What it is
An agreement to implement, not a technical specification
STANAG 3610 is NATO's Standardization Agreement covering conditioned breathable air supplied to aircraft on the ground. Ratified by member nations and promulgated by the NATO Standardization Office, the current text (Edition 4, dated 15 June 2015) supersedes Edition 3 and commits participating nations to implement the document that actually carries the technical requirement: AAGSP-03, Edition A. STANAG 3610 itself sets out the interoperability requirement and the mechanics of ratification, implementation and review. The air characteristics and purity requirements live in AAGSP-03, not here, and this page does not restate them.
What the agreement is for
Its stated aim is to define the requirements for conditioned breathable air supplied to aircraft on the ground so that pilots, crew and passengers have collective or individual environmental comfort. In practice, this is why the underlying specification exists in the first place: so that NATO forces servicing each other's aircraft on the ground, in whichever nation, can expect a comparable, breathable, conditioned air supply.
Ratification and implementation
A STANAG binds a nation, not a supplier directly. NATO's own text describes it as effective upon receipt and ready for use by the implementing nations and NATO bodies, and partner nations are separately invited to adopt it, without the ratification step that binds a member nation. A nation is considered to have implemented STANAG 3610 once it has issued instructions that all future equipment it procures for its forces will be manufactured to the AAGSP-03 specification. No retrofit of equipment already in service is required. That is the detail worth noting: the agreement reaches new procurement, not existing fleets, unless a specific contract says otherwise.
Nations record their ratification and implementation decisions in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD) and report effective implementation using the form at Annex H to AAP-03(J); partner nations report adoption using Annex G to the same publication. For a supplier, the practical route in is a tender or contract that requires conformance with AAGSP-03, not the STANAG itself, and it is worth checking which of those has actually been invoked before assuming either applies.
Review, related documents and who runs it
STANAG 3610 is reviewed at least once every three years, with the outcome recorded in the NSDD. Any nation or NATO body may propose a change at any time, through a standardization proposal to the tasking authority, and the change is processed at the next review. STANAG 3208, on air conditioning connections, is named as a related document, cited as background rather than something this agreement itself requires.
The agreement is supervised by the Military Committee's air standardization bureau, working group for aircraft gaseous systems. France's General Armaments Directorate holds custody of it on NATO's behalf.
Obtaining the document
NATO's Standardization Document Database lists the catalogue and serves the unclassified text of STANAG 3610 free of charge; NATO does not sell its standardization agreements and we do not host a copy. The NSDD record for STANAG 3610 is the authoritative source, and NATO is the publisher.