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AASSEP-05
Aircraft and ground-support-equipment manufacturers who build towing attachment points, towing bars and towing fittings
AASSEP-05 is a NATO standard that sets common dimensions for aircraft towing attachment points, towing-bar heads, and towing lugs and rings, so ground equipment from one nation can tow an aircraft supplied by another.
AASSEP-05 is a short NATO Allied Technical Publication, promulgated in November 2014, that standardises one narrow piece of an aircraft's design: the interface between an aircraft's towing attachment points and the towing bars, tow lines and bridles used to move it on the ground. Its aim, at clause 1.2, is to define the form and essential dimensions of the hollow axle and spool attachment points fitted to aircraft, the dimensions of the matching attachment heads on towing and steering bars, and the requirements for alternative towing by tow bar or tow line. Unlike some of its sibling AASSEP publications, which set their requirement by pointing at a civil ISO standard, AASSEP-05 is self-contained: it states its own geometry directly in a dimensions table and two annexes, keyed throughout to bands of aircraft maximum take-off gross weight.
Clause 2.1.1 requires normal towing to use a bar attached to either a hollow axle point, with its form and dimensions given at Annex A, or a spool point, with its form and dimensions given at Annex B. Clause 2.1.2 adds three requirements. Attachment points "should be accessible using a straight tow bar" - a recommendation, not a mandatory "shall", the one place the document steps back from a firm requirement. The attachment heads on towing and steering bars must be dimensionally compatible with the applicable hollow axle or spool point on the aircraft they serve. And towing attachment points must allow an aircraft to be towed both forwards and rearward. Clause 2.1.3 then narrows the whole standard's scope: it applies only to aircraft with wheels.
Clause 2.2.1 covers alternative towing by tow bar or tow line. Aircraft other than those fitted with arrestor and catapult hooks must be provided with lugs or rings sized, by the aircraft's maximum take-off gross weight, to the bands set out in the standard's own dimensions table, so a tow bar or tow line can be attached. The lugs or rings must have a cross-section free of sharp corners and be suitable for coupling, and any hooks on towing bridles used with them must be dimensionally compatible with those same figures. The exclusion is worth reading precisely: aircraft fitted with arrestor and catapult hooks, which is how carrier-capable aircraft launch and recover, are not brought under this particular fitting requirement.
Nothing in AASSEP-05 mentions an operator, a maintainer or an inspector. Its clauses of substance are addressed to whoever designs and builds an aircraft's towing attachment points, or the towing bars, lugs, rings and bridle hooks meant to mate with them: the requirement is that the hardware matches a specified geometry, which is an engineering check, not an operational one.
It binds the way most NATO Allied Publications do: through the agreement nations record. AASSEP-05's own promulgation letter states that nations' agreement to use the publication "is recorded in STANAG 3278", and NATO's own catalogue lists AASSEP-05 as covered by that STANAG. A nation carries the obligation into its own procurement once it has ratified; a supplier meets AASSEP-05 because a contract, a type specification or a tender calls it up, not because it exists in NATO's catalogue.
AASSEP-05 names no certification body, no audit cycle and no inspection regime. It is an interface specification: a towing attachment point, a towing-bar head, or a lug, ring or bridle hook either matches the dimensions the standard sets for the relevant aircraft weight class, or it does not, and checking that is a design and engineering review, not a scheme an organisation is certified against.
AASSEP-05 names no related document for its own technical content: clause 1.1 lists related documents as "Nil." It is itself carried by one NATO agreement, STANAG 3278, which records nations' agreement to use it and which NATO's own catalogue lists as covering AASSEP-05.
AASSEP-05 describes a mechanical interface, not a management system, so the work it demands is engineering: designing a towing attachment point or a towing bar's attachment head to the applicable Annex A or Annex B geometry, sizing lugs, rings and bridle hooks to the correct weight band in the standard's own table, and checking that towing attachment points allow an aircraft to be towed both forwards and rearward. That work is done by an aircraft or ground-support-equipment manufacturer, not by a compliance platform.
What ComplyTrain supports is the paperwork around that engineering: holding the design record that shows a towing attachment point, towing bar, lug, ring or bridle hook was checked against the applicable clause, the sign-off from whoever ran that check, and any deviation raised - for example, where a straight tow bar could not reach an attachment point and a customer accepted the alternative. It can also hold training records for staff who need to know AASSEP-05 and STANAG 3278 exist and what each covers.
It does not calculate or verify towing-attachment geometry, size a lug or ring, or decide whether a design conforms to AASSEP-05's own tables. Which standards and which tier of support apply on a given contract is set by the customer's quality clause. If AASSEP-05 sits alongside other requirements on a NATO airframe programme, the standards explorer shows what else is in play, and we're glad to talk through how you'd evidence it.
Tell us how you need to work with AASSEP-05 and what you need from it. We will come back to you about what ComplyTrain can do.
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Only through the mechanism a NATO Allied Technical Publication always uses: nations record their agreement to use it in a STANAG, in this case STANAG 3278, and a nation carries that into its own procurement once it has ratified. A supplier is bound where a contract, a type specification or a tender calls up AASSEP-05, not because the publication exists in NATO's catalogue.
STANAG 3278 is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to use AASSEP-05; AASSEP-05 is the technical publication itself, setting the towing-attachment dimensions and fittings requirements. AASSEP-05's own promulgation letter records that the agreement to use it sits in STANAG 3278.
No. Clause 2.1.3 states the standard applies only to aircraft with wheels, and the lug and ring requirement in clause 2.2.1 does not extend to aircraft fitted with arrestor and catapult hooks, which cover carrier-capable aircraft that launch and recover by other means.
No. AASSEP-05 names no certification body, audit or inspection process. Conformance is a design and engineering question, checked against the standard's own dimensions table and annexes, not a scheme an organisation is certified against.
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