NATO Military Symbols for Land Based Systems

Symbol of the Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division in modern NATO symbology

Allied Procedural Publication 6A (APP-6A) Military Symbols for Land Based Systems was the NATO standard for military map marking symbols. APP-6A was promulgated in December 1999. The NATO standardization agreement that covers APP-6A is STANAG 2019 (edition 4), promulgated in December 2000. APP-6A replaced APP-6 (last version, July 1986), which had been promulgated in November 1984 (edition 3 of STANAG 2019 covered APP-6), and was replaced in turn by APP-6B in 2008. The U.S. is the current custodian of APP-6A. The initialism APP (pronounced "a-pee-pee") stands for Allied Procedural Publication.

APP-6A's American equivalent standard is MIL-STD-2525A, Common Warfighting Symbology; the contents are essentially identical, but MIL-STD-2525 has been evolving faster than NATO's APP-6. MIL-STD-2525 was issued in September 1994, MIL-STD-2525A in December 1996, MIL-STD-2525A Change 1 in July 1997, MIL-STD-2525B in January 1999, MIL-STD-2525B Change 1 in July 2005, MIL-STD-2525B Change 2 in March 2007, and MIL-STD-2525C in November 2008. APP-6A is considerably different from APP-6, while the successive versions of MIL-STD-2525 more or less maintain continuity. APP-6B seems to be a subset of MIL-STD-2525C.

The APP-6A standard provides common operational symbology along with details on their display and plotting to ensure the compatibility, and to the greatest extent possible, the interoperability of NATO Land Component Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Intelligence (C4I) systems, development, operations, and training. APP-6A addresses the efficient transmission of symbology information through the use of a standard methodology for symbol hierarchy, information taxonomy, and symbol identifiers.

These symbols are designed to enhance NATO’s joint interoperability by providing a standard set of common symbols. APP-6A constitutes a single system of joint military symbology for land based formations and units, which can be displayed for either automated map display systems or for manual map marking. It covers all of the joint services and can be used by them.

Symbol sets

APP-6A recognises five broad sets of symbols, each set using its own SIDC (Symbol identification coding) scheme:

• Units, Equipment, and Installations
• Military Operations (Tactical graphics)
• METOC (Meteorological and Oceanographic)
• Signals Intelligence
• MOOTW (Military Operations Other Than War)

Units, Equipment, and Installations consist of icons, generally framed, associated with a single point on the map. All sorts of graphical and textual modifiers may surround them, specifying categories, quantities, dates, direction of movement, etc.

Tactical graphics represent operational information that cannot be presented via icon-based symbols alone: unit boundaries, special area designations, and other unique markings related to battlespace geometry and necessary for battlefield planning and management. There are point, line and area symbols in this category.

Meteorological and oceanographic symbology is the only set not under the standard's control: rather, they are imported from the symbology established by the World Meteorological Organization.

The Signals Intelligence and Military Operations Other Than War symbology sets stand apart from Units, Equipment, and Installations although they obey the same conventions (i.e., they consist of framed symbols associated to points on the map). They do not appear in APP-6A proper, having been introduced by MIL-STD-2525B.

Icon-based symbols

Most of the symbols designate specific points, and consist of a frame (a geometric border), a fill, a constituent icon, and optional symbol modifiers. The latter are optional text fields or graphic indicators that provide additional information.

The frame provides a visual indication of the affiliation, battle dimension, and status of an operational object. The use of shape and colour is redundant, allowing the symbology to be used under less-than-ideal conditions such as a monochrome red display to preserve the operator's night vision. Nearly all symbols are highly stylised and can be drawn by persons almost entirely lacking in artistic skill; this allows one to draw a symbolic representation (a GRAPHREP, Graphical report) using tools as rudimentary as plain paper and pencil.

The frame serves as the base to which other symbol components and modifiers are added. In most cases a frame surrounds an icon. One major exception is equipment, which may be represented by icons alone (in which case the icons are coloured as the frame would be).

The fill is the area within a symbol. If the fill is assigned a colour, it provides an enhanced (redundant) presentation of information about the affiliation of the object. If colour is not used, the fill is transparent. A very few icons have fills of their own, which are not affected by affiliation.

