The NATO Standardization Office (NSO) (former NATO Standardization Agency, NSA; French: ''Bureau OTAN de normalisation'') is a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

agency created in 1951 to handle

standardization Standardization (American English) or standardisation (British English) is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organiza ...

activities for NATO. The NSA was formed through the merger of the Military Agency for Standardization and the Office for NATO Standardization. During the Agency Reforms, the NSA was transformed to the NATO Standardization Office (NSO) on 1 July 2014, headed by the Director of the NATO Standardization Office (DNSO). The NSO is composed of military and civilian staff that was created to be responsible for standardization for both the Military Committee and the

North Atlantic Council The North Atlantic Council (NAC) is the principal political decision-making body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), consisting of permanent representatives of its member countries. It was established by wikisource:North Atlantic ...

It also provides standardization to NATO members military forces, with the goal of

interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader de ...

between member nations. It is also the responsibility of the NSO to initiate, administrate over and

promulgate Promulgation is the formal proclamation or the declaration that a new statutory or administrative law is enacted after its final approval. In some jurisdictions, this additional step is necessary before the law can take effect. After a new law i ...

Standardization Agreement In NATO, a standardization agreement (STANAG, redundant acronym, redundantly: STANAG agreement) defines processes, procedures, terms, and conditions for common military or technical procedures or equipment between the member countries of the alli ...

(STANAG). NSO headquarters is located at the main NATO headquarters at Boulevard Léopold III, B-1110 Brussels, which is in Haren, part of the

City of Brussels The City of Brussels is the largest List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, municipality and historical City centre, centre of the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, as well as the capital of the French Community of Belgium, the ...

municipality.

History

On October 24, 1950, during the fourth meeting of the Military Committee, was the first instance of there being a need for a standardization agency. The first NATO standardization agency, the Military Standardization Agency (MSA), was established on January 15, 1951 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

(it was later chartered on January 30). The MSA was created for military-only standardization. A year later, the agency was renamed to the Military Agency for Standardization (MAS). In November 1970, the agency was moved to its current location in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, which is also the location of NATO headquarters. A proposal was submitted in 1991 to create the NATO Standardization Agency however it was not created. Instead, a standardization agency for civilian staff was created, the Office for NATO Standardization (ONS). The ONS was established in 1994 and later implemented in 1995 by the

. From 1998 to 2000, NATO formally merged the two agencies, the MAS and the ONS, together and renamed it to the NATO Standardization Agency, which served both the military and civilian staff. On 1 July 2014 the NATO Standardization Agency (NSA) became the NATO Standardization Office (NSO).

Structure

The NSA is an independent agency that receives general oversight and direction from a

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

called the NATO Committee for Standardization (NCS) which are under the authority of the

. The NSA, NCS and the NATO Standardization Staff Group (NSSG) are the components that comprise the NATO Standardization Organization (NSO). The NSA serves as the executive branch of the NSO. The NSSG is a small group of staff which aids the Director in coordinating activities within the agency. Furthermore, the NSA is divided into an administrative unit and five branches: Air, Army, Joint, Naval and Policy and Coordination. The Director of the NATO Standardization Agency (DNSA) is the head authority figure of the NSA. The DNSA serves as the primary advisor to the Military Committee and to the

Secretary General of NATO The secretary general of NATO is the chief civil servant of the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an intergovernmental military alliance with 32 member states. The officeholder is an international diplomat responsible for coordinat ...

. The Director is selected by the NCS after an endorsement from the Military Committee. The Secretary General then formally appoints the DNSA for (normally) a three-year term. The Secretary General of NATO appointed former MAS director

rear admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

Jan H. Eriksen as the first DNSA on October 1, 2001. The current Director of the NATO Standardization Office is Brigadier General Zoltan Gulyas.

List of DNSAs and DNSOs

Standardization Agreements

(STANAG) is a document that defines varies processes, procedures, terms, and conditions for common military and technical procedures or equipment between NATO nations. Once they are adopted by a nation, a STANAG allows members of the alliance to cooperate with that nation. The DNSA is who has the authority to promulgate a STANAG or an Allied Publication (AP). The NSA publishes STANAGs in a database in English and French on their website. This is a partial list of STANAGs with related articles:

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2001 in military history Organizations established in 2001 Standards organisations in Belgium Military standardization Standards organizations Interoperability