by whom is a new military standard/specification funded? We don t produce Mil Standards/Specification by ourselves. 7
g) How and by whom is the maintenance of the stock of existing military standards/specifications funded? As above h) Who has intellectual proprietary rights of your country s standards/specifications? The Government, through Ministeries, and Certification Offices. 3. Sources of Standards a) Which databases exist for the different types of your country s military standards/specifications? Every office has its own database. b) Are these databases accessible via a web site? At the moment no database is available via a web site. c) Who maintains these databases? CERTIFICATION/Standardisation Offices. d) What fields/data elements are used in the database (e.g. is it only the title of the standards, or title with date and version, or perhaps also the full text). Title with date and version. 8
e) Are the full-text documents of the standards/specifications accessible through these databases? Not yet possible f) Do these databases also include classified information/documents? g) How is access to classified information/documents provided for? h) Who has access to these databases? i) Are external users (e.g. industry) of these databases and the related documents charged for their use? If yes: What are the fees? j) Is it possible to order hardcopies of military standards/specifications. If yes: How are the standards/specifications ordered and what are the prices for these documents? 4. Distribution and use of military Standards/Specifications a) How is information about new/amended/cancelled military standards/specifications internally and externally distributed? b) Are military standards/specifications routinely checked for necessary revisions? c) Are military standards/specifications routinely translated into other languages? d) Are military standards/specifications available electronically? e) Is there a monitoring process to establish which standards are being used for particular projects or types of defence materiel? f) Is there a help desk to aid/support users of standards? If yes: What are the conditions to use the help desk (internal/external users)? Are there any other comments you would like to make? 9