Subject:
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Re: Military Weapon Designations?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Fri, 14 Jul 2000 19:24:46 GMT
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Viewed:
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370 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Dave Schuler writes:
> How are the official designations for military weapons decided in the US? That
> is, what do the M and the 16 mean, exactly, in M-16?
I understand that it's quite arbitrary, and includes some amount of marketing
tactics as well as back-biting amongst the various military departments and
contract bidders.
For example, the M-16 is a 5.56 caliber carbine fully-automatic rifle
manufactured by Colt; another military-standard Colt sidearm, the M1911, was
named after the year it was created. The M-9 is a 9-mm semiautomatic pistol
made by Beretta. (Variants of the M-16 include the AR-15, another designation
category altogether.)
Another example, using vehicles: the F-4 Phantom is a general-purpose
fighter-bomber used by the US Air Force. The F-14 Tomcat is a short-range
air-to-air interceptor used by the US Navy. The Harrier is a V/STOL figher
used by the Marines, and has no "F"-designation.
And then it gets weird. In looking for a new advanced tactical fighter, the
USAF held a competition between two contractors' entries, each woth a different
designation (YF-22 and YF-23), BEFORE the USAF decided which one to adopt. But
when the Army looked for a replacement for the old M1911 sidearm, they reserved
the M-9 designation for the winner.
Huh, that's not much better than "I dunno". :-, But I suspect that
it is largely marketing.
Cheers,
- jsproat
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Message has 2 Replies:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Military Weapon Designations?
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| How are the official designations for military weapons decided in the US? That is, what do the M and the 16 mean, exactly, in M-16? I know, of course, that many weapons are described by their calibre and bore size, but what about the others? For (...) (24 years ago, 14-Jul-00, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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