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STANAG 2591
NATO and partner nations, and the education and training facilities that develop SCORM-conformant online training content under this STANAG
STANAG 2591 is NATO's agreement for participating nations to adopt SCORM 2004 as the conformance standard for Learning Management Systems, content packages and online training content.
STANAG 2591 is the NATO standardization agreement by which participating nations agree to adopt SCORM 2004 as the standard for the conformance of Learning Management Systems, content packages and sharable content objects used in online education and training. A STANAG is not itself a technical specification: it is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement one, and here the technical detail sits outside the STANAG entirely, in the ISO/IEC TR 29163 series that SCORM 2004 is built on. STANAG 2591 responds to an interoperability requirement stated plainly in the document: "to have a standardized procedure for developing online education and training content and courses for NATO Education and Training Facilities and similar facilities in NATO and partner nations." Read plainly, that means the agreement exists so that training content built by one NATO nation runs correctly in another nation's learning management system, not so that a single national e-learning platform becomes the NATO standard.
This is Edition 1, promulgated 8 May 2013. The document states it "does not supersede any document."
The mechanism that matters here: a STANAG binds a nation, not a supplier or a training-content vendor. The letter of promulgation records that the agreement "has been ratified by member nations, as reflected in the NATO Standardization Document Database," and once ratified, "this STANAG is effective upon receipt and ready to be used by the implementing nations and NATO bodies." Partner nations are separately "invited to adopt" it, without the same ratification obligation. A national decision to ratify or implement is recorded in the NSDD, and nations "are invited to examine their ratification of the STANAG and, if they have not already done so, advise the NSA of their intention regarding its implementation."
A nation is considered to have implemented the agreement once it "has issued the necessary orders/instructions to adopt SCORM in the development of online education and training courses according to the technical specifications and guidelines described in the reference documents by ISO and IEC." A training-content developer or an LMS supplier meets STANAG 2591 only where a contract or a tender names SCORM 2004 conformance, not because the STANAG exists on its own.
Nations report their effective implementation "using the form in Annex H to the AAP-03(J)"; partner nations report their adoption of the STANAG "using the form in Annex G to AAP-03(J)." The 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.
STANAG 2591 carries no technical detail of its own. The document names four "other related documents": ISO/IEC TR 29163-1 through -4, the SCORM 2004 3rd Edition specifications covering the overview, the content aggregation model, the run-time environment, and sequencing and navigation. Building or buying a Learning Management System, content package or sharable content object that actually conforms means working to those ISO/IEC documents, obtained from ISO or IEC on their own terms, not to the two or three pages of STANAG 2591 itself.
No certification exists here, and the document names none. What it describes is a national ratification, implementation and review cycle run through NATO's own machinery: a nation issues its own implementation orders, its ratification and implementation are recorded in the NSDD, and it reports using the AAP-03(J) forms. There is no accredited body, no notified body and no audit against STANAG 2591 as such. Whether a particular Learning Management System or content package actually conforms to SCORM 2004 is a technical question against the ISO/IEC TR 29163 series, which sits outside what this STANAG describes.
STANAG 2591 and the SCORM 2004 specifications it points to describe an e-learning content standard, not a management system: the work of building a conformant Learning Management System, packaging courses and sequencing content sits with training-content teams and IT, against the ISO/IEC TR 29163 series, not with a compliance platform. What that leaves to evidence is the paperwork around the decision: the procedure by which an organisation chose to build to SCORM 2004, records of who was trained on the content-development and packaging process, and the trail an internal or customer audit asks for afterwards.
ComplyTrain holds that evidence as a modern, auditable system: version-controlled procedures, training records tied to named individuals and dates, and corrective actions when a gap turns up, all searchable when a customer or higher headquarters asks how conformance was reached and maintained. It does not build, host or author Learning Management Systems or SCORM-conformant training content, does not test content packages for technical conformance against ISO/IEC TR 29163, and does not decide how a nation ratifies or implements this STANAG.
The applicable tier here, and whatever else it comes with, is set by the contract and the customer's quality clause. If you are working out what sits alongside STANAG 2591, the standards explorer covers the related NATO publications, and we are glad to talk through what that means in practice.
Tell us how you need to work with STANAG 2591 and what you need from it. We will come back to you about what ComplyTrain can do.
Thank you. Your list is on its way to your inbox, and we will come back to you on what working with these standards in ComplyTrain involves, usually within one business day.
Not in general. It binds a nation once that nation ratifies it, and it reaches a training-content developer or an LMS supplier through a contract or a tender that names SCORM 2004 or this STANAG, not by existing on its own. Whether it applies to a given programme is set by the tasking or contract in front of you.
SCORM 2004 is the Sharable Content Object Reference Model, a civil e-learning interoperability specification documented in the ISO/IEC TR 29163 series. STANAG 2591 does not rewrite it; the agreement simply commits participating nations to adopt SCORM 2004 for the conformance of Learning Management Systems, content packages and sharable content objects, so the technical work is done against the ISO/IEC documents themselves.
Edition 1, promulgated 8 May 2013. The document states plainly that it does not supersede any earlier document.
No. There is no accredited certification for STANAG 2591 to hold, and ComplyTrain does not claim one. What we support is the evidence trail around the decision to build to SCORM 2004 and the training records that go with it, at an informational level.
At least once every three years, with the result recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database. Nations and NATO bodies can also propose changes at any time through a standardization proposal to the tasking authority.
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