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AAMedP-01

AAMedP-01 aerospace medicine doctrine

National military medical services setting up and running a national aerospace medicine capability, including flight surgeons, flight nurses and other aeromedical personnel

AAMedP-01 is NATO doctrine on the personnel, training and organisation a nation's own military medical service needs for aerospace medicine; it addresses national authorities, not suppliers, and names no certification scheme.

Edition
B
Published
2025-09

What it is

What AAMedP-01 covers

AAMedP-01 is NATO's Allied Aeromedical Publication for aerospace medicine doctrine: the specialty of medicine concerned with the health, safety and performance of those who fly or control systems in the air and space environments. It sets out, for a NATO nation's own military medical service, the personnel roles, organisational structure, training and operational support a national aerospace medicine capability needs, from an appointed Aerospace Medicine Authority through to flight surgeons, flight nurses, flight medics and physiologists. Edition B, Version 1 was promulgated in September 2025, superseding Edition A, Version 1.

This is doctrine addressed to a nation's own military medical service, not to a supplier. Nowhere does the document name a manufacturer, contractor or notified body, and it sets no product, software or contract requirement. A defence or cyber vendor reading this page will not find an obligation here: the closest thing to a supplier-facing angle is the separate technical documents it points readers toward for equipment used in aeromedical evacuation, and those carry their own requirements, not AAMedP-01's.

Roles and organisational structure

AAMedP-01 names the roles a national aerospace medicine programme needs. Each nation's Chiefs of Military Medical Services appoint an Aerospace Medicine Authority to oversee the programme. A flight surgeon is a physician with recognised aerospace medicine training who is authorised to conduct aircrew medical examinations and determine fitness to fly; the document leaves the actual clinical criteria for that determination to national practice and does not set them out. Flight nurses and flight medics staff aeromedical evacuation, specialist physicians and nurses (including Critical Care Air Transport and Support Teams) augment evacuation of seriously ill patients, and physiologists support research, human factors work and training. Each nation organises its own structure around this, but the doctrine expects clinical governance and oversight specific to aerospace medicine, a consultation service for complex aircrew cases, and, where a nation runs them, centres of aviation medicine for research and training.

Training and operational support

Personnel are trained and periodically re-evaluated: the doctrine calls for "appropriate evaluation procedures (formal written and/or practical exams, assignments etc)" to confirm that flight surgeons, flight nurses and other aeromedical personnel have reached the expected standard, with ongoing evaluation through service and participation in exercises. That training covers flight surgeon and advanced flight surgeon courses, flight nurse and flight medic training, and additional training such as survival and combat-search-and-rescue skills where a nation's doctrine calls for it. Support to air operations covers three areas: clinical support, including fitness-to-fly determination, again without the document setting out the criteria; medical advice to the operational chain of command on risks such as fatigue and special operating environments; and aeromedical planning input to operations. The doctrine also gives aerospace medicine personnel a role in flight safety programmes and in accident and incident investigation, covering the medical and human-factors side, survivability, and the performance of life-support and escape systems.

Aeromedical evacuation, research and spaceflight

A chapter on aeromedical evacuation points readers to nine related STANAGs and Allied Publications, covering evacuation doctrine, recommended equipment, capability and skills matrices, stretcher specifications, and search-and-rescue medical training; these are listed below. A further chapter covers the role of aerospace medicine personnel in research, test and evaluation, including early input to the design and acquisition of new aircraft systems, human and unmanned alike. The final chapter addresses spaceflight-related considerations at a policy level: the factors that bear on medical risk for a given space mission, and a process for developing aeromedical standards for spaceflight as human access to space grows. The document is explicit that further aircrew screening for space missions "is an important discussion" it raises rather than a criterion it sets.

How it binds, and where it sits in NATO's doctrine hierarchy

AAMedP-01 binds through STANAG 7212, the NATO agreement recording nations' commitment to use this publication; that agreement, not a contract or tender, is what gives it force, and Edition B, Version 1 took effect on a nation's receipt of it. The doctrine is itself subordinate to, and amplifies part of, AJP-4.10, NATO's Allied Joint Doctrine For Medical Support. Nations can record reservations at promulgation: Finland and Greece both did so for this edition, citing national resource and structural constraints.

How you are evaluated

AAMedP-01 describes no organisational certification scheme, and no accreditation or notified-body process appears in it. What it describes is the evaluation of individual personnel, through national exams and ongoing assessment, and a nation's own internal clinical governance over its aerospace medicine programme. A flight surgeon's or flight nurse's qualification is a personal one, held by that person; it is not a certificate an organisation can hold, and nothing in the document changes that.

