Towards the single European EMC defence standard AECTP 250-500, and planned updates

The European Commission is supporting one European wide defence (equipment) market, and national standards are preventing such a European-wide approach. Therefore the European Standardisation organisation CEN was asked to create an organisation to rationalize standards for defence procurement. Expert Group 7 was on electromagnetic environmental effects (E³), and especially EMC, while Expert group 15 was on Power Quality. The expert groups delivered databases and reports. In 2009 the European Directive on Defence Procurement was published. This gives a clear preference for international standards: National standards shall not be used in contracts anymore. The preferred standard for defence equipment will be the STANAG 4370, AECTP 500 series. This paper presents the present status and planned updates.