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COTS Definition
COMMERCIAL-OFF-THE-SHELF. Commercial-off–the-shelf [COTS] is defined as any item other than real property that is of a type customarily used by the general public for non- governmental purposes, and that has been sold, leased, or licensed to the general public; is sold, leased, or licensed in substantial quantities in the commercial market place; and is offered to the Government without modification, in the same form in which it is sold, leased, or licensed in the commercial marketplace.Normally the term COTS is used with regard to Military requirements or military contracts to indicate that military specifications are not required or not to be followed [to save cost]. However components may still be required to operate under military temperature ranges, which would have to be tested for.
Commercial contracts by definition use commercial parts, so are COTS items by definition. COTS does not imply that an item is in stock, but that it is in production but with out regard to lead time. A similar term is Off-The-Shelf [OTS] which means about the same thing.
The Government saves a lot of money using COTS equipment instead of MIL Spec equipment, assuming the equipment or components meet military requirements for temperature and so on. The devices are produce in mass quantities and are not hand tested to QPL, but purchased at the same rate any commercial company would buy them for.
Products qualified to military standards and specification could be from 2x to 10x the cost of commercial products
Listing of Military Systems Requirements,
Listing of Military Component Specifications
