Mel Magazine:

In the armed forces, ‘military grade’ isn’t the best — it’s the cheapest stuff that gets the job done. When the phrase is on a Ford or an iPhone case, real soldiers laugh their heads off.

Unfortunately, though, companies calling their products “military grade” is pretty much the same as Robert Pattinson calling his microwaved sugar pasta “authentic Italian cuisine” — total garbage.

“It’s mostly just a marketing ploy,” explains Alex Hollings, a former Marine and editor of the military news outlet Sandboxx News. “And to be totally honest, the military standard itself is a bit of a sham.”

I see this term all the time in press releases I’m sent for various iPhone and iPad cases and I’ve always discounted it as marketing fluff.