Many Department of Defense programs will not go lead-free because of uncertainties and the risks associated with the current science and materials, reports Military and Aerospace Electronics in an article titled "Lead-free issues continue to plague mil-aero market, says DMEA engineer."
Speaking at the Military & Aerospace Electronics Forum in San Diego in March that engineer, Vance Anderson with the Defense Microelectronics Activity in Sacramento, CA, described the effect of the lead free regulation on the military procurement process for COTS.
(COTS stands for commercial-off-the-shelf-products, which the DOD depends on because they are cheap and reliable. Problem is, most COTS parts have gone lead-free. And though military contractors can opt for high-rel military parts, they are costly -- as much as 10X as COTS parts.)
And therein the dilemma lies:
"Many DoD programs will not go lead-free because of uncertainties and the risks associated with the current science and materials. "There are failures, but we're not always hearing about it; most of the reporting is coming from government bodies. But believe me," Anderson says, "it is hitting all the major primes right now, very hard." The automotive, medical, and telecommunications markets are not immune, and have also experienced the same failures. Such failures are common, but not often revealed, perhaps due to stockholder pressures."
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