This post is by Steve Hayes, EMC & Safety Managing Director, TRaCThere has been a flurry of activity from lawyers in recent months understanding the rules of CE Marking, as defence manufacturers get to grips with having to comply with CE Marking legislation.
This activity has been partly created by the EMC Directive (2004/104/EC) which came into force last July; the previous version of the Directive (89/336/EC) gave a specific exemption for 'defence material', whereas the current one doesn't.
But, what's the point of CE Marking military equipment? Is it needed because existing equipment is unsafe or interfering with other radio services? Well, actually it could be, but that's not the point.
In addition to helping ensure that unsafe equipment is not issued to troops, there is a clear financial incentive for a country's Ministry of Defence to demand products be CE marked.
By applying the same rules used for commercial products to military ones, the armed forces have protection against expensive negligence claims that might be brought if something did go wrong. It's not unreasonable for soldiers - and judges - to ask the simple question: "Why should a military vehicle be less safe than any other?"
The MoD is like any other employer and has a duty of care to supply safe equipment for its employees to use. How do you demonstrate this? CE Marking of course!
In addition to helping ensure that unsafe equipment is not issued to troops, there is a clear financial incentive for a country's Ministry of Defence to demand products be CE marked.
By applying the same rules used for commercial products to military ones, the armed forces have protection against expensive negligence claims that might be brought if something did go wrong. It's not unreasonable for soldiers - and judges - to ask the simple question: "Why should a military vehicle be less safe than any other?"
The MoD is like any other employer and has a duty of care to supply safe equipment for its employees to use. How do you demonstrate this? CE Marking of course!
After obtaining his Bachelor's degree in engineering, Jonathan worked for a number of engineering companies prior to obtaining a teaching role at the University of Hull (England). In 1995 he joined KTL, an internationally renowned test laboratory which then became TRaC, as part of the Digital Group specialising in regulatory requirements for digital telecommunications equipment. During his time at the company he has, among other things, been appointed as Senior Protocol Engineer, and Approvals and Homologation Group Manager. Jonathan has actively participated in various technical working groups for the ZigBee Allianceâ and is currently the ZigBee Qualification Group (ZQG) Lead Technical Editor. 
Steve is Managing Director for the EMC and Safety business of TRaC and has been involved in EMC and product approvals for 19 years. In addition to the day to day running of the business, Steve is actively involved in EMC standardisation both in commercial and defence areas. In addition to being the UK Principal expert on EMC standardisation of Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) products he is also the convenor of CISPR/B/WG1 who has the responsibility of writing the International standard, CISPR 11. Steve wrote the CE marking annex to the UK's defence EMC standard as well as being co-convenor of CENELEC TC210/WG9, responsible for writing a guide on approval of military systems with commercial (CE Marking) requirements.
Joe Lomako MSc is the Business Development Manager of Telecoms and Radio at TRaC. He has been involved in the testing and compliance industry for over 15 years. Prior to joining TRaC Joe specialised in EMC, EMF Exposure and Radio compliance.
Appointed Test Manager in 2007, following three years as Projects Manager at TRaC, having previously worked as Head of Environmental Testing at another UKAS accredited test house. Over 20 years' experience of modelling, testing and measurement in the structural dynamics and seismic fields.
Chris has worked in electrical safety compliance for over 17 years. Having previously worked for BSI, he joined TRaC in 1996, progressing through a number of testing roles before becoming Safety Product Manager in 2006.
Appointed Commercial Manager - Analysis in November 2009. Prior to joining TRaC, he was the Business Development Manager at Onward Technologies, an engineering services company based in India. Graham has spent over 20 years working in the CAD / CAE domain selling both engineering services and engineering systems. 
Stephen Tait joined KTL, an internationally renowned test laboratory which then became TRaC, as part of the Telecom Group specialising in telecommunications product testing for worldwide approvals. Stephen is also responsible for the Telecoms commercial activities within the TRaC group.
Simon Barrowcliff is the Director of the ATEX Notified Body at TRaC. He set up TRaC's Lancashire-based, ATEX business in 2002 and has been heavily involved in EX testing and compliance since then. Simon also runs TRaC's certification schemes for electrical safety under the IECEE CB scheme. He is a chartered electrical engineer with more than 20 years experience of product compliance for electrical and mechanical equipment.
Appointed Managing Director in November 2007. Previously he was Test Facilities Manager for Flight Refuelling, part of the Cobham group, and spent his early career in the Environmental Engineering Department of British Aerospace at Stevenage.
Brendan was appointed Sales Director in August 2009. He joined the group in 2005 as Business Development Manager for environmental test services. Before joining TRaC he spent five years in Application Engineering and Technical Sales roles for automotive test equipment. He studied Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Trinity College Dublin.
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