STANAG
STANAG: the NATO Standardization Agreements
Defence suppliers whose contract or tender flows down a STANAG requirement.
A STANAG is a NATO Standardization Agreement: the terms under which member nations agree to a common military or technical procedure, or a common piece of equipment. Nations ratify and implement them, and the requirement reaches a supplier through the contract.
What a STANAG is
STANAG stands for Standardization Agreement. It sets out the processes, procedures, terms and conditions under which NATO member nations agree to a common military or technical procedure, or to common equipment. The point is interoperability: an aircraft, a data link or an imagery feed from one nation has to work with another nation's systems.
A STANAG is agreed between nations, not issued to companies. Each member state ratifies the agreement and then implements it within its own armed forces. What reaches you as a supplier is the implementation: a national requirement written into a contract or a tender.
How the numbering works
STANAGs carry four-digit numbers, allocated in broad blocks by the body responsible for the subject area: 2000 and 2500 for army and joint-service matters, 3000 and 7000 for air, 4000 and 5000 for armaments and for communications and information systems, 6000 for the International Military Staff. The number is an address, not a difficulty rating: a low number is not an easier requirement.
The three covered here are all in the 4000 series, which is where unmanned systems, imagery and armaments interoperability sit.
The STANAGs covered here
- STANAG 4586 - unmanned aircraft system control interoperability. It defines the interfaces that let one nation's control station command another's air vehicle, at a declared Level of Interoperability.
- STANAG 4609 - ISR motion imagery and its metadata. It is what makes a full-motion video feed usable by a NATO analyst who did not build the sensor that produced it.
- STANAG 4671 - the USAR airworthiness requirements for military unmanned aircraft. This is the one that leads to a type certificate, issued by a national military airworthiness authority.
Is there such a thing as STANAG certification?
Not in the way ISO 9001 certification works, and the distinction is worth getting right because the two are often confused. There is no accredited body that audits a company and issues it a STANAG certificate. A STANAG is ratified by nations and implemented nationally, and you meet it because a contract says so.
That said, a particular STANAG can sit underneath a national approval that very much is a certificate. STANAG 4671 is the clearest example: the airworthiness requirements in it are what a military airworthiness authority assesses a type certification case against. So the honest answer is that you are not certified to a STANAG, but you may hold an approval that a STANAG defines the basis for.
How STANAGs relate to the AQAPs
The two families are joined at the top. STANAG 4107 is the agreement that records nations' acceptance of mutual government quality assurance and their agreement to use the Allied Quality Assurance Publications, covering AQAP 2000, 2009, 2070, 2105, 2110, 2131, 2210 and 2310 among others. So when a contract cites AQAP 2110, the reason every NATO nation recognises it is a STANAG.
In practice the split is simple. The AQAPs govern how your quality is assured. The technical STANAGs govern what your product must do to work alongside everyone else's.
Not the standard you were looking for?
ComplyTrain is not limited to the standards written up on this site. The product is built around a requirement tree, and a requirement tree can be built for any standard, agreement or contractual specification that has requirements in it. The pages here are the ones we have documented so far, not the boundary of what the system handles.
We add standards on request, and the list grows steadily. If the STANAG or standard your contract cites is not here, tell us which one you need and we will tell you what supporting it in your workspace involves.
How ComplyTrain helps you meet a STANAG
A technical STANAG lands on you as a long list of requirements that somebody will later ask you to evidence, one by one. That is the same shape of problem whichever agreement it is:
- The agreement's requirements held as a tracked set, each traced to the evidence that satisfies it - Requirements Management
- Procedures, test records and the compliance matrix under revision control with sign-off - Document Control
- The ISO 9001-structured quality system the contract usually requires underneath it - Quality Management
- Risk to contract performance as a living register - Risk Management
- Competence records for the engineers named on the contract - Training Management
Because the requirement tree is the product's core rather than a per-standard feature, a standard we have not written a page for is a content job, not an engineering one. Ask, and it can be added.
ComplyTrain holds no NATO qualification and does not need one: it is the system you run your own obligations in and hold the evidence for.
Questions
What does STANAG stand for?
Standardization Agreement. It records the terms under which NATO member nations agree to a common military or technical procedure, or to common equipment, so that one nation's systems work with another's.
Can a company be STANAG certified?
Not in the ISO 9001 sense: no accredited body audits a company and issues a STANAG certificate. Nations ratify a STANAG and implement it, and it reaches you as a contractual requirement. A specific STANAG can still underpin a national approval that is a certificate - STANAG 4671 is the basis on which a military airworthiness authority assesses a type certification case.
How are STANAGs numbered?
With four digits, allocated in blocks by subject area: roughly 2000 and 2500 for army and joint service, 3000 and 7000 for air, 4000 and 5000 for armaments and for communications and information systems, and 6000 for the International Military Staff. The number identifies the subject, not the difficulty.
What is the difference between a STANAG and an AQAP?
The AQAPs govern how your quality is assured; the technical STANAGs govern what your product must do to interoperate. They are formally linked: STANAG 4107 is the agreement recording nations' acceptance of mutual government quality assurance and their agreement to use the AQAPs.
The STANAG we need is not listed here. Can you support it?
Yes. The pages on this site are the standards documented so far, not the limit of what the product handles - ComplyTrain is built around a requirement tree, and one can be built for any standard, agreement or contractual specification. We add standards on request. Tell us which one your contract cites and we will explain what supporting it in your workspace involves.
Implementation
Working a STANAG requirement into evidence
A technical agreement is met requirement by requirement, and demonstrated the same way.
Take the requirements from the contract, not the summary
The national implementation is what binds you, and it can add to or constrain the agreement. Work from what the contract actually cites.
Build the requirement tree
Every requirement as a tracked item with its criticality, so the set is countable and nothing sits in a paragraph nobody re-reads.
Attach evidence as it is produced
Test records, analyses and declarations belong on the requirement they satisfy, at the time they are made rather than in the week before a review.
Keep the compliance matrix current
The matrix is what an assessor or a prime asks for. Generated from the tree it is always true; maintained by hand it is true on the day it was written.
Official sources
The primary sources behind this page. Where a standard is quoted here, the publisher's own page is the authority.