STANAG 3689
STANAG 3689 place name spelling on maps and charts
National mapping and charting agencies in NATO member and partner nations
STANAG 3689 is NATO's agreement for member nations to implement AGeoP-25, which sets the method for spelling place names on maps and charts.
- Edition
- 6
- Published
- 2019-10-01
What it is
An agreement between nations, not a specification
STANAG 3689 is the NATO Standardization Agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement AGeoP-25, Edition A, the Allied Publication that actually sets out the method for spelling place names on maps and charts. The STANAG itself carries no spelling rules: under "Agreement," "Participating nations agree to implement the following standard", and that publication is where the naming detail lives. Edition 6 of the STANAG, promulgated 1 October 2019, supersedes Edition 5.
Who commits, and how
The agreement binds NATO's participating (member) nations once they ratify it, and separately invites partner nations to adopt it. Ratification and implementation are tracked apart: nations are asked to examine their ratification and, where they have not already done so, tell the NATO Standardization Office their intention. A nation counts as having implemented the STANAG once it has issued instructions to spell place names in its mapping and charting in accordance with the agreement, and reports that implementation in line with AAP-03. National decisions on ratification and implementation are recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database.
The STANAG names no supplier, contractor or company. It obliges nations, and a nation carries it out through its own mapping and charting agencies.
A phased correction, not a single cut-over
The agreement accepts that full implementation is not practicable all at once. Existing map and chart series are corrected progressively, "as far as possible on all scales together" until complete standardisation is achieved, so the STANAG describes an ongoing programme of correction across a nation's map and chart holdings rather than a single date every series has to meet.
Governance
The agreement sits under NATO's Military Committee Joint Standardization Board, through its Joint Geospatial Standards working group, and is reviewed in accordance with AAP-03, with the outcome recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database. Its custodian nation is the United Kingdom. A nation or NATO body may propose a change at any time, for the tasking authority to process at the next review.
What it does not cover
STANAG 3689 sets out no place-name spelling rule, transliteration system or naming authority of its own; that detail sits entirely in AGeoP-25. It also names no assessment or certification scheme. The only check it describes is a nation issuing its own implementing instructions and reporting them.
How we help
Read on its own, STANAG 3689 gives a mapping or charting organisation nothing to implement in software: it is an agreement between NATO nations, and the spelling method itself sits in AGeoP-25. Where this reaches an organisation working alongside a NATO mapping programme, it is usually through a contract or tender clause that names AGeoP-25 rather than the STANAG number itself.
For that kind of work, ComplyTrain's usual footprint applies: holding the instructions a mapping or charting unit has issued for spelling place names as controlled documents, recording that staff producing or correcting maps and charts have been trained against them, and keeping the audit trail a customer's quality representative would ask for as standardisation proceeds across a map or chart series.
ComplyTrain does not draw, correct or approve a map or chart, and it does not declare a nation's mapping and charting agency conformant to AGeoP-25 - that is a national cartographic function, not something a compliance tool does on anyone's behalf.
Which tier of NATO geospatial documentation applies on a given programme is set by the contract and the customer's quality clause, not by this page. See what sits alongside STANAG 3689 in the standards explorer, or talk to us about the day-to-day evidence trail it takes to show you followed it.
Standards it references
- STANAG 2586Background
- AGeoP-08Background
- STANAG 3676Background
Questions
Is STANAG 3689 mandatory?
It binds a NATO nation once that nation has ratified it, and it reaches a supplier only when a contract, tender or national specification names AGeoP-25. Ratification and implementation are recorded separately in the NATO Standardization Document Database, so a nation can have ratified the STANAG without yet having finished issuing implementing instructions. Outside a contract or tender naming AGeoP-25, the STANAG creates no obligation of its own for a supplier.
What is AGeoP-25?
AGeoP-25 is the Allied Publication STANAG 3689 brings into force: the document that actually sets out the method for spelling place names on maps and charts. STANAG 3689 is the nations' agreement to implement it, not the spelling method itself.
Who is the custodian of STANAG 3689?
The custodian nation is the United Kingdom, and the agreement is supervised under NATO's Military Committee Joint Standardization Board through its Joint Geospatial Standards working group.
What edition is current, and what changed?
Edition 6, promulgated 1 October 2019, is the current edition and supersedes Edition 5. The document itself does not describe what changed between the two editions.
Can an organisation be certified to STANAG 3689?
No. The STANAG names no certification or assessment scheme. The only check it describes is a nation issuing its own implementing instructions and reporting them, in accordance with AAP-03.