Code NATO

The “codes NATO” are a designation employed by NATO to name and index the materials Militaire S originating in the country of old the Warsaw Pact.

It applies as well to the fighters, as with the warships, while passing by the Radar S. It is largely inspired by the American code used to indicate Japanese planes during the Second world war. Sails very about it during the Cold war, it remains still nowadays employed even if thanks to the surge of information on the Eastern military material, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is much easier to know the Eastern designation of those.

Introduction

The cover of the secrecy which recovered the Soviet Union and the satellite countries did not make it possible to experience the projects and developments of the armaments of these countries. Often, the new materials were " découverts" by the Westerners at the time of the military reviews such as the procession on the Red Place of Moscow each May 9th (festival of the Victoire of the patriotic Great War or more commonly second world war). Also to allow an identification common and sure to all the countries of NATO, the materials were nomenclatures by a code and a name.

Designation

Taking again the Code McCoy used during the Second world war to indicate the Japanese planes (e.g. Mitsubishi A6M Zeke ), the materials (missiles, planes,…) receive a name; the first letter of this name indicates the type of material:

the names starting with a has , are employed to indicate the air-to-air missiles (e.g.: Vympel R-73 “Archer”)
by a B , serve for the bombers (e.g.: Tupolev You-160 “Blackjack”)
by a C , for the transport aircraft (e.g.: Iliouchine It-76 “Candid”)
by a F , for the hunters (e.g.: Soukhoï Known-27 “Flanker”)
by a G , for the ground-to-air missiles and sea-to-air (e.g.: S-75 Dvina “Guideline”)
by a H , for the Helicopter S (e.g.: Millet Semi-24 “Hind”)
by a K , for the air-to-ground missiles (e.g.: AS-4 “Kitchen”)
by a M , for the Plane S of other type (in-flight refueling, AWACS, two-seater versions of drive until in the Eighties, etc) (e.g.: Iliouchine A-50 “Mainstay”)
by a S , for the ground-to-ground missiles and sea-to-sea missiles (e.g.: 9M114 “Spiral”)
the classes of ships receives a name (of which the initial one does not have significance)

classes of the Soviet/Russian submarines receive a name which is a word of the Alphabet radio operator (for example Classe Esparto, Classe Kilo; some exceptions with the classes Akula and Typhoon)
the classes of Chinese submarines receive a name which is a Chinese imperial dynasty (for example Classe Ming, Classe Song)

This name perhaps followed by a letter which incrementing itself in the alphabetical order indicates the versions of the material such as they are supposed or known by NATO. For example, the Mig-21F-13, was seen allotting the code NATO “Fishbed-C”, which saw the third version of the there Mig-21.

Moreover, the planes equipped with propellers have a name made up of a syllable (ex: It-18 Coot ), and apparatuses with reaction, two syllables (ex: Mig-23 Flogger ). There is no similar rule for the helicopters.

The code

Note: The following part is false. Indeed, there one speaks about designations of Soviet, not of NATO! and generally, the research department was not known during the cold war. Moreover good number of names were create of all parts by Western press articles: Known-19 (in fact Known-24), Known-21 (Known-15 modernized) or Known-27KU (Known-27IB/Su-34)…

for the aircraft, the research department being generally known, one allotted to each manufacturer a code (''' MiG ''' for ''' Mikoyan and Gourevitch ''', ''' It ''' for ''' Illiouchine ''', etc) followed by a sequence number, odd for the hunter, par for all the others.

Note: This part also is false: they are the codes of American DoD, not of the ESA used by NATO.

For the missiles, have attribent a code to them (''' SA ''' for Surface to Air, ''' SN ''' for Surface to Naval Air, ''' AA ''' for Air to Air, ''' ACE ''' for Air to Surface, ''' S ''' for Surface to Surface and ''' Naval SN ''' for Surface to Surface) followed by a number of chronological order of their identification. A letter can also supplement this code if several alternatives are identified (ex ''' SA-2C Guideline ''' for the third known version of this missile).

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Bonds

the page of Designation-systems.net on codes NATO. An extremely complete page which lists all known names to date.

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