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AFSP-02
Aircraft marshallers and pilots, and the units, airfields and contractors across NATO that train and task them
AFSP-02 is the NATO standard for the hand, wand and night signals, and marshaller garment, ground crews and pilots use to direct aircraft, adopted through STANAG 3117.
AFSP-02 is the NATO Allied Flight Safety Publication that standardizes aircraft marshalling signals - the hand and wand signals a person on the ground uses to direct an aircraft on the movement area - and the distinctive garment marshallers wear while giving them. Its own aim clause puts it plainly: the standard exists "to standardize aircraft marshalling signals and the distinctive garment to be worn by aircraft marshallers." STANAG 3117 is the agreement that gives it force: participating nations agree that marshalling will be conducted as the publication details, using the signals in its two annexes and a marshaller's garment that is preferably fluorescent international orange or yellow, except when operations dictate otherwise.
Annex A's signals cover all aircraft. Annex B adds the signals needed for hovering aircraft, VTOL aircraft and air cushion vehicles. Neither annex is reproduced on this page: the individual signals and what each one means are exactly what the publication exists to standardize, and describing them here would function as an instruction sheet rather than an explanation of the standard.
AFSP-02 binds through STANAG 3117 rather than by existing on its own. The publication's own Letter of Promulgation records it directly: "the agreement of nations to use this publication is recorded in STANAG 3117." A nation implements that agreement itself, and for a unit, airfield authority or contractor the obligation typically arrives as a tasking or a unit instruction to marshal on this basis, not as a document anyone signs individually.
Nations do not all apply it identically. The publication's own record of reservations names Luxembourg's Findel airport, ELLX, as using "ICAO Annex 2 and relevant EASA regulations to conduct aircraft marshalling" instead of the AFSP-02 set - a civil regime standing in for the NATO one at one specific airfield. The document also cautions that the reservations it records "may not be complete" and points readers to the NATO Standardization Documents Database for the current list.
Chapter 1 sets out the marshaller's position: forward of the aircraft's left wing tip within the pilot's view for fixed-wing aircraft, or wherever the marshaller can best be seen by the pilot for helicopters. The same signal set may run the other way too - "the signals described in Annexes A and B may be used by the pilot, as appropriate, in a similar way to that indicated" - toward the marshaller.
Night signals mirror the day signals, with wands used in matched-colour pairs and kept dim rather than bright. The clause with an immediate safety consequence sits here: "during surface taxiing and parking the pilot will stop immediately when one or both of the marshaller's wands fail." That is not a judgement call for either party - a failed wand stops the aircraft.
NATO made an effort to conform its signals to ICAO's "to the maximum extent possible", but says plainly that some differ because of unique military operational considerations, and some are unique to military operations with no ICAO counterpart at all. Every signal in the annexes carries its own compliant or non-compliant marking, and an unmarked signal is NATO-only. A unit checking its marshalling training against AFSP-02 should expect that distinction carried into the training material itself, rather than treating every signal as internationally shared.
Scope divides cleanly between the two annexes: "the signals located in Annex A are applicable for all aircraft" and "the signals located in Annex B are applicable to hovering aircraft", extending, per Annex B's own title, to VTOL aircraft and air cushion vehicles as well.
AFSP-02 names no certification, assessment or audit scheme, and no accredited body, notified body, government surveillance or self-declaration mechanism appears anywhere in the text. It is a shared vocabulary participating nations agree to use, not a scheme anyone is assessed against. What actually matters is operational: whether the pilot understands the signal given, by day or by wand at night, and whether the fail-safe stop is instinctive the moment a wand fails. A contractor or unit supporting a NATO airfield should expect to demonstrate this through its own training records, because no AFSP-02 certificate exists.
Promulgation, that records participating nations' agreement to use AFSP-02 and gives it force.
AFSP-02 is an operational, technical standard, and the work it describes is physical: someone standing in front of, or beside, a moving aircraft, giving a signal a pilot can see and act on. That work happens on the ramp, not in software. ComplyTrain's part is the procedure and evidence around it: the procedure that states which signal set a unit or contractor uses on a given airfield (the AFSP-02 set, or, where a national reservation like Luxembourg's applies, the civil ICAO/EASA regime instead); the training record showing a marshaller has been trained and assessed against that set, including which signals are NATO-only rather than ICAO-shared; and the record that the night-operations fail-safe rule was part of that training.
What ComplyTrain does not do: it does not marshal aircraft, train a marshaller in the physical hand and wand signals, or decide which signal regime applies at a given airfield. Which of this a given tasking or contract requires is set by that tasking and the customer's own instructions, not by this page; the standards explorer shows what else sits alongside AFSP-02 and STANAG 3117, and we are glad to talk through what a specific tasking or contract is asking for.
Tell us how you need to work with AFSP-02 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.
It binds through STANAG 3117, the NATO agreement recorded in the publication's own Letter of Promulgation. A nation agrees to use it as part of that STANAG, and it typically reaches a unit, airfield or contractor as a tasking or a unit instruction rather than as something anyone signs individually.
Not necessarily. The publication's own record of reservations names Luxembourg's Findel airport, ELLX, as using ICAO Annex 2 and EASA regulations instead of the AFSP-02 signal set, and the document warns that the reservations it records "may not be complete."
NATO made an effort to align its signals with ICAO's as far as possible, but says plainly that some differ because of unique military operational considerations and some have no ICAO equivalent at all. Every signal in the annexes is marked accordingly, so a NATO-only signal is never presented as an ICAO one.
No. The publication names no certification, assessment or audit scheme, and no body is described as awarding one. Conformity is a matter of the tasking unit's own training and currency standards.
STANAG 3117 is the NATO agreement that records participating nations' commitment to use AFSP-02; AFSP-02 is the technical publication itself, containing the actual marshalling signals and the marshaller's garment requirement.
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