scope:

The aim of this agreement is to promote interoperability of present and future UAV systems in a NATO Combined/Joint Service Environment. Interoperability is required because it will significantly enhance the warfighting capability of the forces. Interoperability will increase flexibility and efficiency to meet mission objectives through sharing of assets and common utilization of information generated from UAV systems. The objective is to achieve interoperability between the Ground Segments (e.g., UCSs), the Air Segments (e.g., UAVs), and the Command, Control, Communication, Computer and Intelligence (C4I) segments of UAV Systems operating in a NATO Combined/Joint environment. The implementation of the specified standard UCS interfaces will also facilitate the integration of different types of UAV Systems into a NATO Combined/Joint Service battlefield environment. The herein specified Standardisation will support interoperability of legacy as well as future UAV Systems. This version of the STANAG supports the Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR), Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Communications Relay, and Stores (e.g., weapons, ) payloads across the Data Link Interface (DLI). As additional payloads are defined the STANAG will be updated accordingly to incorporate those payloads. The Command and Control Interface (CCI) utilizes applicable messages from the NATO Message Text Formatting System (FORMETS), ADatP-3. As this system is replaced with bit oriented message formats, (e.g., Generic Relational Data Base such as ADatP-32), this STANAG will be updated accordingly. In addition this STANAG supports the NATO Air Force Armaments Group (NAFAG) NATO Imagery Interoperability Architecture (NIIA) in that it invokes compliance with the NIIA specified standards.