Due to the increased emphasis of explosive safety, the Navy explosive qualification document, NAVSEAINST 8020.5, is being updated to reflect a thorough safety characterization of candidate explosives for use in weapon systems. New requirements in the instruction include an explosive aging protocol, formal explosive selection committees for new weapon systems, and insensitive munitions evaluation on generic test hardware. With increases in joint weapon systems, explosive qualification will involve several domestic and international documents: NAVSEAINST 8020.5, MIL-STD-1751A, STANAG 4170, and other related STANAGs.

An "inherently governmental function" is one that, as a matter of law and policy, must be performed by federal government employees and cannot be contracted out because it is "intimately related to the public interest". This book provides background, issues and options for Congress on defining inherently governmental functions within the context of DOD operations. It situates contemporary debates over which functions are inherently governmental within the context of the broader debate about the proper roles of the public and private sectors.