STANAG 7164 special aeronautical charts (SAC)

What it is

STANAG 7164 is the NATO Standardization Agreement by which member and partner nations agree to implement AGeoP-23, Edition A, the specification for Special Aeronautical Charts (SAC). This is Edition 3, promulgated 8 March 2018, superseding an earlier edition of STANAG 7164 (the cover does not give the superseded edition's own number).

A STANAG is not the specification

A STANAG is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement a standard, not the technical specification itself. STANAG 7164's own text is short and administrative: a statement of aim, the interoperability requirements it responds to, the agreement to implement AGeoP-23, and the ratification, implementation and review machinery around it. What a Special Aeronautical Chart actually shows and how it is built is specified in AGeoP-23, not in this cover. Anyone designing, evaluating or checking a SAC against its technical content needs AGeoP-23's own text.

What it commits nations to

The stated aim is to respond to interoperability requirements for NATO peacetime low and medium visual air navigation, citing the "operating off the same map" principle set out in MC 0296/3. NATO and contributing nations "need a coherent set of digital and paper based geospatial products that have been assessed to a known level of quality to assure interoperability", and participating nations agree to implement AGeoP-23, Edition A, to meet that need.

What a SAC covers, in the cover's own terms

The cover states that the content of a NATO designated SAC "is to be consistent with military requirements for peacetime, low and medium level, visual air navigation (subject to national standards)", and that "the digital format used in automated flight planning systems, flight simulators and airborne display systems shall be consistent with the chart format." SACs take precedence over the standard NATO series products, the Tactical Pilotage Chart series at 1:500,000 scale and the Joint Operations Graphics 1501-AIR series at 1:250,000 scale, at equivalent scales when designated or supplemented, so a nation does not need to produce both a SAC and the equivalent standard series product for the same territory. A national SAC's coverage may be restricted to the area within which that nation provides air traffic services, unless a bilateral agreement permits otherwise; where SAC coverage from two producing nations overlaps, NATO Commands use supplementation procedures to designate which chart is used. The cover ties publication to a civil cycle: SACs "should be published at the International Civil Aviation Organisation's (ICAO) Aeronautical Information Regulation and Control (AIRAC) cycles 4 and/or 10", with a chart updating service available between editions. This is the only mention of a civil aeronautical standard or ICAO document anywhere in the cover.

Who it binds, and how

STANAG 7164 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, recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD). Implementation is a further step: the STANAG "will be considered to have been implemented by nations when they have issued instructions to produce SACs in accordance with this agreement." Nations report that effective implementation using the form in Annex H to AAP-03(J); partner nations use Annex G to AAP-03(J) to report adoption. A supplier meets STANAG 7164, or the AGeoP-23 content it covers, only where a contract or tender for NATO geospatial products says so.

How it's evaluated

STANAG 7164 describes no certification scheme and no audit. What it describes is nations reporting their ratification and implementation status to NATO: nations advise the NSO of their intention regarding ratification and implementation, provide their actual implementation details, and have national decisions recorded in the NSDD. The STANAG itself is reviewed at least once every three years, with the result recorded in the NSDD, and any nation or NATO body may propose changes at any time through a standardization proposal to the tasking authority. Nobody is "STANAG 7164 certified"; where a supplier's work against AGeoP-23 does get checked in practice, the assessor and the evidence required are set by the contract's own quality clause, not by this cover.

Standards it references

STANAG 7164 covers AGeoP-23, the Allied Geospatial Publication that carries the actual chart specification. Its "Other Related Documents" list thirteen further NATO documents that inform rather than bind through this agreement: STANAG 2211 and AGeoP-21 on geodetic datums, projections, grids and grid references; STANAG 2215 on evaluation of land maps, aeronautical charts and digital topographic data; STANAG 2592 and AGeoP-11 on the NATO Geospatial Information Framework; STANAG 3412 and AGeoP-16 on aeronautical information on aeronautical charts; STANAG 3675 on symbols on land maps, aeronautical and special naval charts; STANAG 3676 on marginal information on land maps, aeronautical charts and photomaps; STANAG 4387 on the ARC Standard Raster Product; and STANAG 7098 on Compressed ARC Digitized Raster Graphics. AAP-03 carries the Annex H and Annex G forms nations use to report implementation and adoption. The cover also names STANAG 3600, STANAG 3666, AGeoP-18, STANAG 7074, STANAG 7136, AGeoP-9, GSGS 5903, PS/1AE/201, PS/3BB/201 and MC 0296/3 among its related documents; these sit outside our current catalogue links.

Standards it references

• STANAG 2211Background
• AGeoP-21Background
• STANAG 2215Background
• STANAG 2592Background
• AGeoP-11Background
• STANAG 3412Background
• AGeoP-16Background
• STANAG 3675Background
• STANAG 3676Background
• STANAG 4387Background
• AGeoP-05Background
• STANAG 7098Background