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AATMP-17
Air traffic service units and their service providers controlling pedestrian and vehicle traffic on an airfield's manoeuvring area
NATO's agreed visual light signals for controlling pedestrian and vehicle traffic on an airfield's manoeuvring area, promulgated under STANAG 3758.
AATMP-17 standardizes the visual light signals that air traffic service units use to control pedestrian and vehicle traffic on an airfield's manoeuvring area, the part of the airfield where aircraft taxi, take off and land. It does not create new signals: it adopts the light-signal tables already set out in ICAO Doc 4444, Articles 7.6.3.2.3.2 and 7.6.3.2.3.3, as the common NATO reference. The nations' agreement to use this publication is recorded in STANAG 3758, and the current edition is Edition A, Version 2, which superseded Version 1 on issue.
The document addresses local air traffic service units and providers directly: they are responsible for establishing their own procedures for ground movements and for briefing personnel on them. A separate safety annex is written for "NATO Led Service Providers" implementing the standard at existing or planned airfields, explicitly including deployed operations. This is an operator's document, not one aimed at an equipment manufacturer or a design authority, and it says nothing about who it binds beyond that: a STANAG binds a nation once ratified, and reaches a particular airfield through whatever national or contractual arrangement applies there, not through the AATMP itself.
Two signal sets are defined. The primary set, used "when communications by a system of visual signals is deemed to be adequate, or in the case of radio-communication failure," comes from aerodrome control: green flashes mean permission to cross the landing area or move onto a taxiway, steady red means stop, red flashes mean move off the landing area or taxiway and watch for aircraft, and white flashes mean vacate the manoeuvring area in accordance with local instructions. A second, backup signal applies in emergency conditions or when the primary signals go unobserved: flashing runway or taxiway lights, meaning vacate the runway and watch the tower for a light signal.
Because the signals alone do not cover every operational risk, an annex sets a general checklist for implementing the standard: check the standard's suitability for the operation, confirm the edition and amendments in use are current, obtain and review the related civil documents, check the ratification and reservation status of the nations involved, and work out whether existing facilities and procedures are already in compliance. It then flags four specific risks: night-vision-goggle glare from the visual signals, aerodrome lights obscured by snow or ice, blind spots where the control facility cannot see part of the airfield, and personnel safety generally, mitigated by ensuring staff are trained in what the signals mean. None of that replaces a proper safety survey: the annex requires those to continue under STANAG 4720, NATO's Air Traffic Management Safety Management System standard.
AATMP-17 leaves the signals used to control aircraft themselves to ICAO Annex 2, Rules of the Air. It also does not set out how a nation applies the standard to a specific airfield or contract: it records that nations have agreed to use it, not the mechanism that turns that agreement into a local requirement.
Implementing AATMP-17 is ground-level work: turning the Annex B signal table into a local procedure, briefing and training ground and vehicle personnel on it, and working through the safety annex's checklist for a specific airfield, including a record of any blind spots identified and the mitigations put in place.
ComplyTrain is where that evidence lives rather than where the work happens. It holds the local procedure itself, the training records that show personnel were briefed on the signals and their meaning, and the record of the safety-annex review, including when the edition and amendments were last checked and what the compliance review found. It does not operate the airfield, install or maintain runway and taxiway lighting, or carry out the safety surveys STANAG 4720 requires: those stay the service provider's own responsibility, evidenced rather than replaced. If AATMP-17 sits alongside other NATO air traffic management standards on your programme, our standards explorer shows what else is in scope, and we are glad to talk through how to evidence it.
Tell us how you need to work with AATMP-17 and what you need from it. We will come back to you about what ComplyTrain can do.
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The visual light signals air traffic service units use to control pedestrian and vehicle traffic on an airfield's manoeuvring area. It adopts the signal tables from ICAO Doc 4444 rather than defining new ones, and adds a NATO-specific safety annex.
It is a NATO Allied Publication whose use nations have agreed to record in STANAG 3758. A STANAG binds a nation once ratified; whether it applies to a particular airfield or organisation depends on the national and contractual arrangements in place there.
STANAG 3758 is the agreement by which nations commit to use AATMP-17. AATMP-17 is the technical publication itself, containing the signals and the safety annex.
No. It covers pedestrian and vehicle traffic on the manoeuvring area. Signals for controlling aircraft are covered separately in ICAO Annex 2, Rules of the Air.
No. The document sets an implementation checklist that a service provider works through for its own airfield; it does not describe a certification body, notified body or external audit against it.
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