Mutual recognition of national military airworthiness authorities: A streamlined assessment process

The Air and Space Interoperability Council (ASIC) has adopted the European Defence Agency (EDA) process for interregulatory military airworthiness authority recognition. However, there are gaps in the application of this process to nations outside of the European Union. This paper proposes a model that can effectively map diverse technical airworthiness regulatory frameworks. This model, referred to as the Product-Behaviour-Process (PBP) Bow-Tie model, provides the systematic structure needed to represent and compare regulatory frameworks. The PBP Bow-Tie model identifies key points of difference that need to be addressed, during inter-agency recognition between the two regulatory authorities. With the intention to adopt global use of the EDA process, the proposed PBP Bow-Tie model can be used as a basis for the successful recognition of regulatory frameworks outside of the European Union. Iris plots produced from the implementation of this model are presented, and proposed as a suitable means of illustrating the outcome of an assessment, and of supporting the comparisons of results. A comparative analysis of the Australian Defence Force and New Zealand Defence Force airworthiness regulatory frameworks is used as a case study. The case study clearly illustrates the effectiveness of the model in discerning regulatory framework differences; moreover, it has offered an opportunity to explore the limitations of the Iris plot.