Russian aircraft designations

From rec.aviation.military FAQ by Ross Smith

In the 1920s and 1930s, many different designation systems were used for Russian aircraft; the People's Comissariat of Defence had its own system, and each manufacturer had another, usually based on the initials of the designer or organisation (for example, A N Tupolev's ANT-6 was also known as the TB-3).

Prefixes used included:

    A    = Autogyro
    ARK  = Arctic coastal reconnaissance
    B    = Bomber
    BB   = Short-range bomber
    BSh  = Armoured attack aircraft (Sh = Shturmovik)
    DAR  = Long-range arctic reconnaissance
    DB   = Long-range bomber
    DVB  = Long-range high-altitude bomber
    DI   = Two-seat fighter
    DIS  = Twin-engined escort fighter
    G    = Paratroop transport
    I    = Fighter (Istrebitel; literally "destroyer")
    KOR  = Ship-borne reconnaissance
    M    = Seaplane
    MA   = Amphibian
    MBR  = Short-range maritime reconnaissance
    MDR  = Long-range maritime reconnaissance
    MI   = Fighter seaplane
    MK   = Maritime cruiser (heavily armed seaplane)
    MP   = Transport seaplane
    MR   = Reconnaissance seaplane
    MTB  = Maritime heavy bomber
    MU   = Trainer seaplane
    P    = Mailplane
    PB   = Dive bomber
    PI   = Single seat fighter
    PL   = Transport
    PS   = Mail/passenger transport
    R    = Reconnaissance
    ROM  = Open sea reconnaissance
    SB   = High-speed bomber
    SCh  = Low-level attacker
    SChR = Attack fighter/reconnaissance
    SPB  = Fast dive bomber
    TB   = Heavy bomber
    TSh  = Heavy attack aircraft
    U    = Primary trainer
    UT   = Basic trainer (Uchebnotrenirovochny)
    UTI  = Fighter trainer
    V    = Airship
    VI   = High-altitude fighter
    VIT  = High-altitude tank destroyer
    VT   = Supervised design

In the early years of WW2, a new systematic designation scheme was set up for all Soviet aircraft (military and civil), based on (usually) the first two letters of the designer's name; this replaced the former military designation system. Later, as the original designers became the heads of design bureaus (OKBs), and eventually retired or died, the original initials were retained for all aircraft produced by each OKB.

The full designation consists of the OKB initials, a dash, a number to indicate a particular aircraft type designed by that OKB, and optionally a letter or letters (and sometimes numbers) to indicate a subtype. Unlike the American system, subtype letters are not a simple alphabetic sequence, but are assigned arbitrarily, sometimes to indicate some particular feature of the subtype. Common suffix letters include "D" (long range), "K" (which can mean export, ground attack, or naval), "M" (modified), "P" (interceptor), "R" (reconnaissance), "T" (transport), and "U" (trainer).

Stalin decided that fighters would be given odd numbers, while bombers and transports would get even numbers; this rule largely fell out of use after his death.

OKB abbreviations include the following (for those still in use I've added a description of what the letters look like in the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet, since you will often see an aircraft's designation written on it):

    An  = Antonov          (AH)
    Be  = Beriev           ([broken B] [reversed E])
    Il  = Ilyushin         ([reversed N] [linked JI or inverted V])
    Ka  = Kamov            (KA)
    La  = Lavochkin
    M   = Myasishchyev     (M)
    Mi  = Mil              (M [reversed N])
    MiG = Mikoyan-Gurevich (M [reversed N] [gamma])
    Pe  = Petlyakov
    Po  = Polikarpov
    Su  = Sukhoi           (CY)
    Tu  = Tupolev          (TY)
    Yak = Yakovlev         ([reversed R] K)

The Lavochkin OKB still exists, but switched from aircraft to missile and space technology in the 1950s. The Petlyakov and Myasishchyev OKBs are really the same bureau, which was headed by Myasishchyev after Petlyakov's death in 1942, disbanded in 1946, but revived in 1952 under Myasishchyev's name. Polikarpov's OKB was disbanded after his death in 1944.

The remaining OKBs recently became companies in the wake of perestroika. With the breakup of the USSR, Antonov is now a Ukrainian company; the rest are Russian. Beriev has been renamed Taganrog (after the city in which the new company is based), and Mikoyan-Gurevich is now just Mikoyan, but the original abbreviations are retained in their aircraft designations.

One special case is the A-50 AWACS aircraft ("Mainstay"). This was a joint venture of the Ilyushin and Beriev OKBs (providing the airframe and electronics, respectively); the A-series designation, normally used by Beriev to indicate a prototype or experimental aircraft, has been retained for the production aircraft. Ilyushin used the designation Il-82 for the airframe (following the Il-76 transport, Il-78 tanker, and cancelled Il-80 SLAR reconnaissance aircraft, all based on the same airframe); Beriev argued that they had designed the most important part of the aircraft, so an Ilyushin designation was inappropriate. They were still arguing when the aircraft entered service, so its internal name of A-50 went to the print shop.

