AAMedP-1.13 minimum requirements for high-G aircrew training

What it is

AAMedP-1.13 is the NATO Allied Aeromedical Publication that sets the minimum requirements for training aircrew who fly in high onset and high sustained "G" (HSG) conditions (clause 1.1). AAMedP stands for Allied Aeromedical Publication. Edition A, Version 1 was promulgated in October 2017; the document names no earlier edition it superseded and sets no scheduled review date. It sits under STANAG 3827, the ratified agreement by which a NATO nation commits to the requirements this publication sets out, and which gives it force.

AAMedP-1.13 addresses the national authority that runs a NATO nation's aeromedical training establishment, not a supplier or a manufacturer. The aircrew who receive the training are its subject, identified by each nation (clause 2.1), not the party the document is written to. Several NATO nations have recorded formal reservations against it on the document's own record pages: Belgium reads what a completed course qualifies a pilot for more narrowly than the document implies, Canada and the United Kingdom record that their own equipment cannot meet what the document specifies, and the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovenia each record that they do not currently hold the centrifuge equipment the document assumes exists. Ratifying the cover STANAG and fully implementing this publication are, in practice, separate steps.

What a national training programme has to provide

Chapter 2 sets out, clause by clause, what a nation's HSG training programme has to provide:

• Aircrew training (2.1): aircrew identified by each nation whose employment exposes them to the HSG environment should receive training certified by a qualifying centrifuge run, aimed at building awareness of the environment and the ability to apply the anti-G technique effectively.
• Medical (2.2.1): "an appropriately qualified and competent physician shall be available throughout HSG training," and a trainee must meet national medical standards and satisfy pre-training medical requirements before training starts.
• Briefing (2.2.2): trainees must be briefed beforehand on the physiological effects they may experience, on what can reduce their individual tolerance, and on the correct use of the anti-G technique - content left to the qualified staff delivering it, not reproduced here.
• Equipment and positioning (2.2.3): "equipment must be maintained and monitored by appropriately qualified and competent personnel"; training uses a man-rated centrifuge fitted with communication and recording equipment, and each trainee uses anti-G equipment representative of their own aircraft type.
• Qualification (2.2.4): a trainee is qualified once they complete the required run to the standard the clause sets.
• Termination and training failure (2.2.5): a run can be stopped at any time, by the trainee or by the supervisor. Each nation sets its own physiological and medical criteria for when to stop a run, and where a trainee does not complete the qualification run, "if successful completion cannot be achieved, aeromedical disposition of the trainee shall be determined by national procedures."
• Refresher training (2.3): qualification is not indefinite. The document sets a recurring retraining requirement to preserve currency, triggered by how long an aircrew member has been away from the high-G flying environment, with a shorter regular cycle recommended even for those who remain current.

What stands out is what the document does not set itself: the substantive medical and termination criteria stay with each nation and its aeromedical professionals. The document only requires that criteria exist and that qualified staff apply them.

No certification, and no obligation on a supplier

There is no accredited certification, no notified body and no third-party audit described here. The qualification this document describes is granted to an individual aircrew member by the national training establishment that runs the centrifuge, not a certificate an organisation can hold. Evaluation is self-administered by the nation: clause 2.2.5 states plainly that "physiological and medical criteria for terminating a centrifuge run shall be established by each participating nation," and leaves an unsuccessful trainee's disposition to national procedure in the same way. Where a nation cannot meet the requirement in full, it records that as a formal reservation reviewable through the NATO Standardization Document Database, rather than being caught by an external inspection.

This publication places no obligation on a software or compliance vendor. It binds a NATO nation's own aeromedical training establishment; a defence-sector supplier meets it only indirectly, where a contract or a customer's quality clause touches the training and currency records of aircrew.

Getting the document

NATO publishes AAMedP-1.13 through the NATO Standardization Document Database at no charge. ComplyTrain does not sell it or host a copy; the NSDD listing for AAMedP-1.13 is the source.

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