DAOS is the means by which the MOD can assess the competency of design organisations.
Documents
Details
Design Approved Organization Scheme (DAOS) provides an independent assessment of the competence of defence contractors and service organisations involved in the design of aircraft systems, associated equipment and airborne explosive ordnance and armament equipment.
MOD policy is to only procure from contractors who have been assessed as competent as stated in Regulatory Article (RA) 1005. A design organization must have a MOD sponsor (typically a DE&S DT) who will apply on their behalf to DAOS Branch Head using DAOS form 80.
Details of the approval scheme are published in MAA Regulatory Article 5000 series.
DAOS organisations will be subject to periodic on site review, based on risk, by the DAOS branch or the CAAi (CAA International).
The CAAi has been contracted by the MOD to undertake on site surveillance audits, for which they will levy a charge. Details of CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) charges can be provided by DSA-MAA-OA-DAOSGroup@mod.gov.uk
Organisations where the scope of the approval covers ITAR, complex weapons, mission software, UK Eyes only design/PDS, will be assessed by the MAA.
The MAA is to be notified of proposed changes which could affect continued possession of the approval submitted to the DAOS Branch Head using the DAOS form 82.
Depending on the nature and magnitude of any change, the MAA may need to carry out an on site assessment before issuing a revised DAOS Certificate.
A list of Approved Organisations within the scheme can be found here.
For further information please contact the DAOS team:
MAA IE&R
DAOS
Juniper 1, Wing 4 #5104
MOD Abbey Wood North,
Bristol, BS34 8QW
Email: DSA-MAA-OA-DAOSGroup@mod.gov.uk
Related information
Updates to this page
-
21 September 2026
Version 4.3 of the design organization exposition template has been published.
-
10 June 2026
Version 4.2 of the Design organization exposition template has been published.
-
23 July 2024
Version 4.1 of the design organization exposition template has been published.
-
12 April 2024
Version 4 of the design organization exposition template has been published.
-
31 May 2023
Version 3 of the Type Airworthiness Management Compliance Checklist has been published.
-
23 May 2023
The Type airworthiness management supplement template issue 3 has been published.
-
23 August 2022
Version 3.3 of the Design Organization Exposition Template has been published.
-
18 March 2022
Updated Type airworthiness management (TAM) supplement template and the Type airworthiness management compliance checklist have both been published.
-
24 November 2021
Type airworthiness management compliance checklist has been published.
-
21 October 2021
An updated Design organization exposition template has been published.
-
28 June 2021
New versions of the Design organization exposition template and the TAE RA 5000 series compliance check list have been published.
-
8 December 2020
The Type Airworthiness Management (TAM) Supplement Template has been published.
-
24 September 2020
A new version of the design organization exposition template has been published.
-
21 May 2020
Version 1.2 of the DAOS design organization exposition template has been published.
-
10 December 2019
A new version of the DAOS Design organization exposition template has been published.
-
11 October 2019
The DAOS FAQs document has been removed.
-
3 September 2019
A new version of the Type airworthiness engineering (TAE) RA 5000 series compliance check list has been published.
-
16 August 2019
Added updated version of Design exposition organization template.
-
13 August 2019
New version of the Design exposition organization template has been published.
-
22 July 2019
The DAOS frequently asked questions have been updated.
-
20 November 2018
Link to MAA form 30 added.
-
1 November 2018
Links to form 4, form 80 and form 82 updated.
-
4 July 2017
DAOS Forms 80 and 82 have been amended
-
9 May 2017
The Type Airworthiness Engineering (TAE) RA 5000 series compliance check list has been published.
-
17 March 2017
link added to the list of MAA approved organisations
-
28 February 2017
Updated DAOS Forms 4, 80 and 82 have been published and should be used from now.
-
24 February 2017
DAOS Team Address updated
-
16 January 2017
The DAOS approved organisations list has been withdrawn and will be replaced by a common system covering all MAA approved design, maintenance and contractor flying organizations. Until the common system is in place any approvals queries should be sent via e-mail to dsa-maa-oa-ssc@mod.uk.
-
5 September 2016
The Design Organization Exposition template has been published.
-
18 March 2016
DAOS approved organisations list updated.
-
17 February 2016
DAOS approved organisations list updated.
-
28 January 2016
DAOS approved organisations list updated
-
15 January 2016
DAOS approved organisations list updated.
-
9 December 2015
DAOS approved organisations list updated.
-
10 November 2015
DAOS approved organisations list updated.
-
12 October 2015
DAOS approved organisations list updated.
-
8 September 2015
DAOS approved organisations list updated.
-
20 August 2015
DAOS form 82 (changes to approval) has been updated to version 3.1.
-
15 July 2015
DAOS approved organisations list updated.
-
30 June 2015
DAOS approved organisations list updated.
-
23 February 2015
DAOS approved organisations list updated.
-
22 January 2015
DAOS approved organisations list updated.
-
19 November 2014
First published.