NEW ``DUAL-USE'' HANDBOOK ON MAINTAINABILITY'' Recently, in implementing the direction stated in the 29 June 1994 memo issued by the Secretary of Defense, the Defense Standards Improvement Council ruled on the disposition of two maintainability standards. These standards are: MIL-STD-470B, Maintainability Program for Systems and Equipment, and MIL-STD-471A. Maintainability Verification/Demonstration/Evaluation. The council decided that both standards should be canceled, immediately re-issued as handbooks (without revisions), and that the handbooks be canceled after being consolidated and published as a new, single handbook that is consistent with Defense Acquisition Reform. Rome Laboratory (RL) is the preparing activity for both standards. In June of 1995, RL awarded a contract to the Reliability Analysis Center (RAC), operated by IIT Research Institute. Under the contract, the RAC, with its subcontractor, McDonnell Douglas, will update, revise, and consolidate the two standards (now handbooks) into a single military handbook. In doing so, every effort is being made to make the handbook a ``dual-use'' document. That is, the intent is to develop a handbook that is as useful to industry as it is to the Department of Defense. Interested parties will be given the opportunity to help shape the document, not simply to review and comment on a finished draft. To that end, professional societies, industry associations, and academic institutions interested in participating in the development of the new handbook are asked to access the RAC WWW Home Page (URL http://iitri.com/RAC/) or to contact either the government or RAC project manager at the following addresses, respectively: Joseph Caroli, RL/ERSR, 525 Brooks Road, Griffis AFB, NY 13441-4505, (315) 330-4205 (Voice), (315) 330-7083 (Fax), e-mail:carolij@rl.af.mil or Ned H. Criscimagna, IIT Research Institute, 4409 Forbes Blvd., Lanham, MD 20706, (301) 918-1526 (Voice), (301) 731-6329 (Fax), e-mail:ncriscim@mtc.iitri.com.

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