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AFAP-01
Designers and suppliers pre-selecting materials for NATO surface ships and submarines under a contract that invokes STANAG 4602
NATO policy publication AFAP-01 sets out the fire test methods and F, S and T classification system used to pre-select materials for military platforms against STANAG 4602 criteria.
AFAP-01 (NATO prints it AFAP-1) is the policy publication that heads the Allied Fire Assessment Publication series: AFAP-01 sets the framework, and AFAP-02 through AFAP-05 supply the individual test methods it points to. Edition 3 was promulgated in July 2010, is effective on receipt, and superseded Edition 2. It exists to give a designer a consistent way to pre-select materials for military platforms on the basis of how they behave in a fire, before those materials are specified into a design.
The document says plainly that it "provides guidance to the designer on the performance requirements for control and pre-selection of materials for military applications" (Section 2.1). Contractors and suppliers are also named directly: NATO's Letter of Promulgation records that distributing copies "to Contractors and Suppliers" is "encouraged". A national Technical Authority sits behind both: it accepts the test laboratories a contractor may use, and it is the body consulted on which tests apply to which material.
AFAP-01 does not bind by existing. It binds through STANAG 4602, "the agreement of interested nations to use this publication", and it reaches an individual supplier only when a contract or invitation to tender incorporates it (Preface). That means there is no general answer to whether AFAP-01 applies to a given programme: it depends on what the tender's fire-safety or quality clause names. It was developed, in its own words, "primarily for military applications on surface warships and submarines," though it can be adapted for land, air or defence clothing and commissariat use (Section 1.4).
AFAP-01 covers non-combustibility, ignitability, flammability, smoke obscuration, toxicity, spread of flame and heat release, for materials such as insulants, composites, paints and coatings, deck coverings, bulkhead and ceiling finishes, textile fabrics and upholstery. It is just as specific about what sits outside it: electrical cables, complete items of furniture, systems such as fire doors, and any assessment of how a material behaves under attack from munitions, blast, shock or fragments are all out of scope. The classification tables in Section 7 are stated to apply to surface ships and submarines; the document says they are "not directly applicable to other military platforms and equipment (e.g. land, air)" without the Technical Authority adapting them first.
Each fire property maps to a specific ISO-based test: non-combustibility (ISO 1182), oxygen index (ISO 4589-2), flammability temperature (ISO 4589-3 Annex A), smoke generation (AFAP-02, based on ISO 5659-2), toxicity of fire effluents (AFAP-03), surface spread of flame (AFAP-04, based on ISO 5658-2) and heat release rate (AFAP-05, based on ISO 5660). The results feed Section 7's classification tables: F1 to F4 for contribution to fire growth, S1 to S2 for smoke generation, T1 for toxicity of fire effluents, plus parallel scales for upholstered furniture, mattresses and bedding, and for vertically supported textiles and films. Oxygen index and flammability temperature are stated not to apply to paints, coatings or adhesives (Section 4.1.8).
Section 6 requires tests to run at "independent laboratories qualified to appropriate standards for quality management and for technical competence, as specified by the Technical Authority," and contractors "must verify the acceptability to the Technical Authority of the chosen laboratory before conducting a test" - an approval step, not a formality to complete after the fact. Section 5 then sets out how easily a result can be invalidated: substrate, specimen thickness, orientation of layered materials and even colour all affect the outcome, and "the results from a test are strictly applicable only to... the colour of the material used for the test specimen" unless the Technical Authority has agreed a wider basis for using them.
Every assessment is recorded in a national STANAG 4602 database using a controlled Item Reference format (Group, Sub-Group, Serial Number, Nation), a fixed keyword list, and standard datasheets (Annex 3). Once a nation's Point of Contact has issued a reference, "it shall not be changed by other nations when entering the data in their own database" (Annex 1) - the record follows the assessing nation, wherever the data is later shared.
AFAP-01 is a non-classified NATO publication and is free of charge. NATO's Standardization Document Database lists it; find the current listing through NATO's NSDD. We do not sell it or host a copy.
Meeting AFAP-01 is laboratory work: choosing a Technical-Authority-accepted test house, running the ISO-based tests, and reading the results against the F, S and T thresholds in Section 7. ComplyTrain does not run those tests, select a laboratory, or decide a material's classification, and nothing here implies it does.
What ComplyTrain supports is the record-keeping around that work: a controlled procedure for how your organisation selects and approves test laboratories, a place to hold each completed fire characteristics datasheet against the material and Naval Ship Code line item it was tested for, tracking for when a material specification changes so a re-test decision gets made and recorded rather than forgotten, and one traceable history to hand a customer or a Technical Authority when they ask for the evidence behind a classification.
The applicable tier, and which classifications a given contract actually requires, are set by the contract and the customer's quality clause, not by us. See what else sits alongside AFAP-01 in the standards explorer, including STANAG 4602 and ANEP-77, or get in touch to talk through what your programme needs.
Tell us how you need to work with AFAP-01 and what you need from it. We will come back to you about what ComplyTrain can do.
Thank you. Your list is on its way to your inbox, and we will come back to you on what working with these standards in ComplyTrain involves, usually within one business day.
Only contractually. AFAP-01 binds NATO/PfP nations through STANAG 4602, and it reaches a supplier when a contract or invitation to tender incorporates it. Outside a contract that names it, it is guidance a designer can choose to apply.
STANAG 4602 is the agreement recording NATO nations' commitment to use the AFAP series and it carries the F, S and T classification tables. AFAP-01 is the policy publication that explains how to apply those tables to pre-select materials, and it reproduces the tables in Section 7 for reference.
The document was developed primarily for surface warships and submarines, and it says its Section 7 classification criteria are "not directly applicable to other military platforms and equipment (e.g. land, air)" without adaptation by the Technical Authority. It states it may be adapted for land, air, or defence clothing and commissariat use, but a contract for those platforms would need to specify how.
No such certification exists to get. AFAP-01 describes a national Technical Authority approving laboratories and a Naval Administration applying the classification tables, not a certificate issued by any body. ComplyTrain supports the records that document your compliance; it does not test materials or issue classifications.
Nothing in AFAP-01 waives the tests. A wider basis for reusing a result across colours, thicknesses or substrates has to be agreed with the Technical Authority in advance; absent that, "the results from a test are strictly applicable only to the materials in the form... that was used to make the test specimens" (Section 5.8).
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