The assignment of an NSN denotes a distinctive item of supply; to eliminate confusion, the number will never be re-used.
Each is represented by 13 characters XXXXXXXXXXXXX which is commonly formatted to highlight each functional block as XXXX-XX-XXX-XXXX.
The NATO Stock Number has been so successful as a Global System of item cataloging that Google and other Search Engines and Global Library Systems now formally recognize the NSN Format of XXXX-XX-XXX-XXXX for a product in the same way they recognize and use the GS1, UPC and EAN Retail Barcodes.
The NATO Supply Classification Group can change over time as the database is maintained.
Some NCB are actively used for special reasons such as LL, LN and LF in the USA.
Some NCB are assigned outside of the NATO Database for Commercial Uses such as CA, CB, CC and CD.
National Codification Bureaus can be suspended and reinstated for many reasons including politics.
The notions of "non-significant number", "interfix" and "batch" are non-longer relevant to modern codification as they originate from the days of Punch-Cards and Mainframe Computers.
The FSN was officially replaced by the NATO Stock Number beginning on September 30, 1974.
On 1 April 2014, NATO unanimously decided to suspend co-operation with the Russian Federation, in response to the Russo-Ukrainian war.
On 18 February 2017, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said he supported the resumption of military cooperation with the NATO alliance.