ISO Standards

Multi-national or National Standards

STANAGs/Military Profiles

Limitations of Standards

NATO User Groups

NATO CALS STANDARDS

It is NATO CALS Policy to promote the use of International, technology and vendor independent CALS standards and to harmonise, wherever possible, standards and their application. Many CALS and CALS-like processes also rely on standards which have multiple applications outside the primary CALS domain; the NATO CALS Organisation will only involve itself with such related standards in instances where such involvement is essential to support the NATO CALS Mission.

ISO Standards

This policy implies the use, where they exist, of International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) standards or those of other international bodies of similar status (eg United Nations Economic Commission for Europe(UN/ECE), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), or International Telecommunications Union - Telecommunications Standardization Bureau(ITU-TSB)(formerly CCITT)). The NATO CALS Organisation will seek to ensure that the NATO interest as users of such standards are safeguarded or represented as appropriate.

Multi-national or National Standards

Where such ISO standards do not exist it is NATO CALS Policy to promote the harmonisation of any appropriate de facto international, multi-national, or national standards with the aim of establishing such products on a migration path to ISO status.

STANAGs/Military Profiles

Where the establishment of an ISO Migration Path is not practicable the NATO CALS Management Board will promote the development of NATO Standard practices which lead to improved interoperability, using, where appropriate, NATO Standardisation Agreements (STANAGs).

Limitations of Standards

Not all CALS standards contain comprehensive detailed specifications which permit the optimum implementation of every possible process to which the standards have a relevance. In particular, international and national standards often seek to provide a framework suited to a variety of applications; this approach often results in standards with deficiencies so far as any specific application (eg Military) is concerned, and hence particular user groups tend to develop either separate standards (eg US DoD MIL SPECs) or application profiles which interpret the base standards or amplify them for specific applications (eg UK MoD DEF STANs or NATO STANAGs). The NATO CALS Policy recognises such limitations, but such products will only be promoted as an interim measure whilst more general standards are under development or to support essential NATO operational requirements specific to NATO and the NATO Nations for which external standards are inappropriate.

NATO User Groups

In instances where a number of NATO applications of a specific standard exist the NATO CALS Organisation will seek to promote the exchange of experience, skills , and information between users with the primary aims of improving the standard where necessary and of providing a source of information and advice to staff of new agencies and projects.