STANAG 4381: Compliance and Required Blackout Lighting Components
STANAG 4381 is the NATO Standardization Agreement that sets the blackout lighting requirements for military ground vehicles. Its full title is Blackout Lighting Systems for Tactical Land Vehicles, and its aim is to guide member nations in the design and application of those systems, so that allied vehicles in one column show the same signals and none of them gives the column away.
This page covers the standard itself: which edition applies, how nations put it into force, what a compliant vehicle must carry, how the light switch controls it, and how to specify and verify compliance. The lamps and how crews use them at night are explained in what is blackout lighting on a vehicle.
STANAG 4381 Lighting Requirements
To meet STANAG 4381, military vehicles must be equipped with specific blackout lights. These lights are tested to ensure reliability, performance, and full compliance with NATO standards.
| Component | Quantity Required | Recommended Models | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackout driving light | 1x | Model 420071 | Provides forward visibility under blackout mode |
| Blackout front marker lights | 2x | Model 420024 | Identifies vehicle presence to friendly forces |
| Rear blackout markers | 2x | Model 420058 (EU version) / 420075 (US version) | Ensures lateral vehicle visibility in convoy formations |
STANAG 4381 Edition 2 and AEP-4381: Which Text Applies
A tender that simply says “STANAG 4381” leaves the most important question open, because more than one text carries that number. Establish the edition before any lamp is selected.
The document most often listed by standards distributors is dated 8 July 1994 and runs to 19 pages. GlobalSpec lists it as inactive and gives no edition number. It references STANAG 4007 (the electrical connector between prime movers and trailers), STANAG 2154 and MIL-STD-1179.
The current agreement, as national implementation shows it, is Edition 2, read together with AEP-4381(A)(1), both titled Blackout Lighting Systems for Tactical Land Vehicles. The split follows NATO practice: the STANAG is the covering agreement in which nations commit to implement a standard, and the Allied Publication carries the technical requirements. Allied Publications are numbered by edition letter and version, so AEP-4381(A)(1) reads as Edition A, Version 1. A major revision produces a new edition of both the STANAG and the AEP. A minor amendment produces only a new version of the AEP, which the STANAG number does not show. That is why a specification should quote both.
We have not found Edition 2 or AEP-4381 in any public source. In practice the most detailed public text is a national implementing standard, described below, and the contracting authority can confirm which edition and national document govern a contract.
How Nations Put the Agreement into Force
A STANAG commits nations to implement a standard in whole or in part, with or without reservation. Each nation then does so through its own documents, so the requirement a supplier meets is the national text, not the NATO blackout lighting agreement alone.
The clearest public example is the Czech defence standard ČOS 254001, Tactical lighting of military vehicles and their chassis. Clause 1.1 states that it introduces STANAG 4381, Ed. 2 and AEP-4381(A)(1) into Czech use. Its record of editions is precise:
- 2nd edition: in force from 2 November 2017.
- Change 1: in force from 12 June 2023.
- Change 2: in force from 5 November 2025, the version current today.
ČOS 254001 applies to military vehicles and chassis supplied to the Czech armed forces. It covers tactical exterior and interior lighting for tracked vehicles, wheeled vehicles and trailers, and it does not cover the normal lighting a vehicle uses on the road. The clause numbers on this page refer to that document.
Other nations publish their own documents, and they do not always match. Germany, for example, has VG 96945-5:2023-04, a detail standard for the blackout stop lamp and blackout rear lamp, and US procurement names military performance specifications such as MIL-PRF-32212A, MIL-PRF-32214 and MIL-PRF-32215A for LED lamps with infrared secure blackout functions. Where a contract names one of these, it governs the lamp design.
Switch Positions and Mode Selection
The lamps only protect a vehicle if the wrong ones cannot come on. ČOS 254001 therefore treats the switch as part of compliance. Clause 6.2.3 requires a multi-position switch within the driver’s reach with three basic positions: normal exterior lighting, all exterior lighting off, and tactical exterior lighting.
- Normal: the special tactical lamps cannot be switched on.
- All off: no normal or tactical light can be switched on.
- Tactical: only the permitted lamps listed above can light, directly or indirectly.
- Night vision sub-position: a subordinate position of the tactical setting for driving with night vision devices, in which only the lights permitted for that purpose can be switched on.
The switch must have a mechanical lock against accidental switching, at least when moving from tactical to normal, and locking between other adjacent positions is recommended. Each position must be permanently labelled and explained in the vehicle manual (6.1.6 and 6.1.7). The point is simple: a driver under blackout conditions must not be able to turn on the service lights with one careless movement.
A trailer behind a towing vehicle without the 12-pin socket can be connected through the 7-pin connection instead, but it then needs its own three-position switch (normal, all off, tactical), and in tactical mode only its rear markers and stop lamps work, controlled from the towing vehicle (6.4.5).
