NATO AASTP-1 PDF

Purpose and Scope of the Manual

1. The primary purpose of this manual is to establish conventional military ammunition and explosives1 safety principles and guidelines for NATO Nations. These standards, agreed to by NATO’s explosives sfatey technical experts, have been developed for two main purposes. Firstly, to be used as a guide between host countries and NATO forces in the development of mutually agreeable regulations for munitions storage areas (facilities, depots). Secondly, these guidelines are intended to form the basis of national regulations as far as possible.

2. Although the storage of ammunition is emphasized throughout this manual, it should be noted that it includes other ammunition life-cycle aspects that are related to storage, such as maintenance, surveillance, transportation and disposal.

3. This manual is in four parts:

a. Part I, General Principles and Guidelines for all Explosives Storage and Quantity Distance (QD) Tables for Above Ground Storage, provides general ammunition safety guidelines for all explosives storage and QD for aboveground storage;

b. Part II, Explosives Storage Magazine Design and Operational Guidelines for Explosives Facilities, provides technical details for design of explosives storage magazines and operational guidelines for explosives facilities;

c. Part III, Underground Explosives Storage, deals with underground storage, and;

d. Part IV, Special Situations, addresses NATO munitions risk management aspects in operations and when NATO requirements cannot be met and provides NATO requirements for special situations involving munitions that are not storage related (e.g. military airfields).

4. A manual of this type cannot be prescriptive in addressing all situations or 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.

5. Since this manual provides guidelines rather than a set of mandatory standards the words "must", "should" "may/can" and "is/are" are used in the following sense:

MUST Indicates a technical requirement which is vital for safety and the avoidance of a catastrophe.