STANAG 3680 terminology in the NATOTerm database

What it is

STANAG 3680 is a NATO Standardization Agreement, currently Edition 6, promulgated 5 September 2024. It is not a technical or quality specification of any kind. Its entire content is one commitment: participating NATO member states agree to use the terminology marked 'AAP-06' inside the NATOTerm database as the agreed, common meaning for those terms. There is no equipment, process or acceptance criterion here for a supplier to meet - the document binds nations, and only nations.

What the agreement commits nations to

The stated aim is to promote mutual understanding and NATO's interoperability, cohesion and effectiveness through the provision, in NATOTerm, of "a common set of terms with a specific, agreed meaning that needs to be widely understood." Under "Agreement," participating member states agree to use the terminology marked 'AAP-06' in the NATOTerm database, and the NATO Terminology Office maintains a filter that extracts that marked subset from the wider database.

How implementation is judged

A member state is considered to have implemented STANAG 3680 "when the terminology 'AAP-06' marked in NATOTerm has been incorporated into national terminology databases and is used by units that would operate in NATO operations and/or exercises." Beyond that, implementation asks a member state to promote NATOTerm's use inside its own defence organisations, make it accessible, and consistently treat it - rather than any home-grown glossary - as the national reference for NATO terminology. There is no NATO Effective Date; the document states plainly that one is "not applicable." Review runs on the schedule set by AAP-03, with the result recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD), rather than to a fixed date of its own.

Who it binds, and how

STANAG 3680 addresses member states and NATO bodies directly - it is "effective upon receipt for use by the participating member states and NATO bodies," and a state that has not yet reported a ratification position is invited to "advise the NSO of their intention regarding its ratification and implementation." Nothing in the document describes a route by which it reaches a supplier through a contract, because there is no technical content here to invoke: NATOTerm and its 'AAP-06' marking are the actual reference, and this STANAG is only the agreement to use them.

A long gap between editions

Edition 6 supersedes STANAG 3680, Edition 5, dated 2 December 1998 - a 26-year interval. That says more about how rarely this particular cover agreement changes than about NATOTerm itself, whose entries are updated on their own, separate schedule.

What it does not cover

STANAG 3680 defines no term of its own, sets no test or acceptance criterion, and names no certification or audit scheme. Its only stated check is that the STANAG itself is reviewed periodically, per AAP-03, and that a member state reports its own implementation through the electronic reporting tool (e-Reporting) - not that anyone independently verifies it.