STANAG 2211
STANAG 2211 geodetic datums, projections and grid references
National defence authorities and NATO bodies implementing NATO's geodetic datum, projection and grid reference standard, and the suppliers whose contracts require systems built to it
STANAG 2211 is NATO's agreement to implement AGeoP-21, the coordinate reference system standard covering geodetic datums, projections, grids and grid references used in NATO operations.
- Edition
- 7
- Published
- 2016-02-25
What it is
STANAG 2211 is the NATO standardization agreement by which participating nations commit to implement AGeoP-21, Edition A, NATO's standard for geodetic datums, projections, grids and grid references. The STANAG itself sets no coordinate reference rules; it is the agreement, and the specification lives in AGeoP-21. This is edition 7, promulgated 25 February 2016, and it supersedes STANAG 2211 Edition 6 and six other STANAGs.
What the STANAG agrees to
The document states its aim as responding to an interoperability requirement "directly linked to interoperability in association with NATO Geospatial Policy, MC296/2", and it "provides for accurate spatial referencing of geospatial information". It establishes "a standard coordinate reference system for NATO, NATO nations and non-NATO nations when acting in land, sea and air operations". Nations that ratify it agree "to implement the following standard": AGeoP-21, Edition A. The STANAG's own content is a short cover: an aim, an agreement to implement AGeoP-21, and the administrative mechanics of ratification, implementation and review. Every testable requirement, the actual datums, projections, grids and grid reference codes, sits in AGeoP-21 itself.
How it binds
A STANAG binds a nation, not a supplier, and it binds through ratification rather than by existing. Nations are invited to examine their own ratification and advise NATO's Standardization Office of their intention regarding its implementation, and partner nations are separately invited to adopt the STANAG. The cover sets no date by which a supplier must comply; it states only that the STANAG is effective upon receipt for the implementing nations and NATO bodies. A supplier meets STANAG 2211 and AGeoP-21 only when a contract or tender says so; the STANAG addresses nations and NATO bodies, not industry.
What implementation actually involves
A nation is treated as having implemented the standard once it has cited its application and use within its own national instruction or guidance documents. Nations are invited to report their effective implementation using the form in Annex H to AAP-03(J), and partner nations are invited to report their adoption using the form in Annex G to AAP-03(J). National decisions on ratification and implementation are recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database. That is where the practical work lands: national instruction and guidance documents and the NSDD record, not a one-time technical change.
Review and status
The STANAG is to be reviewed at least once every three years, with the result recorded in the NSDD. Nations and NATO bodies may propose changes at any time, through a standardization proposal to the tasking authority, and any changes are processed during that review. It is a NATO non-classified document, handled in accordance with C-M(2002)60; NATO's standardization documents are free of charge and are not sold by NATO or by us.
Related documents
The cover names AAP-03 as the source of the Annex H and Annex G reporting forms nations and partner nations use to report implementation and adoption, and as the standardization procedures under which changes to this STANAG are processed. It also lists a further set of technical documents behind AGeoP-21's coordinate reference content: BI-SC Directive 80-4 on position referencing in NATO, DGIWG 016 on the ARC system, GSGS 5191 (the grid manual), IERS Technical Note No. 36, IHO Special Publication No. 60, IHO Publication M-3, and three US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency standards on WGS84 and universal grids. None of these is a precondition the STANAG states must be met first; they are named as the related material behind the standard it covers.
What the document does not cover
STANAG 2211 names no certification, audit or inspection regime, no numeric threshold, and no obligation addressed directly to a supplier or manufacturer. Anyone looking for the actual datum parameters, projection formulas or grid reference codes will not find them here; that detail is in AGeoP-21.
How we help
This is operational and technical work, not a management-system exercise, and most of it happens in how a unit or contractor actually produces, checks and exchanges geospatial data, not inside a compliance tool. What can be evidenced and controlled: the internal procedure naming which edition of AGeoP-21 and which coordinate reference system a programme works to, training records showing personnel were instructed on the correct datum, projection and grid reference conventions, and the document trail showing a contract's coordinate reference requirement was tracked from tender through delivery and review.
ComplyTrain holds those procedures, training records and the audit trail in one controlled, versioned place, so they can be produced when a customer or a national authority asks for them.
What ComplyTrain does not do: it does not compute coordinate transformations, verify a map product's datum or projection, or check that a geospatial dataset conforms to AGeoP-21. That is surveying, geodesy and systems engineering work, carried out in the data and the software itself.
The applicable edition, and whatever else a contract requires alongside it, is set by the contract and the customer's quality clause, not by this page. Use the standards explorer to see what sits alongside STANAG 2211 and AGeoP-21, or talk to us about how we help you evidence the processes behind it.
Questions
Is STANAG 2211 mandatory?
It binds nations that ratify it, not suppliers directly. A supplier meets it when a contract or tender invokes STANAG 2211 or the AGeoP-21 standard it covers; outside a contract, it imposes nothing on industry.
What is the difference between STANAG 2211 and AGeoP-21?
STANAG 2211 is the agreement: a short cover document by which nations commit to implement a standard. AGeoP-21 is the technical content, NATO's standard for geodetic datums, projections, grids and grid references. STANAG 2211 currently points at AGeoP-21, Edition A.
What edition is current, and what changed?
Edition 7, promulgated 25 February 2016, supersedes STANAG 2211 Edition 6 and six other STANAGs: 1113, 2577, 3408, 3409, 3678 and 7173. The document does not itself describe what changed between editions.
Is ComplyTrain certified against STANAG 2211?
No such certification exists. The document names no accredited body, notified body or scheme for certifying an organisation or product against it; it describes only a national ratification, implementation and review cycle recorded in NATO's Standardization Document Database.
Where do I get the document?
It is published free of charge by NATO through the Standardization Document Database, and is not sold by NATO or by us.