STANAG 3295
STANAG 3295 horse collar/rescue strop type helicopter hoisting gear
Defence and search and rescue organisations working to a contract or national procedure that invokes STANAG 3295 or the APRP-3.3.7.9 publication it covers
STANAG 3295 is NATO's ratification agreement committing member nations to the horse collar/rescue strop type helicopter hoisting gear specified in APRP-3.3.7.9 Edition A.
- Edition
- 8
- Published
- 2021-12-14
What it is
STANAG 3295 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering horse collar/rescue strop type helicopter hoisting gear used by NATO nations' search and rescue (SAR) forces. This is Edition 8, promulgated 14 December 2021, superseding Edition 7 of 17 October 1996.
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 3295's own text is short and administrative: an aim, an interoperability requirement, and the ratification and reporting machinery. The hoisting gear itself is specified in a separate publication, APRP-3.3.7.9, Edition A, which the STANAG names as the standard participating nations "agree to implement". Anyone actually designing, specifying or checking that gear needs APRP-3.3.7.9's own text, not this cover agreement.
What it commits nations to
The stated aim is interoperability: "To standardize the horse collar/rescue strop type helicopter hoisting gear used by nations forces and thereby help assure greater Interoperability between national SAR organizations." Participating nations agree to implement APRP-3.3.7.9, Edition A. The document also lists one other related document, STANAG 7224, covering APRP-3.3.7.1 on water survival training for aircrews and designated flying personnel - a related capability rather than part of this agreement itself.
Who it binds, and how
STANAG 3295 binds nations, not suppliers or operators directly. It is effective "upon receipt for use by the participating nations and NATO bodies", and it becomes binding on a given nation through ratification, which NATO records in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD). Implementation is a separate, further step, achieved when two conditions are met: national doctrine, regulation and procedures have been updated to reflect the standard's provisions, and "the selected personnel executing tasks specific to hoisting have received the appropriate training." Allies and NATO bodies must then report implementation details through NATO's electronic reporting tool; partner nations are only invited to do the same. This STANAG names no NATO-wide effective date - its own "NATO Effective Date (NED)" field reads "Not applicable" - so an organisation meets STANAG 3295, or the APRP-3.3.7.9 gear it covers, only where a contract, tasking or national procedure says so.
How it's evaluated
STANAG 3295 describes no certification scheme and no audit. What it describes is nations and NATO bodies reporting their ratification and implementation status to NATO for the record, through the electronic reporting tool, with the result of any review recorded in the NSDD too. Reviews run "in accordance with AAP-03". Where a unit's hoisting equipment or a crew member's training does get checked in practice, the assessor and the evidence required are set by national procedure or a contract's own quality clause, not by this STANAG.
Standards it references
STANAG 3295 covers APRP-3.3.7.9, the Allied publication that specifies the horse collar/rescue strop hoisting gear itself. Its "Other Related Documents" also list STANAG 7224, covering APRP-3.3.7.1 on water survival training for aircrews and designated flying personnel, which sits outside our catalogue. Reviews of STANAG 3295 itself run under AAP-03.
How we help
STANAG 3295 and the APRP-3.3.7.9 gear it covers are followed in unit procedure and aircrew training, not in a compliance platform: an organisation updates its own doctrine and procedures to reflect the standard, and trains the personnel who carry out hoisting tasks.
What ComplyTrain does for that kind of work generally is give a defence or search and rescue organisation one auditable place to hold those procedures, the training records for the personnel who execute hoisting tasks, and the evidence trail - non-conformances, corrective actions, document control - that a national oversight visit or a customer's quality representative will ask to see.
ComplyTrain does not design hoisting gear, fit it to an aircraft, or determine whether a unit's equipment or a crew member's training meets APRP-3.3.7.9's requirements. That is aviation and search-and-rescue operational work, carried out against the publication itself and whatever national procedure or contract applies.
Which STANAGs and Allied Publications actually apply to a given SAR programme is set by the contract and the customer's quality clause, not by us. Browse the explorer to see what sits alongside STANAG 3295 and APRP-3.3.7.9, and talk to us about the evidence trail once you know which ones are in your contract.
Questions
Is STANAG 3295 mandatory?
Only where a nation has ratified and implemented it, and it reaches an organisation only where a contract, tasking or national procedure invokes it. The STANAG's own "NATO Effective Date (NED)" field reads "Not applicable", so there is no blanket start date to point to.
What is the difference between STANAG 3295 and APRP-3.3.7.9?
STANAG 3295 is the NATO ratification agreement; APRP-3.3.7.9, Edition A is the publication that actually specifies the horse collar/rescue strop type helicopter hoisting gear. Ratifying STANAG 3295 is how a nation commits to implement APRP-3.3.7.9.
Can an organisation be certified to STANAG 3295?
No. STANAG 3295 describes nations ratifying and reporting implementation to NATO, recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database. It describes no certification or audit scheme for a supplier, an operator or a product.
What changed between Edition 7 and Edition 8 of STANAG 3295?
The document states that this edition supersedes "STANAG 3295, Edition 7, dated 17 October 1996", but it does not itself describe what changed between the two editions.
What counts as implementing STANAG 3295?
The document sets two conditions: national doctrine, regulation and procedures updated to reflect the standard, and "the selected personnel executing tasks specific to hoisting have received the appropriate training." Both are reported to NATO through the electronic reporting tool.