The standard also allows three ways of producing tactical light: special lamps built only for it, masks fitted over normal lamps, or switching normal lamps off, alone or combined (6.1.2). A lamp that emits only prohibited light must be switched off, not masked (6.1.3). Where masks are used, external masks are preferred, and fitting one must not reduce the lamp’s watertightness or require it to be re-aimed (6.1.9 and 6.1.10).
Limits That Decide Whether a Lamp Complies
A lamp can be in the right place and still fail. Four groups of limits in ČOS 254001 decide whether an individual lamp passes.
No infrared component. Clause 6.1.15 states that tactical lighting must not contain an infrared component: the peak emission between 700 and 1200 nm may be no more than 1 per cent of the peak in the visible band, 380 to 700 nm. A visible blackout lamp is therefore deliberately not infrared compatible in the sense that some suppliers claim. Infrared lamps are a separate category, used through night vision devices, and clause 6.1.5 requires that tactical lighting does not restrict the use of those devices.
Colour. The signal colour must be recognisable to the naked eye from at least 100 m (6.1.13). Table 2 gives chromaticity coordinates that fall in the amber range for the front marker (x 0.596, y 0.406) and the stop lamp (x 0.599, y 0.401), and in the red range for the rear marker (x 0.712, y 0.288). The drive light lens, or the lens in its mask, must be blue or blue-green and meet the infrared limit. Other nations’ documents set different colours for some lamps, so check the colour against the text your contract names.
Light output. Table 1 sets minimums as well as maximums for the drive light: 0 cd on the reference axis, then bands from 1 to 8 degrees below it, with the highest permitted value 25 cd at 4 degrees down. It is measured with a 24 V category bulb at about 28 V. The beam must light the road just ahead and send nothing towards an observer.
Environment. Section 7 sets the tests: function across at least minus 40 to plus 55 °C, or the vehicle’s own range if wider, thermal shock, watertightness for lamps below the fording line (immersion at 20 kPa overpressure for one hour, twice, with no water ingress), vibration at the resonant frequency in three axes, and shock at a peak of 147.2 m/s² in three axes.
How to Specify and Verify Compliance
ČOS 254001 has no separate conformity assessment section. Its requirements carry their own test methods, so compliance is shown by test evidence against named clauses and by inspection of the installed system. A specification that works names four things:
- The documents: STANAG 4381 Edition 2 with AEP-4381(A)(1), and the national implementing standard with its edition and change, for example ČOS 254001, 2nd edition, Change 2.
- The vehicle: wheeled, tracked or trailer, which fixes the lamp counts and positions.
- The lamp evidence: infrared spectral measurement to 6.1.15, chromaticity to Table 2, drive light photometry to Table 1, and the section 7 environmental tests.
- The system evidence: switch positions and lock, the night vision sub-position, and the 12-pin trailer connection, checked on the vehicle.
The scope of the work depends on whether the vehicle is new. Clause 1.4 makes compliance mandatory for vehicles whose development, production or import starts after the standard takes effect, and gives vehicles developed, produced or imported under previously approved technical requirements nine months to incorporate it. For vehicles in service it recommends applying the standard during rebuilds, inspections and repairs, to a scope the operator sets.
Beyond the lamps in the table, we supply ready-to-install kits for new vehicles and retrofits, support with NATO codification and NSN requirements, technical documentation and test certificates, and custom solutions for special platforms. Send the vehicle type, the documents your contract names and the switch fitted to info@betalight-tactical.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
The 1994 document is listed by commercial standards distributors. We have not found Edition 2 or AEP-4381(A)(1) in any public source, so ask the contracting authority or your national defence standardisation office for the edition that governs your contract. The Czech implementation, ČOS 254001, is published as a free PDF by the Czech defence standardisation office and is the most detailed public text of the requirements.
Not on its own. ČOS 254001 defines no approval mark or certification scheme for blackout lamps, so “STANAG 4381 compliant” on a datasheet is the supplier’s own statement. It also says nothing about the vehicle: the lamp count, the switch and the trailer connection are part of compliance too. Ask which edition and national document the claim refers to and for the test results behind it, then check the installed system.
Not necessarily. ČOS 254001 lets the tactical and technical requirements for a vehicle type state that it is not fitted with tactical lighting, taking its intended use into account (clause 1.3). The Czech standard also does not apply to road vehicles operated by the armed forces (clause 1.2). Where a vehicle is fitted, the full requirements apply.
Yes, in its national implementation. ČOS 254001 section 6.3 forbids white cab lighting in tactical mode and allows blue-green light for partial lighting, requires instrument lighting to be dimmable down to off without reflections on the cab glass, and asks tracked vehicles to stop light escaping through observation devices or open hatches. Truck cargo areas may use blue-green light up to 42 W in total; where it is switched from the cargo area rather than the cab, the switch needs a mechanical lock.