STANAG 5668 information exchange package documentation

What it is

STANAG 5668 is a NATO Standardization Agreement, currently Edition 1, promulgated 5 February 2026. Like most STANAGs, it is not a technical specification in its own right. It is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to ratify and implement ADatP-5668, Edition A, the Allied Publication that defines the Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) specification: the rules and practices for constructing and packaging a recurring NATO message so that it can be exchanged and understood consistently. The technical detail a reader usually wants sits inside ADatP-5668, not inside this five-page cover. Read on its own, STANAG 5668 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 tasking brings ADatP-5668's requirements into play.

Who it binds, and how

STANAG 5668 is explicit that it binds nations, not suppliers. Its letter of promulgation describes the enclosed agreement as one "which has been ratified by member nations, as reflected in the NATO Standardization Documents Database (NSDD), is promulgated herewith." Ratification and implementation are separate steps, and once ratified, the agreement is "effective upon receipt for use by the participating nations and NATO bodies." So "is STANAG 5668 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 or tasking then invokes ADatP-5668.

What an IEPD actually is

The document states the interoperability requirement plainly: "To define the rules and practices for constructing and packaging a NATO Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD)." An IEPD "defines a recurring message in an arbitrary syntax and is built to satisfy information exchange business requirements," and will "ultimately define instance documents that will contain the information to be exchanged." The document treats the IEPD as the point of interoperability itself, between the systems on either side of an exchange. STANAG 5668 does not define the data model, schema or package format that makes that happen; ADatP-5668 does.

From ratification to operational use

Ratifying the STANAG is not the same as putting it into practice. The document sets a two-part test: a nation has implemented the agreement when it "can receive, store, process and disseminate NATO standardization documents in IEPD format" and when it "has issued instruction to ensure that all NATO standards for which it is the custodian, that contain machine-readable artefacts, are complemented by a corresponding IEPD." Allies and NATO bodies are then required to report their implementation details through the electronic reporting tool; partner nations are only invited to report theirs.

What it does not cover

STANAG 5668 names no detail of the IEPD construction and packaging rules themselves, which is all in ADatP-5668. It also states plainly: "This STANAG does not supersede any document." There is no earlier edition replaced by this one. The document names one related document, STANAG 4778's metadata binding mechanism (ADatP-4778), and no assessment or certification scheme of its own: the only stated check is procedural, described below.

Review and governance

The STANAG is to be reviewed in accordance with AAP-03, with the result recorded in the NSDD. It is supervised under the authority of NATO's DPC, DPC, CaP1, DM CaT.

Standards it references

• STANAG 4778Background
• ADatP-4778Background