The icons themselves, finally, can be understood as combinations of elementary glyphs that use simple composition rules, in a manner reminiscent of some ideographic writing systems such as Chinese. The standard, however, still attempts to provide an "exhaustive" listing of possible icons instead of laying out a dictionary of component glyphs. This causes operational problems when the need for an unforeseen symbol arises (particularly in MOOTW), a problem exacerbated by the administratively centralised maintenance of the symbology sets.

Unit icons

The icon is the innermost part of a symbol which, when displayed, provides an abstract pictorial or alphanumeric representation of an operational object. The icon portrays the role or mission performed by the object. APP-6A distinguishes between icons that must be framed or unframed and icons where framing is optional.

Unit symbol	Unit type
	Air Defence
	Ammunition
	Anti-tank
	Armour (Stylized tank treads)
	Field artillery (Simplified version of the Artillery insignia, a cannonball)
	Aviation (rotary wing)
	Aviation (fixed wing)
	Bridging
	Combat Service Support
	Engineer
	Electronic Warfare
	Explosive Ordnance Disposal
	Fuel (POL: Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants)
	Hospital (personnel)
	HQ
	Infantry (evocative of the crossed bandoliers of Napoleonic infantry)
	Maintenance
	Medical
	Meteorological
	Missile
	Mortar
	Military Police (or "SP" for Shore Patrol)
	Navy
	NBC Defence
	Ordnance
	Radar
	Psychological Operations
	Reconnaissance (or cavalry; inspired by the cavalry's sabre strap)
	Signals
	Special Forces
	Special Operations Forces
	Supply
	Topographical
	Transportation
	Unmanned Air Vehicle

Equipment icons

Equipment icons are "frame optional".

Equipment symbol (framed)	(unframed)	Equipment type
		Bridge (e.g. AVLB)

Installation icons

Installation symbol	Installation type
	Bridge production

Modifier Icons

These unit type symbols can be combined, for example to represent armoured infantry units. There are also symbols that can be used to modify other unit symbols (they cannot appear by themselves):

Modifier symbol	Meaning
	Airborne (including Air Assault and Paratrooper forces)
	Paratrooper
	Airmobile
	Airmobile with organic lift
	Amphibious
	Motorized
	Mountain
	Rocket
	Wheeled

Common combinations

Some of the most common combinations are:

Modifier symbol	Meaning
	Mountain Infantry examples: Italy's Alpini, Germany's Gebirgsjäger, France's Chasseurs Alpins, United States 10th Mountain Division
	Parachute Infantry example: 82nd Airborne Division (United States), Division Spezielle Operationen (Germany), United Kingdom's Parachute Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (Australia)
	Airmobile Infantry example: 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Jägerregiment 1
	Mechanized Infantry example: US 3rd Infantry Division (equipment example: M113 APC),
	Combined Arms (new symbol for the Maneuver Elements of the US Heavy Brigade Combat Teams) example: US 1st Armored Division
	Mechanized Infantry equipped with Infantry Fighting Vehicles equipment examples: M2 Bradley, BMP-3, Dardo IFV
	Amphibious Mechanized Infantry example: 1st Marine Regiment (United States) when Amphibious Assault Vehicle units are attached.
	Mechanized Infantry (wheeled-"medium") equipment examples: 3rd Brigade (US 2nd Infantry Division), Stryker, Patria AMV, Mowag Piranha, BTR-80, Freccia (with machine gun turrets)
	Mechanized Infantry (wheeled-"medium") equipped with wheeled Infantry Fighting Vehicles equipment examples: Stryker, Patria AMV, Mowag Piranha, BTR-90, Freccia (with autocannon turrets)
	Tank Destroyer equipment examples: B1 Centauro, AMX 10 RC
	Wheeled Armoured Reconnaissance equipment examples: Fennek, VBL, BRDM-2, ASLAV
	Armoured Engineers equipment examples: M60A1 AVLB, Bergepanzer BPz3. Also engineers mounted in IFVs such as Bradley or Warrior.
	Self-propelled Anti-Aircraft Artillery equipment examples: FlaKPz Gepard, SA-19 "Grison", Type 95 SPAAA
	Armoured Artillery equipment examples: M109 howitzer, PzH 2000, 2S19 Msta, AS90
	Mountain Artillery equipment example: OTO Melara Mod 56
	Multiple Rocket Launcher equipment example: M270 MLRS
	Wheeled Multiple Rocket Launcher equipment example: HIMARS, Pinaka, BM-27 Uragan, Astros II MLRS
	Missile Air Defence equipment example: MIM-104 Patriot, Roland
	Attack Helicopter equipment examples: AH-64 Apache, AH-1 Cobra, Eurocopter Tiger, Mil Mi-28, Kamov Ka-50, Agusta A129 Mangusta
	Medium Transport Helicopter equipment examples: CH-53E Super Stallion, CH-46 Sea Knight, UH-60 Blackhawk, Mi-17 Hip
	Aerial refueling equipment examples: KC-135 Stratotanker, Il-78 Midas
	an Airmobile Supply Transport Unit

