NATO AECTP-100 PDF

Purpose

The purpose of this ‘Allied Environmental Conditions and Test Publication’ is guide to project managers, programme, engineers, and environmental engineering specialists in the planning and implementation of environmental tasks. An important function of AECTP 100 is to provide guidance to project managers on the application of AECTP 200 ‘Environmental Conditions’, AECTP 300 ‘Climatic Environmental Tests’, AECTP 400 ‘Mechanical Environmental Tests’ and AECTP 500 ‘Electrical/Electromagnetic Environmental Tests.'

Application

The guidance provided in AECTP 100 is applicable to joint NATO defence materiel projects. It may also be applied to defence materiel (multi-) national projects and is compatible with NATO publication AAP-20, ‘Handbook on the Phase Armaments Programming System (PAPS).’ AECTP 100 should be useful to environmental engineering specialists during the procurement cycle.

Limitations

Although laboratory testing is a valuable tool in the materiel development process, there are certain inherent limitations that must be recognized when applying AECTP 100 through 500. The test methods in AECTP 300 through 500 do not include all possible forcing functions that may affect system performance or integrity in its service use. There methods are limited to those currently developed for laboratory testing and cannot apply all know possible stress combinations present in natural field/fleet service environments. Therefore, caution must be used in extrapolating laboratory test results to predict the performance, durability and suitability of materiel in actual service use. AECTP 100 through 500 were not developed specifically to cover the following applications, but in some cases they may be applied:

(a) Weapon effects other than electromagnetic pulse (EMP);

(b) Munitions safety tests;

(c) Packaging testing;

(d) Suitability of clothing or fabric items intended for military use;

(e) Environmental stress screening (ESS) methods and procedures.

Definitions

Listed in Annex C are NATO environmental definitions compared to national environmental definitions. An Environmental Documentation Flow Chart is included in Annex D.