STANAG 4602 reaction-to-fire assessment of materials

What it is

STANAG 4602 is a NATO Standardization Agreement, currently Edition 2, dated 21 April 2015. It is not a technical specification. It is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to ratify and implement five companion Allied publications on reaction-to-fire testing of materials: AFAP-1 (Policy for the Pre-Selection of Materials for Military Applications), AFAP-2 (Smoke Generation), AFAP-3 (Toxicity of Fire Effluents), AFAP-4 (Surface Spread of Flame) and AFAP-5 (Heat Release Rate), all Edition 3. The test methods and data that a reader usually wants live inside those five publications, not inside this six-page cover. Read on its own, STANAG 4602 requires almost nothing of a supplier directly. Its obligations run to nations, and it reaches a contractor only indirectly, once a nation has implemented it and a contract or tender names one of the five AFAPs.

Who it binds, and how

STANAG 4602 is explicit that it binds nations rather than organisations. Its letter of promulgation describes the enclosed agreement as one "which has been ratified by member nations, as reflected in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD), is promulgated herewith." Ratification and implementation are separate steps, and the document invites nations that have not yet reported their position to "advise the NSO of their intention regarding its implementation." So "is STANAG 4602 mandatory" has no single answer: it depends on whether a given nation has ratified and implemented it, and, for a supplier, on whether a specific contract invokes one of the five AFAPs as a result.

Five test methods covered together

STANAG 4602 commits nations to five publications at once rather than a single test method. The stated aim is "to respond to the following interoperability requirements": to "assess NATO requirements for reaction-to-fire, test methods and data to be exchanged, for pre-selection of materials used in the field of national and multinational cooperative projects for military equipments." Under "Agreement," "Participating nations agree to implement the following standards": AFAP-1 (pre-selection policy), AFAP-2 (smoke generation), AFAP-3 (toxicity of fire effluents), AFAP-4 (surface spread of flame) and AFAP-5 (heat release rate). None of this is written as a duty on a supplier; it is a duty on the nation. Read together, the five AFAPs are what let a material pre-selected under one nation's programme be assessed on the same basis as one pre-selected under another's.

A cover agreement, not the fire test itself

A reader who only has STANAG 4602 in hand does not yet have a test method to run. The actual test methods and data-exchange arrangements are in AFAP-1 to AFAP-5 respectively. Unlike some STANAGs of this family, this one names no further background reading: under "Other related documents," the document states plainly, "None."

What this edition replaced

Edition 2 "supersedes the following document: STANAG 4602 Edition 1, November 2004." The document gives no reason for the revision beyond that statement, and this page does not invent one.

Reporting and review

Nations are invited to report their effective implementation of the STANAG using the form at Annex H to AAP-03(J); partner nations report their adoption using the form at Annex G to AAP-03(J). The STANAG itself "is to be reviewed at least once every three years. The result of the review is recorded within the NSDD" - a check on whether the agreement is still current, not an audit of any organisation. The agreement is supervised by the CNAD Life Cycle Management Group (AC/327), with France, through Mr Laurent Dobigny of DGA/DT/ST/IP/ASN/ISVN, named as custodian.

What it does not cover

STANAG 4602 sets out no test method or criterion of its own - that content sits entirely in AFAP-1 to AFAP-5. It also names no assessment or certification scheme of its own: the only stated check is that the STANAG itself is reviewed periodically, not that an organisation or a product is certified.