One Standard Does Not Fit All: Limitations of Applying MIL-STD-1472H Across Diverse Government Programs

MIL-STD-1472H (Military Standard 1472 Version H) is the human engineering design standard applied across U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition programs. While the standard allows tailoring, it is frequently applied as a universal compliance baseline across diverse systems. One-size-fits all prescriptive standards can diminish human performance risks and constrain design adaptability (Dekker, 2017). Reliance on extensive tailoring increases system cost with minimal value and limits innovation. A subsection-level assessment of the Detailed Requirements section of MIL-STD-1472H demonstrates substantial variability in relevance across domains. In practice, tailoring serves as administrative compliance rather than advancing human performance outcomes. In addition, MIL-STD-1472H fails to address emerging challenges with integrating artificial intelligence into human-machine interfaces. Future DoD human engineering standards need to better align with system context, lifecycle maturity, and emerging technologies, consistent with Department of Defense artificial intelligence (AI) policy.