Standards it references

  • [STANAG 7212](/standards/stanag-7212) - the NATO agreement recording nations'

commitment to use this publication, and the cover that gives it force.

  • [STANAG 3114](/standards/stanag-3114) - the aeromedical training component an aircrew

aeromedical training programme has to include.

  • [STANAG 2546](/standards/stanag-2546) - cited for further information on aeromedical

evacuation concepts, alongside the Allied Joint Doctrine for Medical Evacuation.

  • [STANAG 3204](/standards/stanag-3204) and [AAMedP-1.1](/standards/aamedp-1-1) -

the aeromedical evacuation STANAG and its companion Allied Publication.

  • [STANAG 2087](/standards/stanag-2087) and [AAMedP-1.5](/standards#q=AAMedP-1.5) -

forward aeromedical evacuation.

  • [STANAG 7112](/standards/stanag-7112) and [AAMedP-1.20](/standards/aamedp-1-20) -

recommended medical equipment for aeromedical evacuation.

  • [STANAG 2560](/standards/stanag-2560), [AMedP-1.6](/standards/amedp-1-6),

[AMedP-1.7](/standards/amedp-1-7) and [AMedP-1.8](/standards/amedp-1-8) - the medical evacuation manual, capability matrix and skills matrix under this STANAG.

  • [STANAG 2040](/standards#q=STANAG%202040) and [AMedP-2.1](/standards#q=AMedP-2.1) -

stretchers, bearing brackets and attachment support.

  • [STANAG 3745](/standards/stanag-3745) and [AAMedP-1.12](/standards/aamedp-1-12) -

medical training and equipment used in search and rescue and combat search and rescue.

Every one of these is cited as further-information reading rather than as a clause AAMedP-01 binds readers to; the actual requirements, where they exist, live in each of those documents.

How we help

AAMedP-01 is NATO doctrine for a nation's own military medical service, not a standard a commercial supplier is asked to meet, and this page will not stretch it into one. It governs how a nation organises, staffs and trains an aerospace medicine capability: personnel roles, training programmes, flight safety involvement, and evacuation and research work. None of that is an obligation for a defence, cyber or software supplier. Where a supplier does meet obligations nearby, for instance against the equipment and evacuation standards AAMedP-01 points to, those obligations come from that separate document and the contract, not from AAMedP-01 itself.

For that adjacent, supplier-facing layer, ComplyTrain is a modern auditable system for holding the procedures, training records and audit trail a customer or National Authority asks for. It does not train flight surgeons or aeromedical evacuation teams, does not determine aircrew fitness to fly or set any medical or fitness criteria, and does not organise a nation's aerospace medicine service. The standards explorer shows the STANAGs and Allied Publications AAMedP-01 points to, and we are glad to talk through what a specific contract or tasking actually asks a supplier to evidence.

Standards it references

Questions

Is AAMedP-01 mandatory?

It binds nations through STANAG 7212, the NATO agreement recording their commitment to use it. That is an agreement between NATO nations for their own military medical services, not a contractual or product requirement placed on a supplier.

Does AAMedP-01 set fitness-to-fly criteria for aircrew?

No. It describes flight surgeons as applying aeromedical risk assessment to determine fitness to fly at aircrew selection and throughout service, but it leaves the clinical criteria for that determination to national practice and does not reproduce them.

Can an organisation be "AAMedP-01 certified"?

No. AAMedP-01 describes no certification scheme for an organisation. What it describes is training and qualification for individual clinicians, such as flight surgeons and flight nurses, confirmed through national exams, which is a personal qualification rather than a certificate a company or unit holds.

What is the difference between AAMedP-01 and STANAG 7212?

STANAG 7212 is the NATO agreement recording nations' commitment to use AAMedP-01; it is the cover that gives the doctrine force. AAMedP-01 is the doctrine itself, the document that sets out the personnel, training and organisation of a national aerospace medicine capability.

Does AAMedP-01 apply to companies supplying aeromedical evacuation equipment?

Not directly. AAMedP-01 is doctrine for a nation's military medical service. A supplier of aeromedical evacuation equipment works instead against the specific technical documents AAMedP-01 points to, such as AMedP-1.6, AAMedP-1.20 or AMedP-2.1, and against its own contract. </content>