Element has over 50 years experience in working with a wide range of Defense Product and System manufacturers from the initial concept of their products and on to the complex testing that is required of modern defense equipment. As such, Element is the natural choice for any Defense company looking to develop and take their new products and systems to market.

Our 50 years of experience enable Element to help Defense companies to be exposed to a much smoother journey when testing and qualifying their products for market - from the initial test plan development, test preparation, the actual testing, witnessing and on through the final stage of test reporting.

Our recently launched Early Stage Qualification (or ESQ®) service has been developed by Elements team of Engaged Experts and is based on the considerable experience that they have gained over the last 50 years from testing thousands of different products from across a diverse range of industry sectors.

We are both A2LA and UKAS accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 and have one the of largest capacities of Defense related EMC and Environmental testing in the world with seven testing centers in the USA and UK. 

Each year Element tests over 500 Defense related products from our laboratories in the UK and USA. Over the past decade we have successfully written test plans and performed testing for most of the major programs in the USA including the F-22, JSF, A400M, CH-53K and the Challenger Main Battle Tank, the Mastiff and Husky military vehicles in the UK.

Element has one of the largest testing capacities in the USA and UK and for defense EMC testing.


Across our seven sites we have 15 Military EMC chambers that range in size from traditional dimensions for smaller systems or programmes up to our enormous military vehicle EMC test chamber. This was originally built to test the Challenger Main Battle tank for the UK MOD, and has recently been used for the newest generation of British army vehicles including the Mastiff and Husky. 

Our experts design and deliver pre-compliance testing and formal Defense EMC testing programmes for over 500 military products every year. These cover a wide range of immunity and emissions that your product will need to endure when placed into demanding military environments.Our defense EMC testing and qualification services are designed to provide standard defense validation as well as help companies perform Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) testing in a short time period, most commonly against the following standards:

  • DEF STAN 59-411
  • DEF STAN 61-5
  • MIL-STD 461
  • MIL-STD 1275
We also work with customers to develop testing packages that cover both defence and commercial requirements with a single test programme: These include:
  • CE Marking 
  • E Marking
  • RADHAZ Testing 
  • Naval Acceptance Testing
  • EMC Interoperability Testing 
  • NATO AMSG
  • Immunity Integrity Testing
Element has a significant capacity for Defense related environmental testing within our network of laboratories to support Defense manufacturers in validating their products for use in harsh environments. 

Our environmental test centers of excellence located in the UK and USA allow our clients to test their products to the following most commonly used Defense standards:


  • DEF STAN 00-35 
  • MIL-STD 810

So that you can ensure your products can withstand and perform against the extreme environmental demands placed on modern military equipment, we also provide:

  • Vibration and Shock Testing including at temperature
  • Temperature, Altitude and Humidity Testing
  • Sand and Dust Testing
  • Salt Corrosion Testing
  • Ingress Protection Testing
  • HALT Testing
  • Fluid Contamination Testing
  • Solar Heating Testing

These coupled with our expertise in Finite Element Analysis (FEA) make Element the natural partner for Military and Defense contractors to complete their environmental qualification of their products

Element works with Defense manufacturers to produce and design equipment that can operate in fuel-air explosive atmospheres commonly found with aircraft, vehicle and marine fuels. 

Most commonly, we apply MIL-STD 810F to demonstrate the ability of the equipment to operate in these environments without causing explosion or combustion.


We provide advanced Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to complement your product’s design and development in the early stages, or where it is not possible to physically test a product due to cost or size. 

Our highly skilled engineers are not only able to predict how the physical environment or event is likely to affect a product, but can also advise on how to optimise its mechanical performance prior to testing and qualification.

Military equipment may be required to meet either CE Marking (electrical equipment) or E Marking (whole vehicles and individual components) in addition to contracted defense standards. 

We are experts in helping defense companies recognize how and when this extra certification applies and we can help build it into your testing program, whether your product is new or returning to core following deployment under an Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR).

We routinely test to the following Military specifications:

  • ADS-37A-PRF
  • DEF STAN 00-35
  • DEF STAN – 59-411
  • DEF STAN 61-5 
  • MIL-STD-167 
  • MIL-STD-202 
  • MIL-STD 461 
  • MIL-STD 462 
  • MIL-STD-464 
  • MIL-STD-704  
  • MIL-STD-810  
  • MIL-STD-1275  
  • MIL-PRF-28800

Our team of over 9,000 Engaged Experts in North America, Europe, The Middle East, Australia, Asia and Africa are ready to help you.