Nato Non Article 5 Miniature Medal

The NATO Medal is an international military decoration which is awarded to various militaries of the world under the authority of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. 

This medal was created in January 2003 to unify all Balkan operations under one medal, replacing the NATO medals for Former-Yugoslavia, Kosovo and Macedonia. In 2012 it was expanded to include other Non-Article 5 operations such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa, Libya and Pakistan. It can be awarded to civilian or military personnel who have been engaged in, or in direct support of non-article 5 operations conducted by NATO.

NATO medals are identical in design, with a bar worn on the ribbon to identify the specific mission. The bar for the Non Article 5 mission would bear the words 'NON ARTICLE 5' and the ribbon is NATO blue with a central white stripe and a line of silver through the middle of the white stripe.

Qualifying time for the medal is 30 days either continuous or accumulated within the theatre of operations relating to missions in the Balkans after 1st January 2003, and other NATO Non-article 5 missions after July 2012. This medal is only awarded if the recipients hasn't already recieved one of the earlier versions of the medals for these missions.

NATO stopped issuing tour numerals to recognise more than one tour with NATO forces and as such numerals would not be worn on this NATO medal. The Non- Article 5 medal will be issued once to recognize all service in the NATO missions, regardless of the number of tours a member serves. In 2011, the use of numerals to indiacate tours was re-introduced.