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STANAG 4748
NATO nations that ratify the agreement, and the manufacturers whose underwater acoustic modems and telephony equipment are tested for interoperability under ANEP-87
STANAG 4748 is NATO's agreement committing member nations to implement ANEP-87, the digital underwater signalling standard for network node discovery and interoperability; it binds nations, not suppliers, directly.
STANAG 4748 is a NATO Standardization Agreement, Edition 1, dated 24 March 2017. It is not a technical specification. It is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement ANEP-87, Edition A, the Allied publication that sets the digital underwater signalling standard for network node discovery and interoperability. The document's own aim is to respond to an interoperability requirement, stated in two parts: to "enable underwater communications systems deployed on NATO and civilian platform to establish robust digital communications for node discovery and data exchange," and to ensure that digital underwater communications "do not interfere with analog underwater telephony compliant to STANAG 1074." Read on its own, STANAG 4748 requires nothing of a supplier or manufacturer beyond one thing: proving a device's interoperability once it exists. The digital underwater signalling requirements themselves sit in ANEP-87, not in this cover.
Like every STANAG, this one 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." Under "Agreement," participating nations agree to implement ANEP-87, Edition A - a national commitment made by ratification, not a duty a manufacturer signs up to by reading this document. Ratification and implementation stay separate steps: nations "are invited to examine their ratification of the STANAG and, if they have not already done so, advise the NSO of their intention regarding its implementation," and are separately "requested to provide to the NSO their actual STANAG implementation details." So "is STANAG 4748 mandatory" has no single answer: it depends on whether a given nation has ratified and implemented it, and on whether a contract or tender in front of a manufacturer invokes ANEP-87 by name.
The one place this cover names a supplier-facing role at all is interoperability testing. "Compliance to the standard will be ensured through interoperability testing with at least three other compliant devices, or with a standard implementation maintained by the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE)/NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO)." That testing is not run by an assessor: "all such testing is to be performed and reported by the manufacturer and all costs are to be borne by the manufacturer." There is no accredited body, notified body or government inspector named anywhere in the document. Before that stage, the document also points industry toward an earlier route in: nations work with their national industries through the NATO Industrial Advisory Group on Digital Acoustic Communications and Networking, where "participating industry" can "identify requirements and procedures for implementing compliant digital communications and node discovery" onto their own underwater acoustic modems and telephony equipment.
The interoperability requirement this STANAG responds to has a second half that is easy to miss: new digital signalling must coexist with what is already deployed. The document requires that digital underwater communications "do not interfere with analog underwater telephony compliant to STANAG 1074" - a coexistence constraint on top of the node-discovery requirement, not just an aspiration. STANAG 1074 is named once, as that constraint, and sits outside our catalogue.
A reader who only has STANAG 4748 in hand does not yet have the digital underwater signalling specification it points to. That sits in ANEP-87, Edition A. The document also names one other related NATO document, STANAG 1475, which covers ANEP-85's material interoperability requirements for submarine escape and rescue, and it names AAP-03 as the source of the reporting forms nations and partner nations use. This is Edition 1: the document states plainly that "this STANAG does not supersede any document."
National decisions on ratification and implementation are recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database. Nations report effective implementation "using the form at Annex H to AAP-03(J)," and partner nations separately report adoption "using the form at Annex G to AAP-03(J)." The STANAG itself "is to be reviewed at least once every three years," with the result "recorded within the NSDD" - a check on whether the agreement is still current, not an audit of any manufacturer's equipment. Nations and NATO bodies may propose changes at any time through a standardization proposal to the tasking authority, processed at the next review. It is a NATO non-classified document, free to obtain from the NATO Standardization Document Database; NATO does not charge for its standardization documents and we do not host or sell copies.
STANAG 4748 sets out no digital underwater signalling requirement of its own - that detail sits entirely in ANEP-87. It also names no certification or accreditation scheme: the only check described is manufacturer-run interoperability testing against peer devices or a CMRE reference implementation, and a periodic review of the agreement's own currency, not a certificate issued to a nation, an organisation or a piece of equipment.
STANAG 4748 itself gives an organisation nothing to implement in software: it is an agreement between nations, and the signalling requirements sit in ANEP-87. Where this touches a manufacturer directly is the interoperability testing the STANAG names - performed and reported by the manufacturer, at the manufacturer's own cost, against peer devices or a CMRE reference implementation. That work is engineering and test-bench work, not something a compliance tool performs. What ComplyTrain does is hold the evidence trail around it as a controlled, auditable record: the procedure describing how a device was built and tested against ANEP-87 and this STANAG, the interoperability test records and results for named equipment and dates, and the audit trail a customer's quality representative would ask to see afterwards.
ComplyTrain does not design, build or run interoperability testing on underwater acoustic modems or telephony equipment, and does not decide how or when a nation ratifies or implements this agreement - that is national maritime and NSO business, not something a compliance tool does on a nation's or a manufacturer's behalf. The applicable tier and the standards that come with it are set by the contract and the customer's quality clause, not by this page. Our standards explorer shows what else sits alongside STANAG 4748, including ANEP-87 and STANAG 1475; if you are weighing up what a tasking or contract actually requires of you, we're glad to talk it through.
Tell us how you need to work with STANAG 4748 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.
Not on its own. A STANAG binds a nation once that nation has ratified and implemented it, and this cover names no supplier or contractor obligation beyond the interoperability testing a manufacturer runs on its own equipment. Whether it touches a given organisation is a question for the contract or tasking in front of you, not for this page.
STANAG 4748 is the cover agreement: it commits nations to implement ANEP-87 but contains no digital underwater signalling requirements itself. ANEP-87, Edition A is the Allied publication that actually sets out the network node discovery and interoperability standard.
No. STANAG 4748 describes no certification or accreditation scheme. Its only stated check is interoperability testing that the manufacturer itself performs, reports and pays for, against at least three other compliant devices or a reference implementation held by CMRE/STO. NATO does not certify a manufacturer, a nation or a device against this STANAG.
Through interoperability testing with at least three other compliant devices, or against a standard implementation maintained by the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) and the NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO). The manufacturer performs and reports that testing itself, and bears its cost.
Yes. Like all NATO standardization documents, it is issued free of charge and is not sold at any stage; it can be retrieved from the NATO Standardization Document Database or through a national standardization authority.
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