A few cases where confusion has reigned should be mentioned; the present climate of openness has allowed these to be settled. All Sukhoi "Flagon" versions carried Su-15 designations; the later versions were not Su-21 (which in fact referred to Sukhoi's Su-27-derived supersonic bizjet project, now abandoned). The designation Tu-20 was used for the early "Bear" bombers ("Bear-A/B"), but was changed back to Tupolev's internal designation, Tu-95, from "Bear-C" onwards (some later versions were Tu-142). The Tupolev "Backfire" bomber is Tu-22M, not Tu-26. The "Fiddler", Tupolev's only production fighter, was Tu-128, not Tu-28.

Russian missile designations and codenames

From rec.aviation.military FAQ by Ross Smith

Russian rockets and missiles are mostly given designations in the "R" series (guided rockets), "S" series (unguided rockets), or "Kh" series (this seems to be reserved for air-to-surface missiles, but I have no idea what the significance of the prefix is; "Kh" is one letter in Russian, and looks like an "X", so you will often see these designations quoted with an "X" prefix instead).

Internal vs Russian air force designations

In recent years Sukhoi became Russia's most fertile design bureau as far as issuing new aircraft designation is concerned. Two obvious and perhaps self excluding reasons for this behavior can be pointed out: i) desire to gain an additional publicity for new aircraft by using this simple marketing trick and on the other hand, ii) Sukhoi clearly makes an effort to confuse the folks whose work is to keep track of the Russian military aircraft developments.

Leaving the suffixes out of the consideration, in a clear case of the name playing, Sukhoi was able to come up with more new designations than actual airframes. The Su-32 was known to be a two-seat primary training aircraft, powered by a single 355 hp radial engine have been renumbered Su-39, allowing the Su-34 derivative to became Su-32FN. The Su-25TM was designated Su-39 a year later forcing Su-39 to move one notch up and take a Su-49 designation. When Su-32FN appeared first in the west, observers joked that FN stands for "fake number" if anything else, confused by redesignation of the aircraft formerly known as Su-34.

In fact, further analysis shows that the Su-32FN and the Su-34 are two different aircraft, although they look very similar. While the Su-34 is intended to replace the Su-24 Fencer, the Su-32FN is a maritime strike fighter marketed to countries with off-shore assets that need protection.

One need to distinguish between the designation used by design bureaus for marketing purposes and that of the Russian air force. For example while western sources use Su-33, Su-34, Su-35 when referred to developments of the basic Su-27 Flanker airframe, the Russian navy and air force designates these as Su-27K, Su-27IB and Su-27M respectively. Similarly, Mikoyan Ye-5, Ye-6, Ye-7, Ye-8 and Ye-9 have the air force designation MiG-21 to which different suffixe aws appended. The Antonov An-2, An-4 and An-6 are designated An-2, An-2ZA and An-2V in the air force, while Tupolev Tu-88, Tu-95, Tu-105 and Tu-145 are designated Tu-16, Tu-20, Tu-22 and Tu-22M. As seen from these examples all post war aircraft designs were given an initial designation which was ignored when production was approved and air force designation was given.

Yet another story is internal OKB designations which actually make some sense in case of Sukhoi. The Su-7 and Su-9 prototypes were designated S-1 and T-1 respectively, with S derived from the Russian for swept wing "strelovidnoe krylo" and T from the Russian for delta wing "treugol'noe krylo". Best example is the T-6 series which were Su-24 prototypes and test aircraft. The choice of designator "T" (delta) seems inappropriate hence "T" does not match the swing wing - "S" of the Su-24 Fencer. However, the T-6 originated as an aircraft similar to BAC TRS.2 with trapezoid (cropped delta) wing platform and six lift engines for vertical take off.

Similarly triangular or delta designs of Sukhoi T-4 'Sotka' and the 'delta' T-10 used for Su-27 Flanker. Of course one can argue that choice of "T" to describe Flankers wing is somewhat far fetched.

However many designations just does not make sense at all. For example T-8 Su-25 Frogfoot?!? Why was the Frogfoot a 'delta'? It doesn't do to question too closely the Russian designation system! There is a simple explanation for the S-32 designation for the new fighter and T-60S bomber projects. The former new aircraft has forward swept wing while latter has a delta. It actually make sence. The only problem is that S-32 was already taken by Su-17 prototypes many years ago. The S-32 designation is an internal bureau designation, and could become Su- anything.

A quick look at the designation of the Russian record breakers. A-10 has nothing to do with Fairchild Warthhog but is a record modified version of the Mi-24. Similar Berievs Be-12 was renamed M-12. Internal name for the record breaking derivative of Flanker P-42 was T10-15 (note the absence of the dash after the "T"). It appears that these designations were assigned rather randomly in many cases in an attempt to confuse the foreign observers.