NATO REPORTING NAME

'NATO reporting names' are unclassified code names for Soviet/Russian and Chinese military equipment. They provide unambiguous and easily understood names in place of Russian terms which may be confusing or even unknown. Much of this so-named equipment is still in use around the world, and NATO reporting names are frequently used.
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NATO maintained lists of these names. The administration of assignment of the names for the Russian and Chinese aircraft is handled by the five-nation 'Air Standardization Coordinating Committee (ASCC)' which consisted of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
The initial letter of the name indicated something about the use of that equipment; for example, fighter aircraft were assigned names beginning with the letter ''F'', bomber aircraft with ''B'', helicopters with ''H'', surface-to-surface missiles with ''S'', and surface-to-air missiles with ''G''. For fixed-wing aircraft, names with one syllable were used for propeller-powered craft, while two-syllable names indicated jet engines. Perhaps the most famous reporting name is that of the SS-1 ballistic missile, the “Scud.”
The United States Department of Defense expands on the NATO reporting names in some cases. NATO refers to surface-to-air missile systems mounted on ships or submarines with the same names as the corresponding land-based systems, but the US DoD assigns a different series of numbers with a different suffix (i.e., SA-N- vs. SA-) for these systems. The names are kept the same as a convenience. Where there is no corresponding system, a new name is devised. Some US DoD nomenclature is included in the following pages and is noted as such.
The Soviet Union did not always assign official “popular names” to its aircraft, although unofficial nicknames were common as in any air force. Generally the Soviet pilots have not used the NATO names, preferring a different Russian nickname. Many of the names, particularily those chosen in the height of the Cold War, were derogatory. The MiG-15 was to be designated 'Falcon', but this was changed to the derogatory 'Fagot' (meaning either 'bundle of firewood' or 'homosexual'). Later names were descriptive or even flattering. Soviet airmen appreciated the MiG-29's codename 'Fulcrum' as an indication of its pivotal role in Russian air defence. The Tu-95's codename 'Bear' has been widely adopted by its operators. Literally hundreds of different names had to be thought up and chosen, so the names covered a wide variety of subjects and include some highly obscure words.
Since there are only so many words that start with a given letter, many aircraft (and other equipment as well) had unusual names. For example, to the layman, “Backfire” sounds like a reference to a plan “backfiring,” but in aeronautics, a “backfire” is a dangerous explosion of fuel out the back of a running jet engine (which can be deadly to ground crews). However, perhaps the Tu-22M was named backfire because it had 2 rear remote-controlled cannon in a turret. The bombers had names starting with the letter ''B'' and names like ''Badger'', ''Bear'', and ''Blackjack'' were also used. “Frogfoot,” the reporting name for the Sukhoi Su-25, references the aircraft’s close air support role. Transports had names starting with ''C'' (as in “cargo”), which resulted in names like ''Careless'' or ''Candid'' as they progressed through the alphabet.
The author Craig Thomas created a fictional NATO reporting name ''Firefox'' for the MiG-31 in his novel Firefox in 1977. The book was later filmatised in 1982 with Clint Eastwood. The real MiG-31 from 1979 got ''Foxhound'' as reporting name.

Contents

Lists of NATO reporting names

Missiles

Aircraft

Submarines

Equipment

External links

Lists of NATO reporting names

Missiles

★ Air-to-air missiles (names start with the letter ''A'')

★ Air-to-surface missiles (names start with the letter ''K'')

★ Anti-tank missiles (names start with the letter ''S'')

★ Surface-to-air missiles (including ship- and submarine-launched, ''G'')

★ Surface-to-surface missiles (including ship- and submarine-launched, ''S'')

Aircraft

★ Bombers (names start with the letter ''B'')

★ Fighters (names start with the letter ''F'')

★ Helicopters (names start with the letter ''H'')

★ Transports (names start with the letter ''C'')

★ Miscellaneous (names start with the letter ''M'')

Submarines

★ Ballistic missile submarines

★ Guided missile submarines

★ Hunter-killer and experimental submarines

Equipment

★ Equipment

External links

★ External list about NATO reporting names

★ Air Standardization Coordinating Committee Site