What it is
What a STANAG is
STANAG stands for Standardization Agreement. It sets out the processes, procedures, terms and conditions under which NATO member nations agree to a common military or technical procedure, or to common equipment. The point is interoperability: an aircraft, a data link or an imagery feed from one nation has to work with another nation's systems.
A STANAG is agreed between nations, not issued to companies. Each member state ratifies the agreement and then implements it within its own armed forces. What reaches you as a supplier is the implementation: a national requirement written into a contract or a tender.
Every STANAG is maintained under AAP-03, NATO's directive for the production, maintenance and management of its standardization documents. It sets how nations report that they have ratified and implemented an agreement, and when the agreement is next reviewed, which is why every STANAG cover cites it. Because it governs how the agreement is kept rather than what the agreement requires, our pages do not list it among a standard’s references.
How the numbering works
STANAGs carry four-digit numbers, allocated in broad blocks by the body responsible for the subject area: 2000 and 2500 for army and joint-service matters, 3000 and 7000 for air, 4000 and 5000 for armaments and for communications and information systems, 6000 for the International Military Staff. The number is an address, not a difficulty rating: a low number is not an easier requirement.
The three covered here are all in the 4000 series, which is where unmanned systems, imagery and armaments interoperability sit.
The STANAGs covered here
- STANAG 4586 - unmanned aircraft system control interoperability. It defines the interfaces that let one nation's control station command another's air vehicle, at a declared Level of Interoperability.
- STANAG 4609 - ISR motion imagery and its metadata. It is what makes a full-motion video feed usable by a NATO analyst who did not build the sensor that produced it.
- STANAG 4671 - the USAR airworthiness requirements for military unmanned aircraft. This is the one that leads to a type certificate, issued by a national military airworthiness authority.
Is there such a thing as STANAG certification?
Not in the way ISO 9001 certification works, and the distinction is worth getting right because the two are often confused. There is no accredited body that audits a company and issues it a STANAG certificate. A STANAG is ratified by nations and implemented nationally, and you meet it because a contract says so.
That said, a particular STANAG can sit underneath a national approval that very much is a certificate. STANAG 4671 is the clearest example: the airworthiness requirements in it are what a military airworthiness authority assesses a type certification case against. So the honest answer is that you are not certified to a STANAG, but you may hold an approval that a STANAG defines the basis for.
How STANAGs relate to the AQAPs
The two families are joined at the top. STANAG 4107 is the agreement that records nations' acceptance of mutual government quality assurance and their agreement to use the Allied Quality Assurance Publications, covering AQAP 2000, 2009, 2070, 2105, 2110, 2131, 2210 and 2310 among others. So when a contract cites AQAP 2110, the reason every NATO nation recognises it is a STANAG.
In practice the split is simple. The AQAPs govern how your quality is assured. The technical STANAGs govern what your product must do to work alongside everyone else's.
Not the standard you were looking for?
ComplyTrain is not limited to the standards written up on this site. The product is built around a requirement tree, and a requirement tree can be built for any standard, agreement or contractual specification that has requirements in it. The pages here are the ones we have documented so far, not the boundary of what the system handles.
We add standards on request, and the list grows steadily. If the STANAG or standard your contract cites is not here, tell us which one you need and we will tell you what supporting it in your workspace involves.
Most STANAGs are not published at all. STANAGs you cannot download explains why, how organisations obtain them, and lists every one that is not released or is classified.