ATP-3.3.8.1 training requirements for UAS and RPA operators

What it is

ATP-3.3.8.1, Allied Tactical Publication, is NATO's minimum training standard for the people who operate and fly unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), including remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) pilots. It does not itself run any training or certify anyone. Participating member states "agree to adopt these guidelines as a basis for the training of UAS operators/pilots, adapting them where necessary to meet the special requirements associated with the UAS type, mission, and role," and a member state implements it by ratifying STANAG 4670 and issuing "the necessary orders and instructions putting the contents of this publication into effect." There is no route by which the document reaches a company directly: it names "member states," "national UAS training programs" and "military services" throughout, and no contractor, industry training provider or civilian school anywhere in the text. A training organisation delivering this kind of instruction does so inside whichever national programme, order or contract a member state's own implementation creates, not as a party the document itself addresses. Edition C, Version 1 was promulgated on 23 September 2025 and supersedes Edition B, Version 1; the document in front of us does not say what changed between the two.

Two skill sets, not one training course

The publication defines two separate frameworks. Basic UAS Qualification (BUQ, Chapter 3) sets the foundational academic and flight skills an operator or pilot needs to fly a UAS safely in the airspace it will use, and Combined/Joint Mission Qualification (C/JMQ, Chapter 4) adds mission-specific skills for employing a UAS in NATO combined and joint operations. The two are related but distinct: C/JMQ levels "build upon, but do not necessarily correlate to, the BUQ levels." A member state can mutually recognise "a UAS operator/pilot's qualification to operate a specific UAS type" trained under this publication when that operator's aircraft flies in another member state's airspace, which is the practical payoff of every nation training against the same baseline.

How a mission's training category is set

BUQ splits into three categories, Open, Specific and Certified, in rising order of risk. A mission is scored on five factors, aircraft weight, airspace class, line-of-sight status, whether the payload is armed or releasable, and whether passengers are carried, and the scores are summed: "6 or less" gives the Open category, "7-12" the Specific category, and "13 or more" the Certified category. A colour-coded classification chart can still raise the category regardless of the numeric total, and national trainers are expected to use "sound judgement" adapting the model to their own UAS types and missions. Where a specific training item cannot be accomplished or does not apply "due to system capabilities, operating limitations, or mission requirements," it may be omitted, provided the training programme records the reason.

What a BUQ curriculum covers

Chapter 3 lays out BUQ content as tables of subject areas against the three categories rather than as narrative text. At subject level, the academic side covers meteorology, flight safety and human factors, air law and national/international regulation, aerodynamics, mission planning, and communications; the flight side covers before-flight preparation, contact and handling flight, navigation, instrument procedures at the higher categories, emergency handling and after-flight procedures. A separate instructor and test-system skill set applies to anyone training others, covering learning theory, instructional presentation and test-plan design. Higher categories add subject areas on top of the lower ones rather than replacing them, and the document notes that its BUQ training requirements "are similar to the training requirements detailed in both ICAO's Manual on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems and Annex 1, Personnel Licensing" - it is not written from scratch against civil aviation practice.

What a C/JMQ curriculum covers

Chapter 4 defines four C/JMQ levels, A through D, each covering more of the mission set: named here at subject level only, they build from basic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) support through to advanced ISR and, at the higher levels, fire-support coordination and combat search-and-rescue and personnel-recovery support. Similar qualification standards "may also apply to other crew members participating in these UAS combined/joint missions," not only the pilot or operator at the controls. The document does not set out flight procedures, tactics or weapons employment; it names subject areas for a national programme to build a syllabus against.

Proficiency, currency and medical fitness

Qualification is not a one-off event. "UAS operators shall maintain proficiency and currency to conform to minimum member state requirements," and operators "should be subject to periodic theoretical, practical, and medical evaluation by designated military service examiners," with each member state setting its own frequency. Medical fitness standards for a UAS pilot or operator are left entirely to "individual member state guidelines" - the document sets none itself.

How operators and programmes are checked

No organisation is certified against this document. Individual competence is: "the military services can certify operators/pilots who successfully demonstrate satisfactory knowledge and performance of ground and flight operations via evaluations and flight checks in accordance with military service standards" - a national military service assessing its own people, not a third-party body assessing a company. Separately, national training programmes are appraised for compliance: "the skills detailed here will be used as a baseline by the appropriate inspectors, such as a NATO Standardization Team, for appraisal of member state UAS training programs to verify compliance with this publication." A member state hosting operations from another nation "should accept the approved training certification program for operator/pilots similarly to current pilot certification agreements" - the recognition runs between member states, not between a training provider and an accreditation body.

Standards it references

• AAP-03Background
• AJP-3.3Background