"A NATO Stocking Number is a Unique Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) code assigned by the Codification Bureau of a NATO Member Nation to tangible items repeatedly procured, stocked, stored and issued through their supply system"
What Are NATO Stock Numbers?
Governments are vast and comprised of hundreds of agencies, departments, and units; organization is key. This is especially true when it comes to government contracting and warehousing. One of the numerous ways governments streamline and standardize the procurement process is with NATO Stock Numbers (NSNs), also known as NATO Stocking Numbers.
NSNs have been commonly associated with the United States Military as National Stock Numbers which have evolved from the Federal Stock Numbers developed suring World War II. While the United States Government did in fact develop the codification system, it has long been developed and augmented into a Global System by NATO with the United States being the pre-eminent member of the organization. If we were to be formal, NSN means NATO Stock Number and the terms National Stock Number and Federal Stock Number have long been obsolete.
NSNs are a critical component of Government Procurement because they were created to reduce duplicate items in the Government Inventory and Standardize Requirements for performance, quality control, testing and disposal.
Every year (as of 2022) NATO Countries and Other Countries that use the NATO Stock Number System use NSNs to procure more than Six Trillion US Dollars of products by NSN.
NATO Stocking Numbers (NSNs) are used to identify and manage every physical supply item you could imagine, including tires, aircraft parts, hammers, and lightbulbs. Each item's unique NSN is linked in the structured NATO Stock Number Catalogue to information about the name, price, source, physical/performance characteristics, manufacturer, and dimensions among Other things.