STANAG 7170 additional military layers digital geospatial data

What it is

STANAG 7170 is the NATO standardization agreement by which participating nations commit to implement AGeoP-19, Edition B, NATO's framework for Additional Military Layers (AML): a family of digital geospatial data products for non-navigational maritime defence use. The STANAG itself sets no data specifications; the AML concept and the framework for AML Product Specifications sit in AGeoP-19, and individual Product Specifications exist as separate artefacts referenced from that framework. This is edition 4, promulgated 22 February 2022, and it supersedes STANAG 7170 Edition 3 of 25 September 2015.

What the agreement covers

The document's own stated aim is to define geospatial data products for the publication and exchange of hydrographic information beyond that needed solely for maritime navigation, plus oceanographic climatological information and meteorological climatological information. AML is defined in the document as "a unified range of digital geospatial data products designed to satisfy the totality of NATO non-navigational maritime defence requirements", intended to support "operating off the same map" as set out in NATO Geospatial Policy MC 0296/2. Nations that ratify the STANAG agree "to implement the following standard": AGeoP-19, Edition B. The STANAG's own content is a short cover: an aim, an agreement to implement AGeoP-19, and the administrative mechanics of ratification, implementation and review. Every testable requirement, the actual data product definitions, sits in AGeoP-19 and the Product Specifications issued from it.

AML versus the newer AML+ (S-100)

The cover is explicit that this edition addresses the existing AML specifications only: "STANAG 7170 meets this requirement for existing Additional Military Layers (AML) specifications, however the civilian International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) community is moving towards a more contemporary and flexible environment using the S-100 standard." A separate agreement, STANAG 6503, provides the framework, through the Defence Maritime Geospatial Exchange Model, for a newer AML+ (S100) family of Product Specifications used across WECDIS and command and control environments, and NATO is developing the NGIF alongside it within which AML+ products will also exist. A reader looking for the S-100-based product line is reading the wrong cover; that content sits under STANAG 6503, not here.

How it binds

A STANAG binds a nation, not a supplier, and it binds through ratification rather than by existing. Nations are invited to examine their own ratification and advise NATO's Standardization Office of their intention, and once a nation has implemented the agreement it reports that fact through the NSDD's electronic reporting tool. The document's effective-date clause is unconditional rather than calendar-bound: it is effective upon receipt for use by the participating nations and NATO bodies, with no fixed date by which every nation must comply, so each ratifying nation's own timeline governs. A supplier meets STANAG 7170 and AGeoP-19 only when a contract or tender says so; the STANAG is silent on industry entirely. It is supervised, per the document, under NATO's Military Committee Joint Standardisation Bureau and its Joint Geospatial Standards Working Group.

What implementation actually involves

A nation is treated as having implemented the STANAG once it has issued instructions to identify its AML products in accordance with the AML Implementation Guidance Document, Edition 1 of March 2018, including the descriptions and specifications this agreement lays down. That is where the practical work lands: not a one-time technical change, but identifying and describing an organisation's own AML products against the current guidance and specification.

Review and status

The STANAG is reviewed in accordance with AAP-03, NATO's own standardization procedures, and the result of that review is recorded in the NSDD. It is a NATO non-classified document, free of charge and not sold by NATO or by us; the current edition, and any newer one, is listed in the NATO Standardization Document Database.

Related documents

The cover names several other documents rather than requiring them as a precondition: STANAG 1116 and its Allied Publication AMP-11, covering naval mine warfare information and data transfer; STANAG 4564 and its Allied Publication ANP-4564, covering warship electronic chart display and information systems; and STANAG 2019 and its Allied Publication APP-06, covering NATO joint military symbology. It also names NATO Geospatial Policy MC 0296/2, the civil International Hydrographic Organization's S-57 transfer standard, S-100 universal data model and S-52 chart-content specification, the SOLAS 1974 convention as amended, the NATO AML Handbook, and the AML Implementation Guidance Document. None of these is a precondition the document states must be met first - they are named as related material.

What the document does not cover

STANAG 7170 names no certification, audit or inspection regime, no threshold or numeric requirement, and no obligation addressed directly to a supplier or manufacturer. It does not itself define the AML data product formats or content rules; that detail is in AGeoP-19. And it does not cover the newer AML+ (S-100) product line, which is STANAG 6503's territory.

Standards it references

• STANAG 6503Background
• STANAG 1116Background
• AMP-11Background
• STANAG 4564Background
• ANP-4564Background
• STANAG 2019Background
• APP-06Background