ACC6 (alternate control centre Note: Pertaining to telecommunications.)

ACC6 is a NATO abbreviation that stands for alternate control centre. The NATO glossary attaches a note to the entry stating that the term pertains to telecommunications. The French equivalent NATO gives is centre de commande secondaire.

The abbreviation is listed in AAP-15, the Glossary of NATO acronyms and abbreviations. It is a terminology entry, a shorthand with an agreed English and French expansion. It is not a standard, a contract clause or a named program.

What the NATO glossary entry says

The AAP-15 entry gives three pieces of information about ACC6. The first is the expansion, alternate control centre. The second is the subject-area note, which places the term in telecommunications. The third is the French equivalent, centre de commande secondaire.

The glossary is bilingual, with English acronyms and abbreviations paired with their French counterparts. That pairing matters to Canadian readers, because Canada works in both official languages and NATO documents carry English and French forms side by side.

• Abbreviation: ACC6
• Expansion: alternate control centre
• Subject area: telecommunications
• French equivalent: centre de commande secondaire
• Source: AAP-15, Glossary of NATO acronyms and abbreviations

How NATOTerm fits in

NATO's official terminology database is NATOTerm. It contains non-classified military terminology and non-military terminology that is relevant to NATO. The NATO Terminology Office maintains it, and that office sits within the NATO Standardization Office.

Readers who want to check how NATO uses a term in other documents can start from NATOTerm, which is NATO's own reference point for terminology. The AAP-15 glossary is the document that directly defines ACC6.

ACC6 is not AC-6

ACC6 is easy to confuse with AC-6, which appears in Canadian cyber security guidance. AC-6 is a security control named Least privilege. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security lists it in Annex 4 of ITSG-41. Its guidance on managing and controlling administrative privileges covers the same area of access control.

The two terms are unrelated. AC-6 concerns limiting user and system privileges. ACC6 is a NATO telecommunications term for a secondary control facility. A search that mixes them up will return Canadian information-security material that has nothing to do with an alternate control centre.

What it means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

The NATO definition on its own does not create a Canadian procurement requirement. The NATO glossary establishes what ACC6 means. It does not say that any Canadian department or agency uses the term in solicitations, or that any contract type includes it.

A bid team that meets ACC6 in a NATO-related document should read it as alternate control centre in a telecommunications context. If a Canadian solicitation uses the abbreviation, the definitions and requirements stated in that solicitation govern the bid. Teams should also confirm that the reference is not a mistaken use of AC-6, the least privilege control, before scoping a response.