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Department of Defense (DOD)

Unified Facilities Criteria Program

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) logo
   
U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) logo
U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency (AFCESA) logo

The Department of Defense (DoD) and the military services have initiated a program to unify all technical criteria and standards pertaining to planning, design, construction, and operation and maintenance of real property facilities. The objective of the Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) program is to streamline the military criteria system by eliminating duplication of information, increasing reliance on private-sector standards, and creating a more efficient criteria development and publishing process. Both technical publications and guide specifications are part of the UFC program. Previously, each service had its own publishing system resulting in criteria being disseminated in different formats. UFC documents have a uniform format and are identified by a number such as UFC 1-300-1.

Though unification of all DOD criteria is the ultimate goal, there are instances when a particular document may not apply to all services, or some documents may have not been fully revised to reflect all service requirements before being issued in the UFC system. In these instances, the UFC or UFGS (in MasterFormat™ 1995) document number will be followed by an alpha-designator, such as UFC 1-300-09N or UFGS 01320A. Alpha-designators are as follows:

A   USACE
F   Air Force
N   Navy
S   NASA

Starting April 2006, UFGS in MasterFormat™ 2004, have a numeric designator at the end of the document number, for example UFGS 01 20 00.00 20. The fifth numeric pair in this numbering system identifies it as an agency-unique section. If there is no fifth pair in the UFGS number, it is a unified section, for use by all participating agencies. Numeric designators are as follows:

10   USACE
20   Navy
30   Air Force
40   NASA

Management of the UFC program is by an Engineering Senior Executive Panel (ESEP) comprised of the senior engineer executive from each military service and DoD. Numerous working groups with one or more technical experts from each participating military service accomplish publication development. Further information on the UFC program can be found in MIL STD 3007 (PDF 200 KB, 33 pgs), and information on developing UFC documents is in UFC 1-300-01 and UFC 1-300-02.

In 1989, DoD adopted the Construction Criteria Base (CCB) information system as the official distribution method for facilities criteria. Over the years, the military services were instrumental in the advancement of CCB and continue to participate in many other National Institute of Building Sciences programs. The CCB is currently evolving into the Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG) system.

The offices which administer the UFC program for the military services are the HQ, US Army Corps of Engineers; Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Engineering Innovation and Criteria Office; and HQ, Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency. Additional information may be obtained by using the pull down menu under each of the above service logos.

Publications, Guidelines & Directives

WBDG Services Construction Criteria Base