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AAMedP-1.22

AAMedP-1.22 portable filter-blowers for aircrew CBRN respirators

National authorities and equipment suppliers responsible for the portable filter-blowers that ventilate aircrew CBRN respirators across NATO airbases, and the aircrew who wear and test them

AAMedP-1.22 is NATO's performance standard for portable filter-blowers that ventilate aircrew CBRN respirators, so a unit from one participating nation can service aircrew of another at a shared airbase.

Edition
A
Published
2025-04

What it is

What AAMedP-1.22 covers

AAMedP-1.22 is NATO's Allied Aeromedical Publication on the performance of portable filter-blowers used with aircrew CBRN respirators. Its own stated aim is interoperability: a portable filter-blower belonging to one participating nation should be able to ventilate a similar aircrew CBRN respirator worn by another nation's aircrew, on the ground. Edition A, Version 2 was promulgated in April 2025, effective on receipt, and it supersedes AAMedP-1.22 Edition A, Version 1.

This is a document written as an agreement between NATO's participating nations, not as instructions addressed to a named commercial role. It does place a specific responsibility on "the visiting nation" to provide any filter-blower units and adaptors it needs at a host nation's airbase, and it expects the aircrew who wear this equipment to test it on the ground before relying on it in flight.

What a portable filter-blower unit is

A portable filter-blower unit is described as one or more standard CBRN filter canisters, a fan and electric motor with an on/off switch, a battery (which may be rechargeable, or drawn from the aircraft's own supply once in the cockpit), and a hose delivering filtered air to the respirator, carried on a handle or strap, with a means of replacing the canisters and, where fitted, a spare battery required to be provided. It supplies filtered air to an aircrew respirator on the ground and during cockpit entry and exit, and on some aircraft it can also be stowed and used in flight. Aircrew CBRN respirators themselves ventilate the hood compartment, the respiratory compartment, or both, with filtered air held at a positive pressure relative to the surrounding environment; the document notes that the filtered air can cause ocular dryness, which is why aircrew are expected to test the equipment on the ground first.

General requirements

Chapter 3 of AAMedP-1.22 opens with two general requirements that carry no figure: the filters fitted must combine gas/vapour filtration with particle filtration, and the assembled filter-blower and mask must resist the chemicals used in cleaning and disinfection without that exposure impairing performance. The rest of the chapter is headed "Specific performance requirements" and sets minimum filter efficiency and delivery pressure-flow figures, measured at the coupling connecting the unit to the respirator, separately for a unit supplying the eye compartment alone and one supplying both the respiratory and eye compartments, with and without the blower running. Those are a test specification a supplier's equipment is built and measured against, and this page does not reproduce them.

Coupling, adaptors and who provides them

The filtered air reaches the respirator through a flexible hose fitted with a half coupling forming a gas-tight connection to its air inlet. AAMedP-1.22 asks for this coupling to be used universally on portable filter-blowers and man-mounted respirators wherever possible; where that standardisation is not in place, gas-tight adaptors are to be provided instead, and the visiting nation is responsible for developing and providing any units and adaptors it intends to use at a host nation's airbase. That is the document's practical answer to interoperability: on landing at another participating nation's base, a portable filter-blower has to be able to ventilate the visiting aircrew's respirator so they can transit safely to and from collective protection.

Two terms it defines, and two standards it points to

Chapter 1 defines filtration efficiency, the ratio of contaminants a filter removes from incoming air, and Ambient Temperature and Pressure Dry (ATPD), the reference condition against which a gas volume is expressed, without this page reproducing the values attached to either. It then points elsewhere for two things it does not itself set: the canister's own CBRN protection characteristics, which it says to take from STANREC 4727/AEP-73, and the seal between the canister and the unit, for which it says to use STANAG 4155/AEP-4155. It also recommends that a portable filter-blower "should be tested from recommendations of" STANREC 4725/AEP-71, to confirm that same seal.

How it binds

AAMedP-1.22 is promulgated under, and nations' agreement to use it is recorded in, STANAG 3501, which is the cover that gives the publication its force. Like other NATO Allied Publications, it is adopted with national exceptions rather than word for word: its own front matter records specific reservations from the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, Turkey and the United States, several of which state that the nation does not currently field this equipment, cannot verify all of its requirements, or has not completed the procurement that would bring it into line.

