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DEFENCE · STANDARDS

MIL-STD-810G vs MIL-STD-810H: What Is the Difference?

MIL-STD-810G (2008) and MIL-STD-810H (2019) are successive revisions of the US military environmental test standard. 810H is the current version; it refined and reorganised test methods and tightened guidance, but both define test methods rather than a pass or fail certificate.

01

The Short Answer

Both are revisions of MIL-STD-810, the US Department of Defense standard for environmental engineering test methods. 810H, issued in 2019, supersedes 810G (2008) and is the current version. The change was refinement rather than a rewrite: methods were clarified, some procedures and tailoring guidance updated, and the document reorganised.

02

Why You Still See 810G

Equipment qualified against 810G is not obsolete, and many manufacturers continue to report 810G results because their test campaigns predate 810H or were run to a customer specification that cites G. For most ruggedness purposes the two are read interchangeably; what matters is which methods were run, and to what levels.

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    Revision Whether the report cites 810G or 810H, and against which customer specification.
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    Methods Which methods were tested, for example 501/502 temperature, 514 vibration, 516 shock, 509 salt fog.
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    Levels The severity and category for each method, not just that the method was run.
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    Tested, not certified Results are self-declared test data; there is no pass/fail certificate issued.
03

What It Means When You Specify

Ask for the test report and read the methods and levels, not the revision letter alone. A unit “tested to MIL-STD-810H” tells you little until you see which of the methods it was subjected to and at what severity.

See our overview of U.S. military standards (MIL-STDs) for how this fits alongside the others.