STANAG 4697 platform level extended video standard (PLEVID)

What it is

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 cover for AEP-79, not a video specification

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.

What the covered standard addresses

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.

Who it binds, and how

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.

How it's evaluated

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.

Standards it references

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.