What is STANAG 4586?
In 1998, a NATO Specialist Team comprising members of government and industry (including CDL Systems) began work on NATO Standardization Agreement 4586 (STANAG 4586), a document conceived to standardize UCS interfaces to help enable UAV systems interoperability. The document defines architectures, interfaces, communication protocols, data elements, and message formats. It also identifies related STANAGs that compliance with is required in order to operate and manage multiple legacy and future UAVs in a complex NATO Combined/Joint Services Operational Environment.
NATO identified the need for standardization to promote interoperability between tactical UAS systems amongst the allied forces. This would enable asset sharing by allied nations, allow for increasingly network-centric operations, and diversify UAS concept of operations (CONOPS). This standard also identifies five levels of interoperability (LOI) to accommodate operational requirements.The respective operational requirements and approved Concept of Operations (CONOPS) will determine or drive the required Level of Interoperability that the specific UAV System will achieve.
CDL Systems has been a leading participant a pioneering member of the development of STANAG 4586 since its inception. Our commitment to this and other NATO standards has allowed CDL Systems to lead the charge in unmanned vehicle interoperability with the U.S. Army's unmanned tactical assets.
STANAG 4586 is currently in its second edition, promulgated in November of 2007.
The Need for Interoperability
Traditionally, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have been developed as vehicle centric designs. System manufacturers have focused on airframe designs and have typically developed the ground control station (GCS) component as a tool for flight-testing the airframe. This has led to a lack of standardization between dissimilar systems and the use of proprietary telemetry and sensor data streams. Consequently, systems lack the ability to interoperate with each other.
Benefits of Interoperability
Interoperability greatly increases the efficiency and capability of armed forces in a NATO Joint/Combined Service Environment, through sharing of assets and the use of common information generated by UAV systems.
By enabling the interoperability of multiple vehicles from a common STANAG 4586 GCS, operators can operate multiple UAVs of various types with widely different performance characteristics and features.
Levels of Interoperability
The result of standardization creates different levels of interoperability (LOI). The levels are the degree of control that a user has over the air vehicle, payload or both. The document defines five LOI:
- Level 1: Indirect receipt/transmission of UAV related data and metadata.
- Level 2: Direct receipt/transmission of UAV related data and metadata.
- Level 3: Control and monitoring of the UAV payload, not the unit.*
- Level 4: Control and monitoring of the UAV without launch and recovery.*
- Level 5: Control and monitoring of the UAV including launch and recovery. *
*Unless specified control (C) or monitor (M) only.
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