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  • Naming of military things

    Quick question, How do people in the military name military equipment, tanks, jets, operations and etc.?
    Those who can't change become extinct.

  • #2
    Originally posted by wkllaw View Post
    Quick question, How do people in the military name military equipment, tanks, jets, operations and etc.?
    One of the UK's, for a fire bucket is .."Buckets wet water, for the use of":)

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    • #3
      Originally posted by wkllaw View Post
      Quick question, How do people in the military name military equipment, tanks, jets, operations and etc.?
      As 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?
      “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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      • #4
        What TopHatter said.

        Note especially Soviet/Russian and Chinese military tech, which can have three designations at times.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
          As 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?
          How about the U.S military and how they name their operations for starters?
          Those who can't change become extinct.

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          • #6
            Initially names are randomly generated for op sec reasons and most remain with those names but major operations might be renamed for political reasons "Just Cause, Desert Sheild etc."

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            • #7
              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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              • #8
                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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                • #9
                  Also try this site for traditional naming of US Navy ships:

                  Naming Ships - Navy Ships
                  Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
                    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.
                    Occasionally there's a coherent naming scheme for aircraft. Occasionally.

                    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.
                    Harking back to classic aircraft for naming new aircraft is pretty popular, which in the case of the F-35 Lightning II happily accommodates both the Americans (the Lockheed P-38) and the British (English Electric's classic interceptor).
                    “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.”

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      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 battleship
                      For Gallifrey! For Victory! For the end of time itself!!

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by dave lukins View Post
                        One of the UK's, for a fire bucket is .."Buckets wet water, for the use of":)
                        Yeah, this is the boring and technical style.

                        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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                        • #13
                          Much in vogue during my uniformed service was ABC Mushrooms, standing for All Been Changed - and Mushrooms are traditionaly kept in the dark all week and are fed crap on weekends.
                          Semper in excretum. Solum profunda variat.

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                          • #14
                            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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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by wkllaw View Post
                              Quick question, How do people in the military name military equipment, tanks, jets, operations and etc.?
                              I named routes in my areas of operation after 80's hair/metal bands. Only a small probability that others would use the same names, thereby creating confusion.
                              "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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