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STANAG 4697
Defence platform integrators and video, audio and data distribution equipment suppliers working to a contract that invokes STANAG 4697 or the AEP-79 publication it covers
STANAG 4697 is NATO's ratification agreement committing member nations to implement AEP-79 Edition A, the platform level extended video standard (PLEVID) for digital video, audio and data distribution.
STANAG 4697 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering the Platform Level Extended Video Standard (PLEVID). This is Edition 1, promulgated 29 February 2016, and the document states plainly that it "does not supersede any document" - there is no earlier edition it replaces.
A STANAG is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement a standard, not the technical specification itself. STANAG 4697's own text is short and administrative: an aim, one interoperability requirement, and the ratification and reporting machinery. The video, audio and data distribution requirements are specified in a separate publication, AEP-79 Edition A, which the STANAG names as the standard participating nations "agree to implement". Anyone actually designing or checking against those requirements needs AEP-79's own text, not this cover agreement.
The stated aim is "to respond to the following interoperability requirements". The requirement itself is that AEP-79 covers "the mechanisms and protocols that shall be employed to facilitate the distribution of and control of digital video, audio and data, thereby promoting the interoperability of present and future platform level digital video distribution systems." The document is explicit about where this belongs in a programme: it "should be used as the starting point when designing and implementing such systems" - the design stage, not a retrofit.
STANAG 4697 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). Implementation is a separate, further step: the STANAG "is implemented when the necessary orders/instructions have been issued directing the forces concerned to put the content of the covered standard into effect." Nations then report their effective implementation "using the form in Annex H to AAP-03(J)"; partner nations, who are only "invited to adopt" the STANAG rather than bound by it, report adoption using the equivalent Annex G. A supplier meets STANAG 4697, or the AEP-79 requirements it covers, only where a contract or tender says so - the document itself sets no obligation reaching a supplier directly.
STANAG 4697 describes no certification scheme and no audit. What it describes is nations reporting their ratification and implementation status to NATO for the record; nobody is "STANAG 4697 certified", and the document never uses that language. Where a supplier's or integrator's video distribution work against AEP-79 does get checked in practice, the assessor and the evidence required are set by the contract's own quality clause, not by this STANAG. The STANAG itself is reviewed "at least once every three years", with proposed changes going to the tasking authority for that review.
STANAG 4697 covers AEP-79, the Allied Engineering Publication that carries the actual video, audio and data distribution requirements. It is also the only publication the document names; no other related document is listed ("None."). Its reporting annexes reference AAP-03: Annex H for nations reporting effective implementation, Annex G for partner nations reporting adoption.
The work STANAG 4697 and AEP-79 describe (designing, building and operating a platform's digital video, audio and data distribution system to a common, interoperable set of protocols) is done in systems engineering and integration work, not in a compliance platform: an engineer designs the distribution architecture, an integrator builds and tests it, and a quality function retains the design records, test evidence and configuration baseline that prove the delivered system matches what the contract and AEP-79 require.
What ComplyTrain does for that kind of work generally is give a defence supplier one auditable place to hold the design and test procedures, the training records for the people carrying out 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 video distribution system, test one, or determine whether it meets AEP-79's requirements. That is systems and video 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 platform programme is set by the contract and the customer's quality clause, not by us. Browse the explorer to see what sits alongside STANAG 4697 and AEP-79, 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 4697 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 or the AEP-79 publication it covers. The document itself sets no NATO-wide compliance date.
STANAG 4697 is the NATO ratification agreement; AEP-79 Edition A is the publication that actually specifies the video, audio and data distribution mechanisms and protocols. Ratifying STANAG 4697 is how a nation commits to implement AEP-79.
No. STANAG 4697 describes nations ratifying and reporting implementation to NATO, recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database. It describes no certification or audit scheme for a supplier or a product.
Not according to this edition: the document states that "This STANAG does not supersede any document" - Edition 1 is the first, and as far as this cover records, the only edition.
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