Rationalisation of european EMC defence standards

National standards for defence equipment have been used for decades. Several of them are copies of, or based on, the good-old MIL-STD 461, others are real national standards, such as the (excellent) German VG series. But the standards are being used mainly in national contracts. 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. One of the expert groups was on electromagnetic environmental effects (E
³
), or EMC. The expert group delivered a database and report in 2005. In 2010 an update was made, also because of the publication of the European Directive on Defence Procurement, which 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.