The NATO Army Armaments Group (NAAG) Integrated Capability Group Indirect Fires (ICGIF), formerly Land Group 4, and their Sub Group 2 (SG2) on Surface to Surface Ballistics has created a widely used set of shareable fire control software using the Ada programming language. This product is known as the SG2 Shareable (Fire Control) Software Suite (S4) and is sometimes abbreviated as S4 when referenced.
Fire-control system developers and most of the international (primarily NATO) ballistics communities are familiar with the mature NATO Armaments Ballistic Kernel (NABK) and other software component items that have emerged from the NABK development effort. The collection of these software items has been enhanced into the “suite” of NATO shareable fire control software.
S4 is one of the biggest pluses for NATO interoperability in the fire support domain and ammunition shareability. Quoting a recent article entitled "The NATO ammunition interchangeability challenge in the Land Domain" published in European Security and Defence at the end of 2025 (https://euro-sd.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/ESD_12_2025_01_2026_WEB.pdf) by Osman Tasman, "the SG/2 standards portfolio covers <...> and the famous NATO SG2 (standard) Shareable Software Suite (S4) for fire control."
Significant development effort occurs in Aberdeen, Maryland, USA in the Firing Tables and Ballistics (FTaB) Division, Armaments Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) with contributions from a variety of agencies within participating NATO nations.
NATO Standardization Agreements (STANAGS) and Supporting Research The S4 implements a variety of NATO Standardization Agreements (STANAGs) including STANAG 4355 and STANAG 6022.
A number of papers and presentations have been published, such as a formal description of the early history of the suite and a later presentation in the International Symposium of Ballistics (ISB) forum sponsored by the International Ballistics Society (IBS).
Professur für Mess- und Informationstechnik (S4 testing research and related contributions by Germany)
Professur für Mess- und Informationstechnik (Crest Clearance algorithm contributions by Germany)
Integrating Weapon Systems
Specific examples include:
Canada
Denmark
France
Germany Panzerhaubitze 2000 Artillery Gun Module
Norway
Sweden
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
References
External links
NABK BASED NEXT GENERATION BALLISTIC TABLE TOOLKIT, Sevsay Aytar Ortac, Umut Durak, Umit Kutluay, Koray Kucuk, Maj. Can Candan, 23RD INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BALLISTICS, TARRAGONA, SPAIN 16-20 APRIL 2007