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RMSS: About Us
Background

Many members of Armscor and the South African National Defence Force – SANDF – (and of the former South African Defence Force – SADF) will recall that standardisation was given high priority many years ago, when the then Department of Engineering was tasked to set up a standardisation function with the aim of promoting standardisation and developing so-called “RSA Military Standards” within the Defence Industry. This was particularly necessary in order to cater for unique requirements for standards with a military purpose that either did not exist elsewhere or that were difficult to access. The RMSS is the body which has facilitated this process for the last two decades.

Structured to function as a body with three partners, namely the SANDF, Armscor and the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), the RMSS was established as the authority responsible for Standardisation. Since its establishment, the RMSS has facilitated the development and approval of about 400 RSA-Military documents for its clients. RSA-Military documents are today recognised in addressing issues which vary from Logistics process standards to certain product specifications for selected applications, and even supplementing guidance standards to support the use and application of certain foreign standards found to be useful for RSA-Military use.

The RMSS is currently the only forum where RSA military standardisation requirements are formally addressed and where the stakeholders have the opportunity to cooperate jointly in promoting standardisation at various levels. Internally as well as externally RSA-Military standards play a small but significant role towards standardisation, a fact that gives credit to those individuals who were always willing to actively participate in the activities of the RMSS.