Platform
Modules
By sector
By sector
By standard
Blog
News
Events
STANAG 4074
Defence vehicle manufacturers and suppliers working to a contract that invokes STANAG 4074 or the AEP-4074 publication it covers
STANAG 4074 is NATO's ratification agreement committing member nations to standardize auxiliary power unit connections for starting tactical land vehicles, specified in AEP-4074 Edition A.
STANAG 4074 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering auxiliary power unit connections for starting tactical land vehicles - the plug and receptacle used to slave-start one vehicle from another, or from a ground power unit. This is Edition 3, promulgated 14 September 2017. The document states it supersedes an earlier edition of STANAG 4074, without giving that edition's number.
A STANAG is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement a standard, not the technical specification itself. STANAG 4074's own text is short and administrative: an aim, one interoperability requirement, and the ratification and reporting machinery. The connector's actual dimensions and basic characteristics are specified in a separate publication, AEP-4074 Edition A, which the STANAG names as the standard participating nations "agree to implement". Anyone designing, building or checking the connector itself needs AEP-4074's own text, not this cover agreement.
The stated aim is "to respond to the following interoperability requirements", and the single requirement given is "to standardize the dimensions and basic characteristics of the auxiliary power unit connections for starting tactical land vehicles in use in the armed forces of NATO". The document also lists five existing national items for the same hardware under "Other Related Documents": two US Army drawings (a slave receptacle assembly and a slave electrical connector plug assembly), two British drawings (a receptacle connector and a plug connector), and a VG-numbered standard for a two-pole electrical connector and plug-and-socket device. These are named for reference; the STANAG does not say the AEP-4074 connector must match any one of them.
STANAG 4074 binds nations, not suppliers. It is "effective upon receipt and ready to be used by the implementing nations and NATO bodies", and it becomes binding on a given nation through ratification, which NATO records in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD) - the Letter of Promulgation states the agreement "has been ratified by member nations, as reflected in" that database. Partner nations are separately "invited to adopt this STANAG". Implementation is a further step: "nations are to issue the necessary orders/instructions to the forces concerned, putting the procedures detailed in the agreement into effect", and nations then report their effective implementation "using the form at Annex H to AAP-03(J)"; partner nations report adoption the same way through Annex G. A supplier meets STANAG 4074, or the AEP-4074 dimensions it covers, only where a contract or tender says so - the document itself sets no obligation reaching a supplier directly.
STANAG 4074 describes no certification scheme and no audit. What it describes is nations reporting their ratification and implementation status to the NSO for the record, both recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database; nobody is "STANAG 4074 certified", and the document never uses that language. Where a connector's dimensions do get checked against AEP-4074 in practice - drawings, inspection records - the assessor and the evidence required are set by the contract's own quality clause, not by this STANAG. The only other stated check is a periodic review of the STANAG itself: "This STANAG is to be reviewed at least once every three years. The result of the review is recorded within the NSDD." Nations and NATO bodies may also propose changes "at any time, through a standardization proposal to the tasking authority (TA)".
STANAG 4074 covers AEP-4074, the Allied Engineering Publication that carries the connector's actual dimensions and characteristics. Reviews and reporting under this STANAG run through forms held in AAP-03. Its "Other Related Documents" also name US Army Drawing Number 7321299, US Army Drawing Number 7728882, British Drawing Number FV 634272, British Drawing Number FV 564833, and VG 96917, all outside our catalogue and named here in the document's own terms only.
STANAG 4074 and the AEP-4074 dimensions it covers are followed in mechanical and electrical design work, not in a compliance platform: an engineer designs the connector to the AEP-4074 dimensions, a manufacturer builds it, and a quality department retains the drawing conformance and inspection records that prove the delivered connector matches what the contract requires.
What ComplyTrain does for that kind of work generally is give a defence supplier one auditable place to hold the design and inspection procedures, the training records for the people doing that work, 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 design a connector, test one, or determine whether it meets AEP-4074's dimensions. That is mechanical and electrical 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 vehicle programme is set by the contract and the customer's quality clause, not by us. Browse the explorer to see what sits alongside STANAG 4074 and AEP-4074, and talk to us about the evidence trail once you know which ones are in your contract.
Tell us how you need to work with STANAG 4074 and what you need from it. We will come back to you about what ComplyTrain can do.
Thank you. Your list is on its way to your inbox, and we will come back to you on what working with these standards in ComplyTrain involves, usually within one business day.
Only where a nation has ratified and implemented it, and it reaches a supplier only where a contract or tender invokes it. The document sets no obligation reaching a supplier directly; that always comes from the contract.
STANAG 4074 is the NATO ratification agreement; AEP-4074 Edition A is the publication that actually specifies the connector's dimensions and basic characteristics. Ratifying STANAG 4074 is how a nation commits to implement AEP-4074.
No. STANAG 4074 describes nations ratifying and reporting implementation to the NSO, recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database. It describes no certification or audit scheme for a supplier or a product.
The document's interoperability requirement is specifically about the auxiliary power unit connections used to start tactical land vehicles, not the vehicle as a whole. The connector's dimensions and characteristics are set out in AEP-4074.
The document states this edition supersedes an earlier edition of STANAG 4074, but it does not say which edition or what changed between them.
One system for the whole compliance programme. Start with the module you need most.
Collect information the same way every time, and decide in advance what happens next.
Know whether your controls are operating, not just whether a policy says they exist.
Turn the compliance work you already know about into a plan with owners, dependencies and dates.
Know what you can offer, and hold the evidence behind every configuration you offer it in.
Eight built-in reports across every module, scheduled, delivered, and filed where the evidence lives.
The sector news that matters to your organisation - read and rated by AI, and delivered as a scheduled digest in your own language.
AI reads the tender pack and pulls out the requirements, deadlines and rules - then helps you draft the response from your own approved content, with you reviewing every step.
One current register of the suppliers and partners you depend on - each risk-assessed, re-assessing itself on schedule, and wired straight into your risk register.
See every requirement you face - across every standard, plus your own contracts and policies - traced to the documents, evidence and processes that satisfy it.
Identify, score, treat and review your risks in one place - with AI to help anyone run a proper assessment, and a defensible trail behind every decision.
Assign training, prove it was understood, and hold the competence records an auditor asks for.
Draft compliance documents with AI, keep every version under control, and export them beautifully branded - all in one place.
Audits, corrective actions, processes and approvals in one quality system, organised around ISO 9001.
Medical device manufacturers operate under more regulatory pressure than almost any other sector outside pharmaceuticals. The rules govern how you design a device, how you make it, how you track it after it ships, and how you respond when something goes wrong.
Learn how EU dual-use export controls apply to encryption, sensors, and software, how classification works under Annex I, and why sending source code by email can count as an export.
A practical way to turn in-your-head risk management into a register that survives staff turnover and answers the risk questions now showing up in tenders.