MIL-STD-810 Testing

MIL-STD-810 is the United States Department of Defense standard for environmental engineering considerations and laboratory tests. It defines a numbered set of methods, from Method 500 through Method 528, each covering one environmental condition a product may meet in service. A specification that says “tested to MIL-STD-810” is meaningless on its own; what matters is which methods, which procedures within them, and to which revision. Megalab runs MIL-STD-810 testing accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 by A2LA.

Revision H is current, issued in 2019. Revision G remains the most commonly cited in live customer specifications, and it is the version most search traffic looks for. Revision F still appears in older programmes.

The practical answer is that your customer specification decides. We test to the revision your document names rather than the newest one, because a report against the wrong revision is a report your customer will reject. If your specification does not name a revision, tell us and we will raise it before quoting rather than assume.

• Method 500: low pressure and altitude. Runs on altitude testing.
• Method 501: high temperature. Runs on temperature testing.
• Method 502: low temperature. Runs on temperature testing.
• Method 503: temperature shock. Runs on thermal shock testing.
• Method 506: rain and blowing rain. Runs on ingress protection testing.
• Method 507: humidity. Runs on humidity testing.
• Method 509: salt fog. Runs on salt spray and corrosion testing.
• Method 510 Procedure I: settling dust. Runs on ingress protection testing.
• Method 512: immersion. Runs on ingress protection testing.
• Method 514: vibration. Runs on vibration and shock testing. Temperature-combined profiles run on combined environment testing.
• Method 516: shock. Runs on vibration and shock testing.
• Method 519: gunfire vibration. Runs on vibration and shock testing.
• Method 521: icing and freezing rain. Runs on temperature testing.
• Method 524: freeze and thaw. Runs on temperature testing.

Accredited by A2LA to ISO/IEC 17025 under certificates 5179.01 and 5179.02. See our accreditations.

Our scope also covers customer supplied and industry specifications built on these same technologies, so an internal procedure that calls these methods can be run and reported under the accreditation. Send us the document and we will confirm.

Equivalent standards. DEF STAN 00-35 in the UK and AECTP 300 across NATO cover much of the same ground, and a specification citing either usually maps onto the methods above. Send us the document and we will map it.

• The method numbers and procedures, and the revision your specification names
• The severities: temperatures, levels, durations or cycles as your specification defines them
• Sample dimensions, weight and quantity
• Whether the product is powered and monitored during each method, and what passes through the chamber wall
• Fixturing and mounting orientation, which matter for vibration and ingress
• The order the methods must run in, if your specification fixes a sequence