NATO Reporting Names

In the days of the Cold War, we (meaning "The West") often had no idea what the Soviets called this or that piece of military hardware. Sometimes the hardware was so widespread and common that the name leaked out, like the AK-47 and the T55 and the MiG-21. But for tanks, artillery, and guided missiles in particular, we often had no idea what the Soviets called anything because of their obsession for secrecy. They wouldn't even confirm that the T62 was really called the T62 until years after we figured it out.

This made for certain difficulties. For one thing, there were difficulties between NATO countries. "We're worried about this new missile." "Which one, the one with the bulbous nose?" "No, the one with that grating thing about halfway down." "This is ridiculous. They all have gratings about halfway down."

Then there were difficulties between NATO and the Soviet Union. I remember that during the SALT-2 (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) negotiations, we wanted the Soviets to restrict how many medium bombers of a type we called the "Tu-26 Backfire" they had. And they were happy to, because as far as they knew, they didn't have any Tu-26s at all; they referred to that same aircraft as the Tu-22M and thus, by strict letter of the agreement, could have as many of them as they liked.

NATO set up a committee to assign all Soviet weapons a "reporting name". No matter what the Soviets called their stuff, WE would use the NATO reporting name (though if we knew the actual Soviet name, we could add it parenthetically, though the clumsy Soviet nomenclatures often grew clunky).

The system made a certain sense. All surface-to-surface missiles got an SS-x designation, and a reporting name that started with the letter "S". SS-13 Savage, SS-11 Sego, SS-18 Satan, SS-1 Scud. Major variants would be treated as "mods", like SS-18 Mod 4. All air-to-air missiles got an AA-x designation, and a reporting name that started with the letter "A". AA-1 Alkali, AA-5 Ash, AA-6 Acrid, AA-7 Apex, AA-8 Aphid and so forth. All surface-to-air missiles got an SA-x designation and a reporting name starting with the letter "G", such as SA-2 Guideline, SA-6 Gainful, SA-7 Grail, SA-5 Gammon and SA-8 Gecko. Air to surface missiles, which were scarce in the Soviet inventory for long decades, got AS-x designations and reporting names that started with the letter "K", like AS-4 Kitchen and AS-6 Kingfisher.

The same system was applied in modified form to Soviet aircraft. Fighters always had odd numbers; bombers and transports always had even numbers. Fighters had "F" reporting names; bombers "B" reporting names; cargo planes "C" reporting names. That's the origin of all those goofy Russian aircraft names like Bear, Bison, Badger, Backfire, Flogger, Flanker, Fulcrum, Fishbed (?) and Fresco.

Note that the Russians never called their stuff by these NATO reporting names. Their system of nomenclature was much, much more complicated, a monstrous alphabet soup whose Byzantine complexity is even worse than that other great mishmash, the Japanese pre-WWII system.

Why do I bring this up? Because, contrary to what Trumpeter says, there's no such thing as a "SAM-6" missile system. It's an "SA-6" missile system. And it piques me when they get it wrong. It's like when people say "It's a mute point." No, it's not a mute point, it's a moot point.

I think I've had too much coffee today.

PS: Where the NATO reporting name business got really creepy was in the field of electronic warfare systems. Instead of relying on the old designation/reporting name procedure they used for everything else, the NATO committee assigned Soviet EW systems a two-word name that often sounded like something out of Doctor Seuss. Spoon Rest, Pop Group, Knife Rest, Straight Flush, Fan Song, Drum Tilt, Owl Screech, Jay Bird, Fox Fire, Gun Dish, Big Eye, Flat Flace. Some of them actually made just a bit of sense if you knew a little bit about the system. The Fox Fire radar, for example, was found in the Foxbat interceptor. The Gun Dish was a fire control radar on the ZSU-23/4 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. The Straight Flush was a fire control system that seemed include five separate radiators. Pop Group, I think, was the fire control system associated with the SA-N-4 pop-up missile system. Head Light was a set of twin side-by-side radars that looked like huge headlights fitted to the upper works of Soviet cruisers. The Big Bulge radar lived in the big bulge beneath the belly of the Tu-20 Bear-D maritime reconnaissance and standoff ASM "master of ceremonies" aircraft. Owl Screech was said to sound a bit like an owl screeching if you listened to it with the proper ELINT system, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Drum Tilt didn't sound like a snare drum over an ELINT receiver.

But now I'm boring me...