Quick question, How do people in the military name military equipment, tanks, jets, operations and etc.?
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Originally posted by wkllaw View PostQuick question, How do people in the military name military equipment, tanks, jets, operations and etc.?
But seriously....you'll need to be more specific with your question ;)
Which country? Which branch of the military? The official or unofficial names? The alphanumeric designators or the "proper noun" name?“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
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Originally posted by TopHatter View PostAs unnecessarily complicated as possible
But seriously....you'll need to be more specific with your question ;)
Which country? Which branch of the military? The official or unofficial names? The alphanumeric designators or the "proper noun" name?Those who can't change become extinct.
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Indeed.
NATO Reporting Names (an area I know fairly well), have a variety of different methods for them.
Submarines were designated, randomly, by the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, then the thing jumped onto Russian fish words ("Akula"- shark), before the Cold War ended. Borey is the actual Russian class name. "Typhoon" seems to have arisen from a Brezhnev speech where he used the Russian word to describe a new type of SSBN.
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Generally speaking, tanks are named after Generals; Stuart, Sherman, Walker, Pershing, Patton (5 different models), Abrams, Bradley, etc.
Of course, lately the Army has been changing its mind as to what is a tank (Abrams) and what is a full-tracked, well-armed support vehicle (Bradley).
The Navy has changed its naming of ships where it is almost shameful now.
Originally, Submarines were named after fish, Destroyers named after Naval or Marine war heroes, Cruisers after cities, Battleships after states, Aircraft Carriers after Revelutionary War ships or battles (Bonne Homme Richard and Ranger were two ships commanded by John Paul Jones, Saratoga and Lexington were battles) with only one named after a Secretary of the Navy who later became President (Roosevelt). Additionally oilers are named after rivers, ammunition ships after volcanos, tugboats were named after Indian tribes (Quapaw) and minesweepers were named after adjectives (Endeavor).
Now, attack submarines are named after cities (Los Angeles), Polaris and Poseidon boomers after Revolutionary heros (Patrick Henry) and Trident boomers after states (Ohio).
Surface nuclear powered cruisers were originally named after cities as conventionally powered cruisers were. Then for some reason they were changed to being named after states.
Large Destroyers, originally named Destroyer Leaders, were reclassified as cruisers though they kept their Naval hero names.
From there on, I'm totally confused, frustrated and ashamed at the lack of Navy imagination and
intelligence.
Note: As with the Army, I do not put
intellignence
on the same line as with the Navy.
As for aircraft, I don't think there is much thought given to what to name the type although fighters are usually given snazzy names such as Warhawk (British called it the Tomahawk), Hellcat, Ligntning, Mustang, Sabre, Tomcat, Nighthawk, Raptor, etc.
I don't think they started given serious thought to naming types of bombers until WW II when we started off with the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-29 Super Fortress, B-52 Strato-Fortress, B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit. The only one I know of named after a person was the B-25 Mitchell that gained fame with carrying out the first bombing raid over Japan in WW II.Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.
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Originally posted by RustyBattleship View PostAs for aircraft, I don't think there is much thought given to what to name the type although fighters are usually given snazzy names such as Warhawk (British called it the Tomahawk), Hellcat, Ligntning, Mustang, Sabre, Tomcat, Nighthawk, Raptor, etc.
Grumman's naval fighters typically followed a "feline" naming scheme: Wildcat, Hellcat, Tigercat, Bearcat, Tiger, Panther, Cougar, Tomcat (did I miss any?) but that's a thing of past, what with Grumman being pretty much out of the naval fighter business.
Could there be a single aircraft with more "hawk" variation nicknames than the Curtiss P-40? Tomahawk, Kittyhawk, Warhawk. Sheesh!
Wikipedia's entry:
Warhawk was the name the United States Army Air Corps adopted for all models, making it the official name in the United States for all P-40s. British Commonwealth air forces gave the name Tomahawk to models equivalent to the P-40B and P-40C, and the name Kittyhawk to models equivalent to the P-40D and all later variants.“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
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thanks for the info Rusty. Its something ive also always wondered about.
I mean USS Iowa yawn....... when compared to HMS Warspite now thats how you name a battleshipFor Gallifrey! For Victory! For the end of time itself!!
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Originally posted by dave lukins View PostOne of the UK's, for a fire bucket is .."Buckets wet water, for the use of":)
For example, the Garand rifle was Rifle, Caliber 30, M-1.
The 30 carbine was Carbine, Caliber 30, M-1.
As you can see mistakes can be easily made.
Before that things had the year they were adopted by the army in their designation, like Sub Machinegun, Caliber 45, M-1927...I think that's the designation for the old style Tommy gun.
And there was the Rifle, Caliber 30, M-1903, Springfield.
The military also likes acronyms. I think they come up with a word and then make up crap to fill it.
MOAB - Massive Ordinance, Air Blast (mother of all bombs)"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
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Acronyms:
One of our design sections that designed habitability items such as berthing, sanitary spaces, mess decks, etc. almost got by with a shoulder patch design and name as; SHIP HABITABILITY INSPECTION TEAM.
Somebody highter up didn't think it would make a good acronym.Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.
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Originally posted by wkllaw View PostQuick question, How do people in the military name military equipment, tanks, jets, operations and etc.?"So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3
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