Management review that actually improves the business
Learn how to run an ISO 9001 Clause 9.3 management review that turns evidence into decisions, with the right inputs, actionable outputs, and a cadence that fits your risks.
STANAG 4381
STANAG 4381 blackout lighting for tactical land vehicles
Manufacturers of vehicle lighting and blackout equipment for military land vehicles, and the defence vehicle builders and buyers who specify it.
STANAG 4381 sets NATO's technical requirements for blackout, or tactical, lighting on military land vehicles. NATO has not released it publicly; this page describes it from the Czech defence standard that implements it.
- Edition
- 2
- Published
- 2025-03-04
NATO has not released this STANAG publicly. It is NATO UNCLASSIFIED, and organisations that need it obtain it through their national standardization authority.
What it is
STANAG 4381 is the NATO Standardization Agreement on blackout lighting systems for tactical land vehicles. Edition 2, promulgated in March 2025 under NATO's CNAD, AC/225 NAAG, LCGLE, covers the publication AEP-4381(A)(1).
NATO has not released STANAG 4381 or AEP-4381 publicly. This page describes them from a public national implementation, the Czech defence standard ČOS 254001 (tactical lighting of military vehicles and their chassis, general technical requirements; 2nd edition, amendment 2, 2025), which states that it introduces STANAG 4381 edition 2 and AEP-4381(A)(1) into Czech use. A national implementation can add national requirements and reservations, so treat what follows as the Czech implementation's content, not as NATO's own text.
What the Czech implementation requires
ČOS 254001 sets general technical requirements for the tactical lighting fitted to military land vehicles and their chassis manufactured for, or supplied to, the Czech armed forces. It does not apply to road-registered vehicles, and a vehicle's own technical documentation can exempt a specific type from carrying tactical lighting at all. Tactical lighting is provided by dedicated tactical lamps and headlamps, by shrouding a vehicle's normal lights, by switching them off, or by a combination of these, and a vehicle needs a multi-position switch, within the driver's reach, with separate positions for normal lighting, full lighting off and tactical lighting, plus a subordinate position for driving with night-vision equipment. The switch and its positions must be durably and clearly marked and explained in the vehicle's manual, and tactical lighting must not interfere with the night-vision devices used by the Czech armed forces.
For wheeled vehicles the permitted tactical lights are the main driving light, front and rear position lights and brake lights; tracked vehicles drop the front position light. Every other light is forbidden while tactical lighting is selected. Tactical lamp lenses must be blue or blue-green, and the standard sets an infrared limit: peak radiation in the 700 to 1200 nm band may be at most 1% of the peak measured in the visible 380 to 700 nm band. Rear position lights must also work as a distance indicator for a following driver, showing as four separate light patches up to 18 m, merging to two patches between 18 and 36 m, and to a single patch beyond 36 m. Recommended mounting heights, a trailer connector under STANAG 4007, and full photometric and colour tables for each lamp type are set out in the standard's own tables.
Equipment must work between -40°C and +55°C, survive a thermal-shock test of 30 minutes in 85°C water followed by 3 minutes at 20°C, stay watertight under a 20 kPa overpressure for an hour, and withstand vibration and mechanical-shock testing on each of three axes. The standard sets a 10-year service life at 90% reliability, a 15-year storage life, and maximum maintenance times for lamps, shrouding devices and switches. Some requirements are plainly national: an external khaki colour, shade 5450, under the Czech paint standard ČOS 801001, and references to specific Czech decrees on vehicle technical inspection. Those describe the Czech implementation, not what every NATO nation requires.
How we help
A supplier bound by STANAG 4381 through a contract holds the obtained text through its national authority. In ComplyTrain you record the requirements that apply to you as your own requirements, give each an owner, and keep the evidence that shows you meet them against each one.
Request access to this standard
Tell us how you need to work with STANAG 4381 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.
What ComplyTrain does
One system for the whole compliance programme. Start with the module you need most.
Forms & Follow-up
Collect information the same way every time, and decide in advance what happens next.
Controls & Assurance
Know whether your controls are operating, not just whether a policy says they exist.
Project Planner
Turn the compliance work you already know about into a plan with owners, dependencies and dates.
Product Compliance
Know what you can offer, and hold the evidence behind every configuration you offer it in.
Reporting & Analytics
Eight built-in reports across every module, scheduled, delivered, and filed where the evidence lives.
Media Monitoring
The sector news that matters to your organisation - read and rated by AI, and delivered as a scheduled digest in your own language.
Grants & Tenders
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.
Stakeholder/Vendor Management
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.
Requirements Management
See every requirement you face - across every standard, plus your own contracts and policies - traced to the documents, evidence and processes that satisfy it.
Risk Management
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.
Training Management
Assign training, prove it was understood, and hold the competence records an auditor asks for.
Document Control
Draft compliance documents with AI, keep every version under control, and export them beautifully branded - all in one place.
Quality Management
Audits, corrective actions, processes and approvals in one quality system, organised around ISO 9001.
Latest from ComplyTrain
ISO 9001 audit: what happens, stage by stage
The types of ISO 9001 audit, what Stage 1 and Stage 2 each check, how nonconformities are graded and closed, and how to prepare for your first certification.
Three partners, three Member States, one evidence base
The EDF consortium rule is usually quoted as three entities from three Member States. It has a second limb about control that the word independent quietly hides, and two exceptions that disapply it entirely.
Other standards in Land armaments
- AEP-3.12.1.5AEP-3.12.1.5 military load classification of bridges, ferries, rafts and vehicles
- AEP-64AEP-64 paint systems resistant to chemical agents and decontaminants
- AEP-65AEP-65 test method for paint systems resistant to chemical agents
- AEP-94AEP-94 skin penetration assessment for non-lethal projectiles
- AEP-97AEP-97 multi-calibre manual of proof and inspection for NATO small arms ammunition
- AEP-98AEP-98 precision assessment of non-lethal kinetic energy weapons and ammunition