NATO AASTP-05 PDF

Purpose and Scope of the Manual

The primary purpose of this manual is to establish conventional military ammunition and explosives¹ safety principles and guidelines for NATO Nations on deployed missions or operations. These standards, agreed to by NATO’s explosives safety technical experts, complement the standards in AASTP-01. Where AASTP-01 establishes standards for permanent/long term facilities, AASTP-05 establishes standards for more temporary facilities, facilities which have to operate in a threat environment. Also included are standards for transitioning into and out of theatre, these having been adapted from the previous Manoeuver Warfare chapter, which no longer exists. In addition to forming a basis for national operational planning, the standards in this manual can serve as the basis for planning of multi-national storage or as a guide between host countries and NATO forces for temporary munitions storage areas.

In addition to storage, maintenance and transport of munitions, this manual includes other munitions life-cycle aspects, such as risk management and disposal.

The intent is to provide a manual that can be used without reference to other manuals and STANAGs. This manual explains what to do, not why to do it.

This manual cannot address all situations nor provide the answers to all issues which may arise. In circumstances where the answer is not provided the problem should be submitted to the Secretary of the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) Ammunition Safety Group (CASG), AC/326.

¹ “Ammunition and explosives” is usually referred to as “munitions” in NATO terminology, but the terms may appear interchangeably throughout this publication.