AAMedP-1.9 laser eye damage in aircrew

What it is

What AAMedP-1.9 covers

AAMedP-1.9 is NATO's Allied Aeromedical Publication for the initial investigation and immediate management of a suspected laser eye injury in aircrew. Edition C, Version 1 was promulgated in September 2025 and supersedes Edition B, Version 1. Its purpose is consistency: a military medical officer anywhere in NATO takes the same history, runs a comparable initial examination, and reaches a decision on returning an aircrew member to flying duties on a consistent basis, whatever nation they serve.

This is a document for the flight surgeon, the examining medical officer and the ophthalmologists and optometrists a case is referred to, not for a general equipment manufacturer or software supplier. Nothing in it names a contract clause, a certification scheme, or any other route by which a company is bound. Chapter 1 sets out why the publication exists: lasers are increasingly used by the military, including in force exercises, and are capable of producing serious eye injury even at distance, so aircrew and other personnel need a shared understanding of the risk. It goes on to describe, in general terms, how a laser can affect vision: a lingering but temporary glare or after-image with no lasting damage, as distinct from actual injury to the cornea, lens or retina. The clinical thresholds, wavelengths and exposure levels the chapter discusses are not reproduced on this page.

The clinical pathway: named, not reproduced

Chapter 2 sets out the pathway a suspected laser incident follows: a baseline examination of aircrew on entry to and exit from a laser-risk environment, a structured post-incident history taken using the questions at Annex A, a post-incident clinical examination, treatment, and a return-to-duty assessment, alongside guidance on the psychological impact of an incident and on educating aircrew before one occurs. Each stage is addressed to the examining medical officer. This page names that they exist, because they shape what a nation's aeromedical service needs to have in place, but it does not reproduce the examination technique, the treatment, or the criteria used to judge fitness to fly: those are a qualified clinician's professional judgement, not a compliance criterion a reader applies themselves.

The document is precise even about vocabulary: it asks an examiner taking a post-incident history to avoid one commonly used word for what an aircrew member saw, because its meaning varies too much between people, and to use a more specific word instead, so that reports of an incident compare properly across nations.

Annex A is a structured set of questions covering the circumstances of a suspected exposure and its possible effects, for the examiner to work through with the aircrew member. Annex B reproduces the test chart Chapter 2 refers to. Neither is reproduced here.

How it binds

AAMedP-1.9 sits under STANAG 7165, the NATO agreement recording nations' commitment to use it, approved by the nations in the Military Committee Air Standardization Board. That is the cover which gives the publication its force: a national armed force applies AAMedP-1.9 once that nation has adopted the STANAG, not by virtue of the document existing. Two nations recorded reservations against it at the time of promulgation, over aspects of the specialist care Chapter 2 describes; this page does not detail them, because they are a national capacity question rather than anything an external organisation supplies.

How you are evaluated

AAMedP-1.9 names no certification, accreditation or notified-body scheme, and no organisation is assessed against it. What it describes is an individual flight surgeon or medical officer's clinical judgement, working through a structured examination and referral pathway with the aircrew member in front of them. That is professional clinical practice governed by national medical standards and each nation's own military medical service, not something a company, a management system or a product is certified or audited against.

Standards it references

• [STANAG 7165](/standards/stanag-7165) - the NATO agreement recording nations' commitment to use this publication; the cover that gives AAMedP-1.9 its force.