STANAG 4607 NATO ground moving target indicator format

What it is

What STANAG 4607 covers, and what it does not

STANAG 4607 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering the NATO Ground Moving Target Indicator Format (GMTIF). It is not itself a technical specification. It is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement AEDP-4607, Edition A, the publication that actually defines the binary, message-oriented format used "for the prompt dissemination of MTI data" among NATO Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems. Implementation guidance sits in a further document, AEDP 4607.1.

This distinction matters more than it looks. A STANAG does not bind a supplier. It binds the nations that ratify it, and those nations implement it domestically; a supplier meets STANAG 4607, or more precisely the AEDP-4607 format it covers, only when a contract or tender names it, not because the agreement exists. Ratification and implementation are recorded separately in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD), through NATO's electronic reporting tool.

This is Edition 4, promulgated 16 February 2024. It supersedes STANAG 4607, Edition 3, dated 14 September 2010. Worth knowing if you are reading an older copy: earlier editions of STANAG 4607 carried the GMTIF specification directly inside the STANAG. Current editions do not; they describe only the agreement to use AEDP-4607, whose own implementation guide, previously published as AEDP-7, Edition 2, is now AEDP 4607.1.

Why the format exists

The stated aim is interoperability: to let NATO ISR systems exchange ground moving target indicator radar data in a common structure, and to give a system a standard way to request surveillance from a sensor and receive acknowledgement of whether that surveillance will happen. GMTIF is a binary, message-oriented format. It can stand alone, or it can travel embedded inside a frame-oriented format such as the NATO Primary Imagery Format, STANAG 7023, for the dissemination of primary imagery.

What a national authority has to do

The STANAG's own agreement text sets out three things national authorities must do to implement STANAG 4607/AEDP-4607(A)(1):

• Follow the implementation guidance in AEDP 4607.1.
• Comply with the data format for transmitting ground moving target indicator (GMTI) detection data.
• Comply with the data format for requesting surveillance service from a sensor, and for receiving acknowledgement of whether the requested surveillance will be performed.

A nation is considered to have implemented the STANAG once it has issued instructions that all equipment procured for its forces will be manufactured to the specifications the agreement details. Allies and NATO bodies then report implementation details through the same electronic reporting tool used for ratification.

Review, and how it is evaluated

There is no certification scheme described here, and no third party audits a supplier's or nation's conformance with STANAG 4607 itself. What exists is self-reporting: nations report their ratification, and later their implementation, through NATO's e-Reporting tool, with both recorded in the NSDD. The STANAG as a whole is separately reviewed in accordance with AAP-03, with the result of that review also recorded in the NSDD.

Standards it references

• AEDP-4607, Edition A - the specification this agreement commits nations to implement. AEDP-4607
• AEDP 4607.1 - the implementation guidance national authorities must follow, now superseding the former AEDP-7, Edition 2.
• STANAG 7023 - the NATO Primary Imagery Format GMTIF can be embedded in, for dissemination alongside primary imagery. STANAG 7023
• AAP-03 - the procedure this STANAG is itself reviewed against. AAP-03

Standards it references

• STANAG 7023Background
• AAP-03Background