AQAP-2030 AQAP certification and confirmation processes

What it is

AQAP-2030 (AQAP Certification/Confirmation Processes - National Quality Assurance Authority Guidance) is a NATO Allied Quality Assurance Publication, but unlike AQAP-2110 or AQAP-2310 it is not a technical requirement a supplier implements. It is guidance addressed to each nation's National Quality Assurance Authority (NQAA) on how to run AQAP certification consistently, promulgated by the NATO Standardization Office in April 2025 as Edition A, Version 1, and recommended for use through STANREC 4874.

It exists because national AQAP certification activity had grown inconsistent: different countries, and different certification bodies within them, used different approaches, which risked a certificate misrepresenting a supplier's actual capability. AQAP-2030 answers that by setting out three options an NQAA can choose between, and then standardising how each option is run.

The three options a national authority can choose

Every NQAA decides, for its own nation, which of three approaches governs AQAP certification there:

• Option 1, no AQAP certification. The nation does not support it, and records that decision formally.
• Option 2, accredited third-party certification. A certification body, accredited by the national accreditation body (NAB), audits and certifies suppliers against AQAP-2110 or AQAP-2310.
• Option 3, NQAA second-party assessment. The NQAA, or a body it commissions, assesses the supplier directly, closer to a government audit than to third-party certification.

Whichever option applies, NQAAs and acquisition teams are told plainly not to use AQAP certification as a discriminator at supplier selection, because it is not available to every potential supplier.

What accredited third-party certification demands

Under Option 2, the NQAA signs a formal agreement with its NAB covering how certification and accreditation activity is monitored: sharing assessment information, periodic meetings, an annual review, agreed audit durations, and a requirement that a certification body ask permission before certifying a supplier abroad. Critically, AQAP accreditation is conditional on the supplier already holding accredited ISO 9001 or AS 9100 certification, and it is tied to that certification so tightly that a suspension or withdrawal of the ISO 9001/AS 9100 accreditation automatically suspends or withdraws the AQAP accreditation too.

The document also fixes minimum audit durations by staff numbers at the audited site. For example, a renewal audit under AQAP-2110 adds half a day beyond the equivalent ISO 9001 audit for a site of 1-15 employees, rising to four days for a site of 8,501-10,700 employees. That additional AQAP time can never be reduced to zero, and the NQAA retains the right to attend any AQAP audit as an observer and to review the audit reports.

What a second-party NQAA assessment demands

Under Option 3, the NQAA itself audits the supplier, who must already hold active contracts requiring AQAP-2110 or AQAP-2310, so the assessment tests real contract performance rather than a plan. A certificate issued this way is capped at three years, and can be tied to the validity of the supplier's underlying ISO 9001 or AS 9100 certificate. The body doing the assessing must meet fourteen specific requirements: it must be a government legal entity operating with NQAA permission, run a two-stage initial audit followed by recertification in year three, run limited-scope surveillance in years one and two, never subcontract the assessment to another government body outside the NQAA's own chain, and operate an impartial appeals process with client records available to acquisition and GQAR organisations.

What this means in practice

Neither route is something a supplier can start "implementing" in the abstract. The trigger is a tender or contract that requires AQAP certification, or a renewal cycle for a certificate already held. The groundwork that actually helps, whichever option a nation runs, is keeping the underlying ISO 9001 or AS 9100 management system certification current, since both routes in this document build directly on it and Option 2 ties the AQAP accreditation's survival to it.

What it does not cover

AQAP-2030 does not certify anyone itself, and NATO does not award or recognise AQAP certification at any level. Certification or confirmation is always issued by a national body, a certification body under Option 2 or the NQAA under Option 3, against a national scheme this document only standardises the shape of. It also says nothing about the technical content a supplier is assessed against; that lives in AQAP-2110 and AQAP-2310, and, underneath those, in ISO 9001 or AS 9100.

Standards it references

• ISO 9001Binds
• AQAP-4107Background
• AQAP-2000Background
• AQAP-2110Background
• AQAP-2310Background
• EN 9100Background