MIL-STD-2073.pdf

This is the Packaging and Marking Guide for DoD prepared by the Defense Contract Management Agency in March 2014 as an informational reference document for familiarization purposes only, not as an official DoD adoption or replacement for contractual requirements and specifications.

The guide provides comprehensive guidance on military packaging and preservation standards applicable to federal contracts. It covers locations where packaging requirements appear in solicitations and contracts (Sections A through J), including supplies and services specifications, descriptions, statements of work, packaging and marking sections, inspection and acceptance criteria, and contract clauses. The document explains hazardous materials packaging requirements mandating compliance with Title 49 CFR for land transport, IMO/IMDG for water, ICAO/IATA for commercial air, AFMAN 24-204_IP for military air, and MIL-STD-129 for marking and labeling. It details two commercial packaging standards—ASTM D-3951 for items intended for immediate use, depot consumption, or not-for-stock shipments; and MIL-STD-2073-1E for military packaging applied to items requiring preservation during wartime deployment, reusable containers, delivery-at-sea, or extended storage. The guide describes five basic military preservation methods (10, 20, 30, 40, 50) with corresponding packing levels A and B, along with specific methods 31-52 illustrating unit pack, intermediate container, and exterior container configurations. Quality assurance provisions in Appendix G require preservation inspections, leakage testing, and heat-sealed seam testing per specified methodologies. The document provides packaging requirement codes (PRC) for unit quantity per pack, intermediate container quantity, preservation methods, cleaning and drying, preservative materials, wraps, cushioning, container types, and unit container levels. Markings must include identification data, bar codes, address markings per Military Shipping Labels, and special markings for shelf-life, project codes, fragile items, Method 50 packages, expedited handling, and hazardous materials. Additional requirements address heat-treated wood packaging material markings, palletization standards per MIL-STD-147, passive RFID tag application per DFARS clause 252.211-7006, and references to key specifications including MIL-DTL-117 for heat-sealable bags and MIL-DTL-6060 for watervaporproof heat-sealable bags.