A Review of Recognition in Military Airworthiness Regulatory Frameworks

Military aviation does not have a globally standardised airworthiness framework like that maintained by ICAO for civil aviation. As a result, the distinct and unique nature of each State's military airworthiness regulatory framework makes safety assurance difficult during joint operations, collaborations in aircraft development or during procurement of foreign aviation assets. The process of recognition of military airworthiness frameworks can, to some extent, alleviate many of these difficulties and help to build trust, allow resource sharing, enable mutual learning, provide economic benefits, and enhance safety assurance between collaborating Military Airworthiness Authorities. A review of the various military aviation forums, alliances, and collaborations is presented here in which recognition activities are described and evaluated. Attention is then focused on the most successful recognition process currently in use worldwide, namely the European Military Airworthiness Document Recognition (EMAD-R). The main reason for its success is that it incorporates much of the globally accepted ICAO oversight and airworthiness requirements in its Military Authorities Recognition Question-set (MARQ), thus providing the necessary confidence for recognition between collaborating Military Airworthiness Authorities. This work concludes by examining the EMAD-R process and showing it can effectively be used for recognition of disparate airworthiness frameworks even outside the European paradigm.