Across the world there is an increasing tendency for civil functional safety standards to be adopted for military applications, For example, commercial airworthiness (or, flight safety) standards such as ARP 4754A and DO-178C to be adapted and adopted for military projects. For example, there is nothing mandating military organisations to adopt the overarching ARP 4754A aircraft and systems certification standard, the DO-178 software process standard, or its electronic hardware equivalent, DO-254. But the increasing popularity of such an approach suggests that those organisations see considerable benefit in applying the principles of DO-178C to their software development processes.
Here's why.