STANREC 4785 test procedures for small arms suppressors

What it is

STANREC 4785 is a NATO Standardization Recommendation, Edition 2, on test procedures for small arms suppressors. A STANREC is built the same way a STANAG is, with one difference that matters: a STANAG is an agreement nations ratify, a STANREC is a recommendation they are free to take up. This one sets out recommended practices for "test procedures and data presentation" concerning "small arms signature suppressors," and points nations to AEP-4785 rather than defining test methods of its own.

What it recommends

The only standard STANREC 4785 recommends is AEP-4785, across four volumes: Volume I Edition B, Volume II Edition A, Volume III Edition A, and Volume IV Edition A. A fifth volume, Edition A, appears in the RECOMMENDATION list too, marked "study draft" - not yet a published standard. This edition, promulgated 30 August 2021, replaces an earlier one: "This STANREC supersedes the following document: STANREC 4785, Edition 1, dated 31 August 2016."

What actually gets tested

STANREC 4785 also points to the NATO D14 Handbook on Evaluation Procedures for Future NATO Small Arms Weapon Systems (AC/225(DSS)-D(2018)0006), noting that it "outlines various small arms tests that should be repeated when suppressor is added to a weapon system." The tests it lists span areas including kinematic analysis, accuracy and consistency, endurance, climatic extremes, recoil measurement, rough handling, chemical effects on weapons, interchangeability and human factors engineering. The trigger STANREC 4785 describes is adding a suppressor to a weapon system, not a fixed point on a design calendar.

Who is behind it, and how it is kept current

STANREC 4785 is supervised under the authority NATO's own record names for it: CNAD, AC/225 NAAG, LCGDSS. It "is to be reviewed in accordance with AAP-03," with the result "recorded within the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD)."

Where it has force, and where it does not

STANREC 4785 addresses "Member or partner nations and NATO bodies," not a supplier or manufacturer directly. It binds nobody by itself: nations "are invited to use the Allied standard(s) covered by the STANREC and to provide feedback to the NSO on the use of the covered Allied standard(s)." Whatever obligation a test house or manufacturer meets comes from a nation's own procedure or a contract that separately invokes AEP-4785, not from this STANREC existing. It is a NATO non-classified document, "to be handled in accordance with C-M(2002)60," and free of charge.

How it is checked

STANREC 4785 names no certification body, no government quality assurance arrangement, no notified body, and no self-declaration scheme. The only assessment it describes is aimed at the document itself - the periodic AAP-03 review above - not at an organisation, a test house, or a suppressor. Whatever review a supplier's test results actually get is set by whichever nation, customer or contract requires AEP-4785 on a given programme, and that review sits outside this STANREC entirely.