Unit sizes

Above the unit symbol, a symbol representing the size of the unit can be displayed:

Symbol	Name	Typical no. of personnel	No. of subordinate units	Typical rank of leader (Commonwealth and USA)
XXXXXX	Region or Theatre (very rare in peacetime)	250,000+	Several army groups	Commonwealth:Field Marshal US:General of the Army
XXXXX	Army Group (rare in peacetime)	120,000+	Several armies	Commonwealth:Field Marshal US:General of the Army
XXXX	Army	100,000	Nominally several corps, typically 5–10 Divisions	General
XXX	Corps	30,000–60,000	Several divisions	Lieutenant General
XX	Division	10,000–20,000	Nominally several Brigades, typically ~10 Battalions plus support units	Major General
X	Brigade or Commonwealth Regiment [Administrative]	2,000–5,000 U.S, 4,000–20,000 Commonwealth	Several U.S. Battalions or 2–50 Commonwealth tactical (field) Regiments. Largest permanent grouping for Commonwealth units	Commonwealth: Brigadier or Major General US: Colonel
III	Group or Commonwealth Regiment [Tactical]	500–2,000	3–7 Battalions or Wings.	Colonel or Commonwealth Group Captain
II	Battalion or equivalent, e.g. Commonwealth Regiment (some countries/arms only) & Wing or U.S. Cavalry Squadron	300–1,000	2–6 Companies, Batteries, U.S. Troops, or Commonwealth Squadrons	Lieutenant colonel or Commonwealth Wing Commander
I	Company or equivalent, e.g. Commonwealth Squadron or U.S. Artillery Battery & Cavalry Troop	60–250	Several U.S. Platoons or Commonwealth Platoons/Troops/Flights	Captain or Squadron Leader assisted by a First Lieutenant or Flight Lieutenant Also assisted by a Company Sergeant Major, Master Aircrew/Warrant Officer (Commonwealth) or by a First Sergeant (US)
•••	Platoon or equivalent, e.g. Commonwealth Flight & Troop (certain corps/armies only) or French Army Section	25–40	Several squads, sections, or vehicles	Commonwealth: Lieutenant or Flight Lieutenant assisted by a Staff Sergeant, Colour Sergeant or Flight Sergeant US: Second Lieutenant assisted by a Sergeant First Class (or Staff Sergeant in USMC)
••	Section or Squad [implies inherent light machine gun]	7–13	2–3 Fireteams	Commonwealth: Corporal or Sergeant US: Sergeant or Staff Sergeant
•	Crew or Patrol [implies absence of light machine gun]	5–10	1–2 Fireteams	Commonwealth: Corporal or sergeant US: Sergeant or Staff Sergeant
Ø	Fireteam	3–5	n/a	Commonwealth: Lance Corporal or Corporal US: Corporal or Sergeant
ø	Fire and maneuver team	2	n/a	n/a

Status

The status of a symbol refers to whether a warfighting object exists at the location identified (i.e., status is "present") or will in the future reside at that location (i.e., status is "planned, anticipated, suspected," or "on order"). Regardless of affiliation, present status is indicated by a solid line and planned status by a dashed line. The frame is solid or dashed, unless the symbol icon is unframed, in which case the icon itself is drawn dashed. Planned status cannot be shown if the symbol is an unframed filled icon.

