STANAG 3098 aircraft jacking interoperability agreement

What it is

STANAG 3098 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering aircraft jacking: the common form of seating an aircraft's jacking pads must have, and the clearance space that must surround every jacking point so a jack can be positioned without fouling the airframe. This is Edition 11, promulgated 14 May 2014, superseding Edition 10.

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 3098's own text is short and administrative: an aim, one interoperability requirement in two parts, and the ratification, implementation and review machinery. The actual jacking pad and clearance requirements are specified in a separate publication, AASSEP-1 Edition A, which the STANAG names as the standard participating nations "agree to implement". Anyone designing an aircraft's jacking points, or the ground equipment that uses them, needs AASSEP-1's own text, not this cover agreement.

What it commits nations to

The stated aim is "to respond to the following interoperability requirements". In full, the requirement reads: "To ensure that aircraft are provided, at all jacking points, with: a. Jacking pads, which have a common form of seating; b. Sufficient clearance space to accommodate jacks, ensuring adequate clearances between the jacks and adjacent parts of the aircraft." Put plainly: every jacking point on an aircraft needs a pad built to a common seating form, and enough room around it for a jack to do its job without touching the surrounding structure. The STANAG also lists two civil standards for context under "Other Related Documents" - ISO 43 on aircraft jacking pads, and ISO 1464 on aerospace tripod jack clearance dimensions - without making either part of the ratified agreement itself.

Who it binds, and how

STANAG 3098 binds nations, not suppliers. It is effective "upon receipt and ready to be used by the implementing nations and NATO bodies", and partner nations "are invited to adopt this STANAG". A nation's commitment becomes binding through ratification, which NATO records in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD). Implementation is a separate, further step: the STANAG "is considered implemented when the provisions specified therein have been included in the national documentation concerned with reference to STANAG 3098". Nations are then invited to report their effective implementation using the form in Annex H to AAP-03(J); partner nations report their adoption using the form in Annex G to AAP-03(J). A supplier or aircraft manufacturer meets STANAG 3098, or the AASSEP-1 requirements it covers, only where a contract or tender says so

• the document sets no NATO-wide effective date of its own.

How it's evaluated

STANAG 3098 describes no certification scheme and no audit. What it describes is nations reporting their ratification and implementation status to NATO for the record; nobody is "STANAG 3098 certified", and the document never uses that language. Where an aircraft's jacking points, or the servicing procedures used on them, do get checked against AASSEP-1's requirements - drawings, inspection records, acceptance evidence - the assessor and the evidence required are set by the contract's own quality clause, not by this STANAG.

Standards it references

STANAG 3098 covers AASSEP-01, the publication that carries the actual jacking pad and clearance requirements. Nations report their implementation, and partner nations their adoption, using forms annexed to AAP-03. The STANAG also names two civil standards under "Other Related Documents" - ISO 43 and ISO 1464 - which sit outside our catalogue.