What it is
STANAG 2060 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering identification of medical materiel for field medical installations. This is Edition 5, promulgated 30 April 2014, superseding Edition 4 of the same STANAG.
A STANAG is not the specification
A STANAG is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement a standard, not the technical specification itself. STANAG 2060's own text is short and administrative: an aim, an interoperability requirement, and the ratification, implementation and review machinery. The marking scheme itself, what gets identified and how, is set out in a separate publication, AMedP-1.5, Edition A, which the STANAG names as the standard participating nations "agree to implement the following standard." Anyone marking or handling medical materiel containers against that scheme needs AMedP-1.5's own text, not this cover agreement.
What it commits nations to
The stated aim is interoperability: to "respond to the following interoperability requirements", which the document names as facilitating "the rapid identification of medical materiel (containers/packages) used in field medical installations to enable more effective cooperation between NATO forces." This STANAG names the mechanism only; it does not itself set out what the markings look like or how they are applied, which AMedP-1.5 covers in full.
Who it binds, and how
STANAG 2060 binds nations, not medical units or suppliers directly. It is "effective upon receipt and ready to be used by the implementing nations and NATO bodies", and it becomes binding on a given nation through ratification, which "has been ratified by member nations, as reflected in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD)". Partner nations are only "invited to adopt this STANAG" rather than being bound to it. Implementation follows once a nation has issued the orders or instructions needed to put the covered standard into effect, and nations then "report on its effective implementation of the STANAG using the form in Annex H to AAP-03(J)"; partner nations report adoption "using the form in Annex G to AAP-03(J)".
Review and related documents
This STANAG "is to be reviewed at least once every three years", with the result recorded in the NSDD, and nations or NATO bodies "may propose changes, at any time, through a standardization proposal to the tasking authority (TA)". The document's Other Related Documents entry names the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols as related reading, outside our catalogue. Oversight sits with the Military Committee Medical Standardization Board (MCMedSB) and its Medical Standardization Working Group; the custodian is Belgium, held by its Medical Material and Military Pharmacy staff.
How it's evaluated
STANAG 2060 describes no certification scheme and no audit. What it describes is nations reporting their ratification and implementation status to NATO, and providing "their actual STANAG implementation details" to the NSA. Nobody is "STANAG 2060 certified", and the document never uses that language. Where a field medical installation's marking practice does get assessed in practice, the assessor and the evidence required are set by the applicable national authority, not by this STANAG.
Standards it references
STANAG 2060 covers AMedP-1.5, the Allied Medical Publication that carries the marking scheme itself; that is where its substance lives, not here. Implementation and adoption reporting runs under AAP-03, using its Annex H and Annex G forms. It also names the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols as related reading, outside our catalogue.