AMedP-1.2
AMedP-1.2 minimum medical and survival equipment for life rafts
Navies of NATO nations equipping ship life rafts, lifeboats and rescue boats, and the suppliers of survival and first-aid kit procured against a naval contract
AMedP-1.2 is NATO's recommended minimum for medical and survival equipment on ship life rafts, lifeboats and rescue boats, binding navies through STANAG 1185 rather than a supplier directly.
- Published
- 2022-01
What it is
What AMedP-1.2 covers
AMedP-1.2 is NATO's Allied Medical Publication setting a recommended minimum for the medical and survival equipment carried on ship life rafts, lifeboats, combined life and rescue boats, and rescue boats operated by NATO navies. Its own stated aim is to standardise a minimum list of essential items for the first-aid medical equipment of these craft and to recommend a further list of items for survival and rescue, together with guidelines to be followed for survival at sea. Edition A, Version 3 was promulgated in January 2022 and supersedes Edition A, Version 2.
Chapter 1 defines "life raft," for the publication's own purposes, broadly enough to cover life boats, life rafts, combined life and rescue boats, and rescue boats, drawing the underlying terms from IMO's Life-Saving Appliance Code and the SOLAS Convention. AMedP-1.2 does not set out to replace those instruments: it adds a NATO-specific recommended minimum for equipment and survival guidance on top of the wider maritime safety framework those craft already sit inside.
Who it addresses, and how it binds
AMedP-1.2 addresses NATO nations and, through them, the navies that operate and equip the ships in question. It does not name a manufacturer, contractor or notified body anywhere in its text. Where equipment is bought in rather than provisioned directly, the buyer and acceptor is the nation's own navy or its procurement authority, not AMedP-1.2 itself.
The publication binds through STANAG 1185: the letter of promulgation states that "the agreement of nations to use this publication is recorded in STANAG 1185." That is the mechanism common to Allied Publications generally - a STANAG records a nation's commitment, and the technical detail lives in the publication it covers - but AMedP-1.2's own operative clause is written as encouragement rather than an unqualified duty: participating nations are asked to utilise the guidance "in providing survival equipment for life rafts," and six nations recorded reservations against specific annexes or items at promulgation. For a commercial supplier, none of this creates an obligation on its own. The document reaches a company only when a naval contract, tender or national supply specification calls for equipment built to AMedP-1.2's categories, or to a national standard that draws on it.
Two equipment annexes, described but not reproduced
Annex A sets out a table of recommended items for general survival and rescue, organised by which type of craft carries each. Annex B sets out a further table of minimum items for the first-aid outfit carried alongside it. AMedP-1.2 specifies items, and in Annex B's case quantities and reference codes, for both; this page does not reproduce that content. What matters for a reader assessing relevance is that two equipment tables exist and what each covers in general terms, not the itemised detail, which stays in the document itself.
Procedural annexes for an actual emergency
Annexes C, D and E cover, respectively, preparing to abandon ship, the immediate actions to take on boarding a life raft, and guidance for surviving in a raft over time. These are operational and survival instructions addressed to a ship's crew at the point of an actual emergency at sea, not something a commercial supplier implements, and this page does not reproduce them.
Related documents
Annex F names other documents that "should be considered whenever considering implementation of AMedP-1.2 in the multinational NATO environment": an IMO resolution and an ISO standard on survival equipment for survival craft and rescue boats. Both sit outside our catalogue; AMedP-1.2 does not make either binding on a reader, only relevant background to the same subject.
How you are evaluated
AMedP-1.2 names no certification, accreditation or notified-body scheme, and no organisation is assessed against it by a third party. A nation's own navy provisions its ships against the recommended list, and where it departs from part of it, that departure is recorded as a reservation at promulgation rather than found through an audit. Where a company supplies equipment into this chain, what it is actually assessed against is whatever the naval customer's own contract, specification or acceptance procedure sets out - not AMedP-1.2 directly, and never a certificate this document itself could confer.
How we help
AMedP-1.2 sets a recommended equipment minimum for NATO navies' own ships. The work it describes - provisioning a life raft's first-aid outfit and survival equipment, checking and restocking it, and briefing a crew on the guidance it carries - happens in shipboard and procurement practice, not in software, and this page will not stretch it into a product mapping that does not exist.
Where ComplyTrain's ordinary work applies is to the documentation trail around a naval supply contract that calls for equipment built to AMedP-1.2's categories, or to a national specification derived from it: holding the procedure that states which equipment category applies, logging delivery and acceptance checks against it, and keeping the evidence a naval customer or its procurement authority asks to see, including any national variation a contract carries forward from AMedP-1.2's own reservations. ComplyTrain does not manufacture, supply or physically inspect survival or medical equipment, does not decide what a life raft's outfit contains, and does not run the shipboard checks a navy performs on its own equipment.
What applies to a specific contract, and which other standards sit alongside AMedP-1.2, is set by the customer and the national specification in play, not by this page. The standards explorer shows the STANAGs and Allied Publications AMedP-1.2 sits next to, and we are glad to talk through what a specific naval contract actually asks a supplier to evidence.
Questions
Is AMedP-1.2 mandatory?
It binds NATO nations through STANAG 1185, the agreement recording their commitment to use it, but its own guidance is worded as something participating nations are encouraged to utilise rather than an unqualified duty, and six nations recorded reservations against parts of it at promulgation. For a commercial supplier, it becomes a requirement only where a naval contract or national specification names it.
Does AMedP-1.2 list the actual survival kit and first-aid contents?
Yes, in the document itself: Annex A lists recommended survival and rescue items and Annex B lists minimum first-aid items, both organised by craft type. This page does not reproduce either list; it describes what the annexes cover so a reader can judge relevance, not the itemised contents.
Can a company be "AMedP-1.2 certified"?
No. AMedP-1.2 names no certification, accreditation or notified-body scheme for any organisation. A nation's own navy provisions its ships against the recommended list, and a supplier is assessed against whatever its naval customer's contract or specification sets out, not against a certificate this document could confer.
What is the difference between AMedP-1.2 and STANAG 1185?
STANAG 1185 is the NATO agreement recording nations' commitment to use AMedP-1.2; AMedP-1.2 is the Allied Publication that carries the actual recommended equipment and survival guidance. The STANAG gives the publication its force; the technical content lives in AMedP-1.2 itself.
Does AMedP-1.2 apply to commercial or civilian ships?
No. It addresses NATO navies and the ships they operate. Annex F points to IMO Resolution A.657(16) and ISO 18813 as the wider survival-equipment standards for survival craft and rescue boats generally, which sit alongside AMedP-1.2 rather than being replaced by it.