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STANAG →
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
- this page is a stub
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — French: Organisation du traité de
l'Atlantique nord (OTAN) — also known as North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental
military alliance between 30 North American and European countries. The organisation
implements the North Atlantic Treaty – signed on 4 April 1949 – and has its headquarters in
Evere (Brussels, Belgium), whilst the headquarters of the Allied Command Operations (SHAPE)
is near Mons (Belgium) [1].
It is the successor to the Western Union (WU), also known as
Brussels Treaty Organisation (BTO) [3].
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NATO equipment on this website
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- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- France
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- Iceland
- Italy
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
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- Norway
- Portugal
- United Kingdom
- United States
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- Albania
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
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- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- North Macedonia
- Norway
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- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Weden
- Türkiye
- United Kingdom
- United States
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Application for membership
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During the Cold War, most European countries –
even some countries outside Europe – had a secret
stay-behind organisation (SBO)
that would be activated in the event of crisis.
Its task was to gather political, economic and military intelligence
and pass it on to its government, which might be in exile at that point.
Some SBOs were also tasked with propaganda, sabotage activities,
liquidations and other types of unorthodox warfare (UW).
Although the SBOs were not part of NATO, their activities were
coordinated – and in some cases controlled – from 1958 onward by NATO's Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC),
from 1976 known as Allied Coordination Committee [4].
➤ Stay-behind organisations in Europe
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Within NATO, there are several ways to identify a specific frequency band,
some of which stem from the Cold War era. Although these band designators are
now obsolete, they are still used in practice. Below are some of the designator
systems used by NATO. In addition,
regular ITU band designators like
HF, VHF and UHF are also used, as are
IEEE band designators.
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| Band | Frequency | Remark |
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| A | 0 - 250 MHz | VLF, LF, MF, HF, VHF — fixed/mobile comms, navigation |
| B | 250 - 500 MHz | VHF, UHF — fixed/mobile comms, satellite, meteo, nav. |
| C | 500 - 1000 MHz | UHF — fixed/mobile comms, radiolocation |
| D | 1 - 2 GHz | UHF — aeronautical comms, radio navigation, satellite |
| E | 2 - 3 GHz | UHF — fixed/mobile comms, radiolocation, nav. satellite |
| F | 3 - 4 GHz | SHF — radiolocation |
| G | 4 - 6 GHz | SHF — fixed/mobile comms, radiolocation |
| H | 6 - 8 GHz | SHF — fixed/mobile satellite |
| I | 8 - 10 GHz | SHF — radiolocation |
| J | 10 - 20 GHz | SHF — fixed/mobile comms, radiolocation |
| K | 20 - 40 GHz | SHF, EHF — fixed/mobile satellite, radiolocation |
| L | 40 - 60 GHz | EHF — fixed/mobile satellite, radiolocation |
| M | 60 - 100 GHz | EHF — fixed/mobile satellite, radiolocation |
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| N | 100 - 200 GHz | US Military / SACLANT |
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- 225 - 400 MHz
- 610 - 960 MHz
- 1350 - 1850 MHz
- 1350 - 2700 MHz
- 4400 - 5000 MHz
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For the procurement radio and/or cryptographic equipment,
NATO regularly organises a so-called evaluation – effectively
a contest – which countries and companies are invited to submit one or
more designs for approval.
The winning offer is then commonly awarded a NATO-wide
supply contract. The following evalations are mentioned on this website:
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- TROL (1962)
The first ideas for a Tapeless Rotorless On-Line cipher machine (TROL)
for telegraphic traffic, date back to 1958, when NATO felt the need to
replace the ageing rotor-based cipher machines
– in particular its KL-7 – and cumbersome
one-time tape machines like
ETCRRM and
Ecolex II,
by a modern self-permuting electronic alternative without moving parts.
Two suitable systems were selected in 1962, the
British BID/610 (ALVIS)
and the American KW-7, but it took until 1967
before their roll out started.
➤ More
- HISPEED (1976)
HISPEED was a NATO-evaluation, held in 1976, for a high-speed
Trunk Encryption Device (TED), also known as a Bulk Encryption Device,
suitable for use over land lines, microwave trunks and satellites.
The contract was awarded to the American KG-81 (WALBURN).
The Dutch contribution to the evaluation, SATCOLEX
was withdrawn in exchange for co-production
of the winning KG-81.
- CEROFF (1982)
In 1974, NATO announced an evaluation for Cipher Equipment Rapid Off-Line
equipment (CEROFF). The match ended in 1982 in a remittance between the
Dutch Aroflex,
made by Philips, and the Norwegian
RACE,
made by STK. The latter is known in the US as
KL-51.
Philips later produced the Picoflex
which is also CEROFF compatible.
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Monday 11 May 2020. Last changed: Monday, 22 September 2025 - 12:44 CET.
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