Platform
Modules
By sector
By sector
By standard
Blog
News
Events
STANAG 7023
Defence collection and exploitation system suppliers working to a contract that invokes STANAG 7023 or the AEDP-7023 publication it covers
STANAG 7023 is NATO's ratification agreement committing member nations to implement AEDP-7023 Edition A, the data format and transport architecture for interoperable air reconnaissance imagery.
STANAG 7023 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering the air reconnaissance primary imagery data standard: the interoperable data format and transport architecture that lets collection systems and exploitation systems exchange Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) imagery and its auxiliary data. This is Edition 5, promulgated 27 July 2022, superseding Edition 4 of 16 June 2016.
A STANAG is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement a standard, not the technical specification itself. STANAG 7023's own text is short and administrative: an aim, the agreement to implement AEDP-7023, and the ratification and reporting machinery. The data format and transport architecture that give the STANAG its name are specified in a separate publication, AEDP-7023 Edition A, which the STANAG names as the standard participating nations "agree to implement". Anyone actually building a system to generate or read that format needs AEDP-7023's own text, not this cover agreement.
Primary imagery is normally "raw unexploited imagery, which typically includes lots of low level information about the sensor and the platform", and it "is not normally shared beyond the first exploitation system to receive it, instead being converted into alternative formats for further distribution" - so the standard governs the collection-to-first-exploitation leg, not whatever a system does with the imagery afterward. Within that scope, AEDP-7023 "defines a flexible, self-describing format which includes specification of the data format methodology, the data content, the logical data encoding, the transport architecture and the structure of the data packets". It "can support mixed live streaming of up to 64 different and varied sensors as well as the auxiliary data needed to describe those sensors, the format of the data coming off them, and the properties of the collection platform itself", and it can also "wrap" (encapsulate) other formats within the NATO ISR Interoperability Architecture.
STANAG 7023 binds nations, not suppliers. It is effective "upon receipt for use by the participating nations and NATO bodies", and it becomes binding on a given nation through ratification, which NATO records in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD). Nations implement it "by providing collection systems which generate this format, or by providing exploitation systems which can read and exploit this format" - either half of the interoperability pairing satisfies the agreement. Allied nations and NATO bodies are then obliged to report implementation details through NATO's electronic reporting tool; partner nations are only invited to do the same. A supplier meets STANAG 7023, or the AEDP-7023 format it covers, only where a contract or tender says so - the document itself sets no obligation reaching a supplier directly, and it names no NATO-wide effective date (its own "NATO Effective Date (NED)" field reads "Not applicable").
STANAG 7023 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 7023 certified", and the document never uses that language. Whether a fielded collection or exploitation system actually generates or reads conformant AEDP-7023 packets is an interoperability question that a programme, an exercise, or a contract's own quality clause would surface, not something this STANAG assesses.
STANAG 7023 covers AEDP-7023, the Allied publication that carries the actual data format and transport architecture requirements. Its "Other Related Documents" also name STANREC 4777, the NATO Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Interoperability Architecture, which nations are advised to consider "to support broader interoperability" but which does not bind through this agreement. Reviews of STANAG 7023 itself run under AAP-03.
AEDP-7023 conformance is engineering work, not something done in a compliance platform: a systems engineer builds a collection or exploitation system to generate or read the specified packet structure, and an interoperability test proves it does.
What ComplyTrain does for that kind of work generally is give a defence supplier one auditable place to hold the requirement traced back to the contract clause that invoked STANAG 7023, the interface or interoperability test records that proved conformance, the training records for the people operating the resulting systems, and the evidence trail - non-conformances, corrective actions, document control - that a customer's quality representative will ask to see.
ComplyTrain does not generate, parse or validate AEDP-7023 imagery packets, and it does not run the interoperability test itself. That is systems engineering work, carried out against the publication and the contract's own technical requirements.
Which STANAGs and Allied Publications actually apply to a given imagery programme is set by the contract and the customer's quality clause, not by us. Browse the explorer to see what sits alongside STANAG 7023 and AEDP-7023, 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 7023 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. The STANAG's own "NATO Effective Date (NED)" field reads "Not applicable", so there is no blanket start date to point to.
STANAG 7023 is the NATO ratification agreement; AEDP-7023 Edition A is the publication that actually specifies the data format, transport architecture and packet structure. Ratifying STANAG 7023 is how a nation commits to implement AEDP-7023.
No. STANAG 7023 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, a system or an imagery product.
The document states that this edition supersedes "STANAG 7023, Edition 4, dated 16 June 2016", but it does not itself describe what changed between the two editions.
STANREC 4777 is the wider NATO Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Interoperability Architecture. STANAG 7023 lists it as a related document and advises nations to consider it "to support broader interoperability" when planning beyond the primary imagery format itself, but it is guidance rather than a requirement of STANAG 7023.
One system for the whole compliance programme. Start with the module you need most.
Collect information the same way every time, and decide in advance what happens next.
Know whether your controls are operating, not just whether a policy says they exist.
Turn the compliance work you already know about into a plan with owners, dependencies and dates.
Know what you can offer, and hold the evidence behind every configuration you offer it in.
Eight built-in reports across every module, scheduled, delivered, and filed where the evidence lives.
The sector news that matters to your organisation - read and rated by AI, and delivered as a scheduled digest in your own language.
AI reads the tender pack and pulls out the requirements, deadlines and rules - then helps you draft the response from your own approved content, with you reviewing every step.
One current register of the suppliers and partners you depend on - each risk-assessed, re-assessing itself on schedule, and wired straight into your risk register.
See every requirement you face - across every standard, plus your own contracts and policies - traced to the documents, evidence and processes that satisfy it.
Identify, score, treat and review your risks in one place - with AI to help anyone run a proper assessment, and a defensible trail behind every decision.
Assign training, prove it was understood, and hold the competence records an auditor asks for.
Draft compliance documents with AI, keep every version under control, and export them beautifully branded - all in one place.
Audits, corrective actions, processes and approvals in one quality system, organised around ISO 9001.
Medical device manufacturers operate under more regulatory pressure than almost any other sector outside pharmaceuticals. The rules govern how you design a device, how you make it, how you track it after it ships, and how you respond when something goes wrong.
Learn how EU dual-use export controls apply to encryption, sensors, and software, how classification works under Annex I, and why sending source code by email can count as an export.
A practical way to turn in-your-head risk management into a register that survives staff turnover and answers the risk questions now showing up in tenders.