What it is
AJMedP-7 is NATO's Allied Joint Medical Publication for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) medical support. It is the capstone doctrine for how NATO's own military medical organisation thinks about, plans and delivers medical support before, during and after a CBRN incident, and it exists to link the doctrine above it with the more detailed subordinate AMedP-7 series beneath it.
The publication binds through ratification rather than through a contract. NATO nations agree to use it by ratifying STANAG 2596, the Standardization Agreement that covers AJMedP-7, and a nation may ratify with recorded reservations. That agreement runs between NATO nations. AJMedP-7 places no obligation on a company: it does not address suppliers, manufacturers or contractors, and it names no certification scheme that any organisation could hold.
Who it addresses
AJMedP-7 speaks to NATO's own Command and Force Structure: medical planning staffs, commanders, and the Medical Advisors (MEDAD) who advise them on CBRN medical support. Edition B, Version 1 (January 2022) is the current edition; it supersedes Edition A, Version 1.
Where it sits in NATO's doctrine hierarchy
AJMedP-7 is directly subordinate to Allied Joint Publication 4.10 (AJP-4.10), Allied Joint Doctrine for Medical Support, which provides medical support doctrine for NATO joint operations generally. It aligns with AJP-3.8, Allied Joint Doctrine for Comprehensive CBRN Defence, and that doctrine's tactical-level expansion, ATP-3.8.1. It is one of nine sibling Allied Joint Medical Publications - AJMedP-1 through AJMedP-9 - each covering a different medical discipline, from medical planning and evacuation to force health protection and multinational medical support. Below AJMedP-7 sits the more detailed AMedP-7 series, from AMedP-7.1 through AMedP-7.6, which carries the operational and clinical detail this capstone document only introduces.
What it covers
The document works through seven chapters. It opens by defining the scope of CBRN medical support and the range of hazards it has to consider - the CBRNE3T all-hazards framework of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosive, environmental and endemic hazards, alongside trauma - and how the scale of an incident, from a small tactical-level event to a catastrophic national one, changes what is required of medical support.
It then covers the strategic medical contribution to CBRN defence under NATO's prevent-protect-recover framework, and the medical contribution to the five components of CBRN defence set out in AJP-3.8: detection, identification and monitoring; knowledge management; physical protection; hazard management; and medical countermeasures and casualty care.
Its longest chapter describes how a deployed medical support organisation adapts to a CBRN environment: command and information management; force health protection, including deployment health surveillance; military health care from first aid through specialist care; medical evacuation; and medical logistics and sustainment. A further chapter covers the civilian-military interface - the framework for cooperation in a CBRN mass-casualty incident, civilian health-care support to deployed operations, and national CBRN medical stockpiles - and a final chapter covers education, training, exercises (including the biennial Exercise Clean Care series) and how a nation's CBRN medical support capability is evaluated for NATO force generation.
Eight annexes summarise capability descriptions, planning guidance, incident-management principles, an emergency medical system concept, training and exercise objectives, a lexicon and the full reference list.
What it does not cover
AJMedP-7 does not itself specify clinical procedures, treatment protocols, decontamination methods or medical countermeasure detail - it points to the subordinate AMedP-7 series for that. It is not a certification scheme, and it does not set requirements a supplier, manufacturer or contractor has to meet: it addresses NATO's own military medical organisation.