Affiliation

Affiliation refers to your relationship to the operational object being represented. The basic affiliation categories are Unknown, Friend, Neutral, and Hostile. In the ground unit domain, a yellow quatrefoil frame is used to denote unknown affiliation, a blue rectangle frame to denote friendly affiliation, a green square frame to denote neutral affiliation, and a red diamond frame to denote hostile affiliation. In the other domains (air and space, sea surface and subsurface, etc.), the same color scheme is used.

Unknown	Friend	Neutral	Hostile

The full set of affiliations is:

• Pending (P)
• Unknown (U)
• Assumed Friend (A)
• Friend (F)
• Neutral (N)
• Suspect (S) (Assumed Hostile)
• Hostile (H)
• Exercise Pending (G)
• Exercise Unknown (W)
• Exercise Assumed Friend (M)
• Exercise Friend (D)
• Exercise Neutral (L)
• Joker (J) (Exercise Suspect)
• Faker (K) (Exercise Hostile)

There are no "Assumed Neutral" and "Exercise Assumed Neutral" affiliations.

Battle dimension

Battle dimension defines the primary mission area for the operational object within the battlespace. An object can have a mission area above the Earth's surface (i.e., in the air or outer space), on it, or below it. If the mission area of an object is on the surface, it can be either on land or sea. The subsurface dimension concerns those objects whose mission area is below the sea surface (e.g., submarines and sea mines). Some cases require adjudication; for example, an Army or Marine helicopter unit is a manoeuvring unit (i.e., a unit whose ground support assets are included) and is thus represented in the land dimension. Likewise, a landing craft whose primary mission is ferrying personnel or equipment to and from shore is a maritime unit and is represented in the sea surface dimension. A landing craft whose primary mission is to fight on land, on the other hand, is a ground asset and is represented in the land dimension.

Closed frames are used to denote the land and sea surface dimensions, frames open at the bottom denote the air/space dimension, and frames open at the top denote the subsurface dimension.

Air and Space	Ground	Sea surface	Subsurface
Friend
Neutral
Hostile
Unknown

An unknown battle dimension is possible; for example, some electronic warfare signatures (e.g., radar systems) are common to several battle dimensions and would therefore be assigned an "Unknown" battle dimension until further discrimination becomes possible.

The full set of battle dimensions is:

• Space (P)
• Air (A)
• Ground (G)
• Sea Surface (S)
• Sea Subsurface (U)
• SOF (F)
• Other (X)
• Unknown (Z)

The letter in parentheses is used by the Symbol identification coding (SIDC) scheme —strings of 15 characters used to transmit symbols.

The Space and Air battle dimensions share a single frame shape. In the Ground battle dimension, two different frames are used for the Friendly (and Assumed Friendly) affiliations in order to distinguish between units and equipment. The SOF (Special Operations Forces) are assigned their own battle dimension because they typically can operate across several domains (air, ground, sea surface and subsurface) in the course of a single mission; the frames are the same as for the Ground (unit) battle dimension. The Other battle dimension, finally, seems to be reserved for future use (there are no instances of its use as of 2525B Change 1).

Symbol modifiers

APP-6A stops with field AB. MIL-STD-2525B and 2525B Change 1 add a number of other modifiers.

Positions of the various graphic modifiers around the symbol (itself field A). MIL-STD-2525B Change 1 fails to specify where to place fields AD, AE, and AF.

