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At the request of the FAA, a committee was formed by the RTCA organization to prepare a Minimum Operating Performance Standard (MOPS) for Rechargeable Aircraft Lithium Battery Systems. This committee has being working for the last 2 years and completed the final draft during their 6th meeting in February 2008. Lithium Battery approval will be different than Nickel-Cadmium and Lead-Acid in that they will incorporate additional safety and documentation requirements. The MOPS, to be used by the FAA as the basis for a Technical Standard Order (TSO), includes the testing and evaluation criteria required for rechargeable lithium battery systems airworthiness demonstration.

Advancements in commercial aircraft batteries have been driven by changes in licensing requirements. Early model aircraft needed batteries to comply with a five minute emergency power requirement. This short time requirement was later incremented to 30 minutes and was recently increased to one hour. These requirements have changed to meet the demands of emergency equipment which, over time, have grown in sophistication and number. Traditional flight-by-cable aircraft require emergency power mostly for instrumentation to help reach a zone were continued visual flight and landing is possible. With the advent of flight-by-wire aircraft, emergency power is not only necessary for instrumentation, but is critical to flight itself. There is no single method for choosing a battery. The requirements for a battery will depend on many factors, including the availability of alternate sources of emergency power.

Radio Technology Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) at the request of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) formed a committee to prepare a Minimum Operating Performance Standard (MOPS) for aircraft batteries. The MOPS was limited to rechargeable and starting batteries as power sources for equipment installed in aircraft. This committee has being working for the last 3 years and completed the final draft during their 6th meeting in April 2004. The MOPS, to be used by the FAA as the base for a Technical Standard Order (TSO) in preparation, includes the testing and evaluation criteria required for secondary Lead-Acid (Pb-A) and Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries airworthiness demonstration.