STANAG 3347
STANAG 3347 identification of aircraft electrical circuits
Aircraft wiring and electrical system suppliers working to a contract or national requirement that invokes STANAG 3347 or the SAE AS50881 wiring standard it points to
STANAG 3347 is NATO's ratification agreement committing member nations to identify aircraft electrical circuits using the wire identification and marking scheme in the civil standard SAE AS50881.
- Edition
- 7
- Published
- 2022-09-22
What it is
STANAG 3347 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering identification of aircraft electrical circuits. This is Edition 7, promulgated 22 September 2022, superseding "STANAG 3347 AE, Edition 6, dated 12 November 2014".
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. Most STANAGs point to an Allied Publication written for the purpose, but this one points straight to a civil aerospace standard: participating nations "agree to implement the following standard", named as "SAE AS50881 WIRING, AEROSPACE VEHICLE". That document is obtained from SAE on its own terms, not from NATO, and it is where the actual wire identification scheme lives, in its appendix B.
What it commits nations to
The stated aim is "to establish a common electrical circuit identification standard" that meets an interoperability requirement. What STANAG 3347 itself adds on top of SAE AS50881 is narrow: the circuit identifier is "part of the significant wire identification as detailed in SAE AS50881 appendix B", and that "significant wire identification shall be marked in accordance with SAE AS50881 requirements". The document names no other related documents of its own.
Who it binds, and how
STANAG 3347 binds nations, not suppliers. It addresses "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: the STANAG "is considered implemented when the provisions specified therein have been included in the national documentation related to the identification of aircraft electrical circuits". Once implemented, "Allies and NATO bodies shall provide implementation details through the electronic reporting tool (e-Reporting)". A supplier meets STANAG 3347, or the SAE AS50881 requirements it points to, only where a nation's requirements or a contract built on them say so.
How it's evaluated
STANAG 3347 describes no certification, audit, or inspection scheme of its own, and the document never uses the word "certified". What it describes is nations reporting their ratification and implementation status to NATO; national responses "are recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD)". Where a supplier's wire marking work against SAE AS50881 is actually checked, drawings, marking samples, inspection records, the assessor and the evidence required are set by the contract's own quality clause, not by this STANAG.
Standards it references
STANAG 3347 covers SAE AS50881, the civil aerospace standard that carries the actual significant wire identification and marking requirements in its appendix B. Reviews of STANAG 3347 itself run under AAP-03. The interoperability requirement it responds to is drawn from C-M(2006)0013 MC 533, NATO's Principles and Policies for the Maintenance of Equipment, which sits outside our catalogue.
How we help
The work STANAG 3347 and SAE AS50881 actually require, assigning and marking significant wire identifiers on aircraft electrical circuits, is done in aircraft design, manufacture, and wiring harness work, not in a compliance platform.
What ComplyTrain does for that kind of work generally is give a defence supplier one auditable place to hold the wiring identification and marking procedures, the training records for the people applying them, and the evidence trail - non-conformances, corrective actions, document control - that a customer's quality representative or a government surveillance visit will ask to see.
ComplyTrain does not assign wire identifiers, mark a wiring harness, or determine whether an aircraft's electrical circuits meet SAE AS50881's requirements. That is aerospace wiring engineering work, carried out against the publication itself and the contract's own technical requirements.
Which STANAGs and Allied Publications actually apply to a given aircraft programme is set by the contract and the customer's quality clause, not by us. Browse the explorer to see what sits alongside STANAG 3347 and SAE AS50881, and talk to us about the evidence trail once you know which ones are in your contract.
Questions
Is STANAG 3347 mandatory?
Only where a nation has ratified and implemented it, and it reaches a supplier only where a contract or a national requirement invokes it. The document itself binds "the participating nations and NATO bodies", not a supplier directly.
What is the difference between STANAG 3347 and SAE AS50881?
STANAG 3347 is the NATO ratification agreement; SAE AS50881, Wiring, Aerospace Vehicle is the civil standard that actually specifies significant wire identification and marking, in its appendix B. Ratifying STANAG 3347 is how a nation commits to implement SAE AS50881 for this purpose.
Can a company be certified to STANAG 3347?
No. STANAG 3347 describes nations ratifying and reporting implementation to NATO, recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database. It describes no certification, audit, or inspection scheme for a supplier or a product.
What changed between Edition 6 and Edition 7 of STANAG 3347?
The document states that this edition supersedes "STANAG 3347 AE, Edition 6, dated 12 November 2014", but it does not itself describe what changed between the two editions.
Does STANAG 3347 itself specify how circuits must be marked?
No. It states that the circuit identifier is "part of the significant wire identification as detailed in SAE AS50881 appendix B", and that identification "shall be marked in accordance with SAE AS50881 requirements". The marking scheme itself is set out in SAE AS50881, not in this STANAG.