Graphic modifiers

• Echelon (field B) Identifies command level (see Unit sizes, below).
• Task Force (field D) Identifies a unit as a task force. It may be used alone or in combination with Echelon, like so:
• Frame Shape Modifier (field E) A short textual modifier that completes the affiliation, battle dimension, or exercise description of an object ("U", "?", "X", "XU", "X?", "J" or "K"). It is treated as a graphic modifier, however.
• Direction of Movement (field Q) A fixed-length arrow that identifies the direction of movement or intended movement of an object. It emanates from the symbol's centre except in the ground domain, where it is hooked to a short offset, straight down from the symbol's base centre (see diagram).
• Mobility Indicator (field R) Depicts the mobility of an object (see Mobility, below). It is used only with equipment.
• Headquarters Staff or Offset Location (field S) Identifies a unit as a headquarters, or indicates the object's actual location on the map when it has been shifted away in order to declutter the display. It goes straight down from the symbol's centre left, then angles towards the actual location (see diagram).
• Feint/Dummy (field AB) Identifies a unit intended to draw the enemy’s attention away from the area of the main attack, or a decoy designed to fool enemy intelligence. It consists of a dashed chevron, placed above the frame, like the echelon graphic modifier (the standard is unclear as to how the two combine graphically). See Feints/Dummies, below.
• Installation (field AC) Identifies a particular symbol as an installation. It sits atop the frame. See Installations, below.
• Auxiliary Equipment (field AG) Indicates the presence of a towed sonar array (used exclusively in the sea surface or subsurface battle dimensions). It sits below the frame, like field R (see Auxiliary equipment, below).
• Area of Uncertainty (field AH) Indicates the area where an object is most likely to be, based on the object’s last report and the reporting accuracy of the sensor that detected it. This can take various forms, such as an ellipse, a bounding box, or lines indicating probable bearing and distance.
• Dead Reckoning Trailer (field AI) Identifies where an object should be located at present, given its last reported course and speed. This can take the form of a dotted line (extending from the symbol to the dead-reckoned position) or a dotted circle (bounding the zone the object may have reached since, when the direction of movement is unknown or uncertain).
• Speed Leader (field AJ) Depicts the speed and direction of movement of an object. It is identical to the Direction of Movement indicator except that its length is variable (and there is no arrow head).
• Pairing Line (field AK) Connects two objects.

Feints/dummies and installations

Feint/Dummy	Installations

Mobility and auxiliary equipment

Wheeled (limited cross-country)	Wheeled cross-country	Tracked	Half-tracked	Towed	Railway
Snowmobile	Sled	Pack animals	Barge	Amphibious
		Short towed array (typ. sonar)		Long towed array (typ. sonar)

Text modifiers

• Quantity (field C) Identifies the number of equipment items present.
• Reinforced or Reduced (field F) Displays (+) for reinforced, (-) for reduced, (±) for reinforced and reduced.
• Staff Comments (field G)
• Additional Information (field H)
• Evaluation Rating (field J) A letter-and-number reliability and credibility rating, assigned by Intelligence.
• Combat Effectiveness (field K)
• Signature Equipment (field L) Used for hostile equipment; "!" indicates a detectable electronic signature.
• Higher Formation (field M) Number or title of higher echelon command.
• Hostile (Enemy) (field N) "ENY" denotes hostile equipment.
• IFF/SIF (field P) IFF/SIF Identification modes and codes.
• SIGINT Mobility Indicator (field R2) "M" for Mobile, "S" for Static, "U" for Uncertain.
• Unique Designation (field T)
• Type (field V)
• Date/Time Group (DTG) (field W) Indicates the symbol's date and time stamp.
• Altitude/Height/Depth (field X)
• Location (field Y) Location in degrees, minutes, and seconds (or in UTM or other applicable display format).
• Speed (field Z) Velocity as set forth in MIL-STD-6040.
• Special C2 Headquarters (field AA)
• Platform Type (field AD) "ELNOT" (Electronic Intelligence Notation) or "CENOT" (Communications Intelligence Notation)
• Equipment Teardown Time (field AE) In minutes.
• Common Identifier (field AF) Example: "Hawk" for a Hawk SAM system.

Other information

On the lower left of the unit symbol, the name of the unit can be displayed; on the lower right, the name of the unit it is part of can be displayed (if applicable).

For example, the symbol for the A company of the (friendly) 42nd armored infantry battalion would look like this:

A hostile motorised anti-tank division (something that probably would not occur in reality, but presented here as an example) would look like this:

APP-6 organization chart of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF):

Structure of the 1st MEF (click to enlarge)

References

• 2525C manuals from Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
• UK Interim APP-6A Manual (zipped PDF file) Note: this document has since been replaced with Issue 1.2, dated December 2003
• Thibault, D. U.; Commented APP-6A – Military Symbols for Land Based Systems, Defence R&D Canada – Valcartier, Technical Note TN 2005-222 (2005-08-01) (cover document)

External links

• Korean War-era map symbols at ARMY.MIL
• The map symbols as TrueType Fonts
• NATO map symbols in Canadian use
• an online tool for generating symbols
• MIL-STD-2525C