DoD announced today release of an updated Unmanned System (UxS) Safety Engineering Precepts Guide for DoD Acquisition, dated August 2021, created by a joint effort of the DoD Offices of the Under Secretaries of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E) and Acquisition and Sustainment (OUSD(A&S). The Guide was updated to better support Service safety reviews and the design and development of safe UxSs and associated firmware, hardware, and safety significant software.

“As more complex autonomous capabilities are implemented in unmanned systems, confidence in system operation and performance will be pivotal to general operational use,” said Chris DeLuca, Director, Specialty Engineering. “System safety and test and evaluation techniques will need to advance to facilitate the means to assess system safety, performance, and predictability and to characterize system behavior and mission capability across selected factors.”

A team of UxS hardware, software, test and evaluation, and system safety subject matter experts from across the DoD contributed to the Guide’s development. The publication is intended to provide government Program Managers with precepts that aid the integration of system safety engineering into their overall systems engineering process in accordance with DoD Instruction 5000.88, “Engineering of Defense Systems” (2020). It includes a summary of the three types of safety precepts (programmatic, design, and operational), an analysis of the major UxS safety concerns, and an assessment of the state-of-the-art of artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous capabilities, which, when integrated properly, can enable the desired performance of UxS autonomy, human-machine interface, and command and control.

The UxS Guide is available on the System Safety Engineering section of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering for Advanced Capabilities’ website.