How you are evaluated

AAMedP-1.22 names no body, accredited or otherwise, that certifies an organisation against it, and an organisation cannot be assessed against this document as a whole. What it describes is a performance specification a piece of equipment is built and tested to: it recommends that a portable filter-blower "should be tested from recommendations of" STANREC 4725/AEP-71 to confirm the seal between canister and unit, which is equipment-level testing, not an audit of a supplier's processes. Responsibility for interoperability itself sits with the fielding nation: it is the visiting nation that is responsible for providing any adaptors its own filter-blowers need at a host nation's airbase, a national procurement and logistics obligation rather than a third-party assessment.

Standards it references

  • [STANAG 3501](/standards/stanag-3501) - the NATO agreement recording nations' commitment to use this publication; the cover that gives AAMedP-1.22 its force.
  • [STANREC 4727](/standards#q=STANREC%204727) and [AEP-73](/standards#q=AEP-73) - pointed to for the CBRN protection characteristics of the filter canister itself, using advisory language ("refer to").
  • [STANAG 4155](/standards/stanag-4155) and [AEP-4155](/standards#q=AEP-4155) - pointed to for the seal between the canister and the portable filter-blower, using more directive language ("use").
  • [STANREC 4725](/standards#q=STANREC%204725) and [AEP-71](/standards#q=AEP-71) - a testing recommendation, to confirm that same seal.

How we help

AAMedP-1.22 is an operational and technical publication about a piece of protective equipment. The work it describes, designing and testing a filter-blower against the chemical-resistance and filtration requirements it sets, confirming the seal per the referenced STANREC, and a nation providing the adaptors its own units need at a host airbase, happens in engineering and national procurement, not in software, and ComplyTrain does not change that. What it helps with is the evidence trail around that work: version-controlled tracking of which edition a given equipment specification was built to (this publication has already superseded one earlier version), the record of which national reservations against STANAG 3501 apply to a given fleet, and the documentation and sign-off trail a national authority or a supplier keeps to show a batch of units was tested to the requirements it was procured against.

What ComplyTrain does not do: it does not test a filter-blower's filtration efficiency, delivery pressure or seal, does not certify a unit or an organisation against AAMedP-1.22, and does not decide which adaptors a nation needs to interoperate at a given airbase. Those stay engineering, test-house and national-authority responsibilities. The applicable requirements, and which standards sit alongside this one for a given programme, are set by the contract and the customer's quality clause. The standards explorer shows the other Allied Publications this document points to, and we are glad to talk through what a specific tasking or contract is actually asking an organisation to evidence.

Standards it references

Questions

Is AAMedP-1.22 mandatory?

It is promulgated under STANAG 3501, the agreement recording NATO nations' commitment to use it, and nations can and do record reservations against it: the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, Turkey and the United States all lodged specific reservations at promulgation, several because the nation does not currently field this equipment.

Can an organisation be "AAMedP-1.22 certified"?

No. AAMedP-1.22 names no certification scheme and no accredited body that assesses an organisation against it. What it describes is a performance specification for equipment, with a testing recommendation for confirming one specific seal, not a certificate a company or unit holds.

What is the difference between AAMedP-1.22 and STANAG 3501?

STANAG 3501 is the NATO agreement recording nations' commitment to use AAMedP-1.22; it is the cover that gives the publication its force. AAMedP-1.22 is the publication itself, the document that sets the definitions, general requirements and detailed performance requirements for portable filter-blowers.

Does AAMedP-1.22 set out the actual filter efficiency and pressure figures a filter-blower must meet?

Yes, in Chapter 3, under "Specific performance requirements." Those figures are a test specification an equipment supplier builds and measures against, and this page does not reproduce them; a supplier working to this standard should read the current promulgated edition directly.

Who is responsible for providing adaptors when a nation's equipment does not use the standard coupling?

AAMedP-1.22 puts that responsibility on the visiting nation: where universal coupling is not in place, the nation whose aircrew is transiting through another nation's airbase is responsible for developing and providing the units and adaptors it needs there.