Electronic Military & Defense magazine was developed for engineers, program managers, project managers, and those involved in the design and development of electronic and electro-optic systems for military, defense, and aerospace applications.
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unanimously approved by all the National Committees in November of that year. Everybody involved easily agreed to place this standard in the IEC series of outdoor fiber optic cables (60794-3-xx), and there was full consensus to include both single-mode and multimode optical fibers. This was a radical change at the time because, prior to this standard, only single-mode optical fibers were supported in the standards for outdoor cables. Since this standard needed to specify product requirements that justify a "standalone" document within the series of outdoor cables, we agreed on product differentiation based on enhanced (often called "ruggedized") mechanical, environmental, and ingress performance when compared to "civilian" fiber optic cables. But, as they say, "the devil is in the details." EM&D; — What were the main challenges in creating the standard? Liberman — Keep in mind that international standards of this type (product specification) are voluntary and constitute the minimal requirements ("entry level") needed to comply. The difficult part is determining how high to place the bar. On one hand, the compliance requirements for a tactical fiber optic cable, per 60794-3-70, have to be enhanced when compared to "civilian" outdoor cables of the same series. But, on the other hand, the requirements have to be attainable by commercially available materials and technology, as used by "one who is skilled in the art." A lot of challenges encountered by the committee revolved around reaching agreement on those minimum, but enhanced, performance requirements. Another esoteric challenge was naming the standard. The official name of the document is IEC 60794-3-70:2016 Optical fibre cables — Part 3-70: Outdoor cables — Family specification for outdoor optical fibre cables for rapid/ multiple deployment. You won't find the terms "military," "tactical," or "defense" anywhere in the standard. Just like the elephant in the room that nobody mentions, there was great sensitivity and opposition to using these terms, although everybody was cognizant of the standard's intent. EM&D; — Can you give some examples of "enhanced performance"? Liberman — These cables are often used in the field, deployed rapidly off a small drum carried by a soldier on foot, and then — just as rapidly — rewound and redeployed. They are intended to deal with whatever comes their way, including sharp rocks, being marched on or driven over, snaking around tight bends, surviving uncontrolled pulling force, and often exposure to oil, fuels, etc. So, right off the bat, we needed to impart exceptional crush or compression resistance, performance under extreme minimal bending radii, very high tensile and torsion strength, waterproofing, very harsh high and low operational temperatures, etc. The new standard covers all of the above and more. EM&D; — Did you take recent technological breakthroughs into consideration? Liberman — Definitely. Of special note are "bend insensitive" fibers and nanotechnology. Over the past few years, the IEC has standardized optical fibers with reduced sensitivity to macrobend loss. It used to be that one could only bend a fiber optic cable in a radius equal to 10 times its outer diameter. For example, if you deployed a tactical cable with an outer diameter of 5.0 mm, you would lose a great deal of the signal strength (attenuation) if the cable were bent tighter than a radius of 50 mm. These new bend-insensitive fibers (both single-mode and multimode) enable us to specify much tighter bends for the tactical fiber optic cable. Additionally, recent developments in nanotechnology provide us with optimal materials to achieve water blocking without the use of gels (micron-sized, super-absorbent polymers), and there has been vast improvement in easily extruded elastomeric polymers that form a lightweight, ruggedized, UV- and fluid-resistant outer jacket over the cable core. EM&D; — How will this standard be useful for our readers? Liberman — We've basically taken all the hard work out of writing a product specification for quality fiber optic tactical cables. Rather than having to specify every characteristic, test method, pass/fail criteria, etc., you just need to refer to the standard. Rather than having to periodically recheck and update older specifications (or running the risk of "copy and paste" errors), one just needs to refer to the internationally accepted standard, which takes into account the most recent technological developments in cable manufacturing technologies to be as up-to-date as possible, providing all the advantages that this knowledge gives the end customer. Finally, if you are managing (or competing in) an international tender, there is nothing more efficient than using an international standard as the basis of the product specification. n Tuvia Liberman is a fiber optic cable design engineer and chief technological officer for Teldor Cables & Systems. He serves as both a technical expert for and head of the Israel National Delegation to the international standards committees on fiber optic cables and generic cabling, both in the IEC and in ISO/ IEC. He also functions as the liaison officer between these organizations on issues pertaining to fiber optic cables and generic cabling and is a two-time recipient of the IEC's 1906 Award for valued and sustained contribution to international standards. Electronic Military & Defense Annual Resource, 6th Edition 15 Regulatory