STANAG 3350 analogue video standard for aircraft systems

What it is

STANAG 3350 is a NATO Standardization Agreement, currently Edition 5, dated 6 March 2018. It is not a technical specification. It is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement AAVSP-05, Edition A, the Allied Publication that sets the analogue video standard for aircraft system applications. The document's own aim is to respond to an interoperability requirement: "to standardise the requirements for the distribution system of analogue raster composite video systems in order to facilitate the exchange of comparable information between nations and enhance interoperability." Read on its own, STANAG 3350 requires nothing of a supplier or contractor directly. Its obligations run to nations, and the video-system characteristics themselves sit in AAVSP-05, not in this cover.

Who it binds, and how

STANAG 3350 is explicit that it binds nations rather than organisations. Its letter of promulgation describes the enclosed agreement as one "which has been ratified by member nations, as reflected in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD), is promulgated herewith." Under "Agreement," participating nations agree to implement AAVSP-05, Edition A - a national commitment, made by ratification, not a duty a supplier signs up to by reading this document. Ratification and implementation are kept separate: nations that have not already examined their ratification are invited to advise the NSO of their intention regarding its implementation. So "is STANAG 3350 mandatory" has no single answer: it depends on whether a given nation has ratified and implemented it, and this cover names no supplier, manufacturer or contractor at all.

What the agreement commits nations to

STANAG 3350 "is effective upon receipt and ready to be used by the implementing nations and NATO bodies," and it "is considered implemented when a nation has issued instructions that future applications will be in accordance with this agreement." That commitment reaches further than a single point in a project: it "impacts on all life cycle stages of the specific systems, from production/acquisition to maintenance and disposal." Ratifying nations agree to ensure that purchased or produced video systems meet AAVSP-05's characteristics, that the systems provide the same output quality after maintenance, and that a system which stops meeting those characteristics is replaced. Nations report their effective implementation using the form in Annex H to AAP-03(J); partner nations, who are separately invited rather than obliged to adopt the STANAG, report adoption using Annex G to the same publication.

A cover agreement, not the video-system specification itself

A reader who only has STANAG 3350 in hand does not yet have the video-system characteristics it points to. Those sit in AAVSP-05, Edition A. STANAG 3350 also names three other documents for background rather than as part of the agreement: ITU-R Recommendation BT.472-3, on the video-frequency characteristics used for international programme exchange between countries on 625-line colour or monochrome systems, and EIA Standards RS-343A and RS-170, on the electrical performance of high-resolution monochrome closed-circuit television cameras and monochrome television studio facilities respectively. Edition 5, dated 6 March 2018, supersedes STANAG 3350, Edition 4.

Reporting and review

National decisions on ratification and implementation are provided to the NSO and recorded in the NSDD. STANAG 3350 "is to be reviewed at least once every three years," with the result recorded within the NSDD, and nations or NATO bodies may propose changes at any time to the tasking authority for processing at the next review. The agreement is supervised under the authority of NATO's Military Committee Air Standardization structure, with its Avionics Systems working group, and the custodian is the United Kingdom.

What it does not cover

STANAG 3350 names no video-system characteristic, test method or performance figure of its own - that detail sits entirely in AAVSP-05. It also names no assessment or certification scheme: the only checks it describes are a periodic review of the STANAG itself and each ratifying nation's own assurance that its systems meet AAVSP-05's characteristics, not a third-party audit of a supplier.