Transient Shock Fragility and Hardness Assessment of Commercial Communications Equipment

Commercial communications (telephone) equipment employed in a weapons system is mounted upon shock-isolated platforms for protection from nuclear-induced ground motion and air-blast loads. Analytic and empirical methods are used to derive a laboratory test environment for the equipment and a fragility test procedure is used to account for environmental uncertainties and test limitations. System hardening is achieved by way of design improvements introduced during the test program and as a result of the test program such that the system exceeds requirements. Fragility test levels are related to local threat environments to establish safety factors.