Fun fact: the SR 71 was supposed to be named RS 71. However, when introduced to the world by the current president at that time, he misread the name. Since the air force didnt wanna correct the president, they renamed the plane to SR 71.
SR doesn't really mean strategic reconnaissance, The S is used for space planes if it is before the mission letter. But since it is after the mission letter. SR-71 means Anti submarine warfare reconnaissance 71
I also heard that Johnson read the designation correctly but the stenographer made the mistake and hand it to the Press without correcting. Both versions are adamant and I guess we'll never know...
@@ThatSoonerGuy No, AR stands for Armalite Rifle. And Daniel Defense is a company, not a weapon system. DD is destroyer. DDG is a guided missile destroyer.
Uhm, the AC-130 means Attack/Counterinsurgency 130. It isn't used for cargo, rather used as an air support for ground troops as an attacker or counterinsurgency.
@@Imlegitthatonedude actually based on the MDS Designation system, the "C" stands for "Cargo" which is the basic mission of the aircraft, in this case is C-130 as a cargo plane. But the aircraft is modified to serve as an attack aircraft which gives the letter "A" in front of "C" which stands for "Attack" as its modified mission. Moreover, when there an aircraft has a modified mission, it may or may not maintain the capabillity of doing its basic mission. Thus, in AC-130, letter "C" doesn't stands for counterinsurgency but cargo instead.
The Nighthawk was not given the Fighter designation to confuse enemy intelligence - USAF knew they needed fighter pilots to fly their new bomber and gave it the "F" as a sneaky way to get fighter pilots into the Nighthawk program.
Also P means pursuit. Like the P 51 Mustang. Unless you're the P 38 Lightning, which was technically an interceptor. Interceptor isn't actually a class of aircraft, but they needed something that could do fighter and pursuit work better than any fighter or pursuit plane ever at the time, so they made something up. Then they just went with P because it fit the closest.
@djcolombana7994 That's a newer designation, since pursuit aircraft aren't really a thing anymore. That's a maritime patrol aircraft. It's a navy aircraft, so they just reused the P designation.
@@jakeferreira1211 ah makes sense, it’s one my grandfather worked on, even gave me a couple of the first shavings on some of the production parts of the first poseidon.
@@djcolombana7994 That's pretty cool. Funnily enough, my grandfather helped oversee the construction of the General Electric T700 motors for the Black Hawk helicopter. Kind of a similar story there.
@@jakeferreira1211 nice! any other projects he worked on? my grandpa worked on the KC-46 as well as some more I can’t recall. He even got the chance to work on the B-2. But he declined, he enjoyed an office with a window 😂
The F-117 was a picked in the cold war as a mis direct F-100+ are all supersonic interceptors F-104 Starfighter, F-102 Delta Dagger, F-111 Aardvark The idea was to terrify the Soviets if they stumbled across the F-117: It could in theory carry 2 large Nuclear warheads called AIR-2 Genie's The premises is that the F-117 could delete a bomber formation without ever being seen Some people think it worked and lead to the USSR pivoting to IRBM and ICBMs as their method of choice
Its all true except for the explanation of the F designation for the Nighthawk. It was given the F to comply with NATO rules regarding how many bombers the US was supposed to have. They had more room in their fighter paddock, so they designated it a fighter even though it is, in all practicality a bomber.
Another mistake in this video was SR stands for Surveillance/Reconnaissance, not Strategic Reconnaissance. It's the same thing with F/A-18, meaning Fighter/Attack, or AC130, meaning Attack/Cargo, and so on.
@@lyllechoi5621 There is a SEAL team 1-6. I think it goes up to 10 or so, although some numbers may be missing. I believe west coast teams have an odd number and east coast are even numbered. The supposedly SAS used numbers to confuse the Germans in the manner you are talking about in WWII.
F1 17 nighthawk only received an F designation due to the strategic arms reduction treaty meaning we were only allowed to have so many fighters and bombers in our air fleet. That’s how you get around having so many fighters and bombers by giving them different design designations
All wrong, according to FFP interview the F-117 had a limited air to air capability in that it could carry sidewinder missiles, being able to engage Soviet AWAC on the way in or out of a strike.
u=utility l=laser t=training h=helicopter u-2 was technicaly a stealth reconisance however was given a u designation for the same reason as the 1-117 just pointed out some of the ones i knew tht he missed and thought this was cool info
There’s also i for interceptor but it was never used as a designation the p-38 is the only interceptor I know of but they didn’t use i as its designation they used p for pursuit
@@alexbarr6160 all US interceptors used P or F designation. P-61 Black Widow, F-89 Scorpion, F-102 Delta Dagger and F-106 Delta Dart being the prime examples of dedicated US interceptors.
You omitted several. W for weather reconnaissance, R for reconnaissance, U for utility, M for special missions, X for experimental, T for training, O for observation... actually you omitted a lot. 🤔
Because its not a single purpose aircraft. Its designated as Multirole, which it can be used to attack ground and bases, and also carry anti air rockets for air battle. Although many F series aircrafts can be multirole, but usually its not really recommended due the design in mind.. plus, Hornet is one of the cheaper lineups to produce, so might as well make it multirole for logistical purposes
@@ravioliravioli693 Thanks for the explanation. It is still a wee odd to be because I always thought that some craft ,for example the F-15 Strike Eagle series, were always intended as multi-role aircraft. The F-111 Aardvark is another example.
@@Empirehog for the Eagle, I think its not designated the F/A is because they are more leaning for Air to Air combat. Even the victories statistics suggests that. For the Aardvark, I am not really familiar with that, so I can't tell what's what about it.
@@Empirehogthe f15 A-C eagle are air superiority fighters (the f 15 B and D being training versions) the f 15 E strike eagle is a later upgraded variant that incorporated molti role capabilities the reason why it's designated fighter is that its original mission and the destination was not changed with its increased capability same story with the f 16 (f 35 and f22 are primarily air soporoty though both especially f35 are molti role capable) As for the f 111 it was before the attack destination existed and it was too small to be considered a bomber so it was designated a fighter in fact I'm pretty sure that with the posable exception of the aim 9 it was incapable of defending itself against enemy aircraft same story with the f117
F-111 is designated a fighter because spain and france wouldn’t allow us to fly designated bombers over them when we were flying missions to iraq. they really just designate the planes whatever’s most politically and tactically convienient at the time 😂
The F-111 was originally designed to be a carrier fighter, or at least that was one of the intended missions. But it didn't work out and then later they went with the F-14.
The SR-71 followed the B-70, but it was not a bomber. The fighter version was the YF-12A and both were developed from the A-11. F and later P for Photo was replaced with the R for Reconnaissance during the Korean War.
@@dmanww That makes no sense as the OV-10 and OV-1 are both conventional take off and landing. I believe the 'V' in "OV" indicates visiual reconaissance - well visual observation. Which is weird for the Mohawk since that was primarily a sensor based platform. Also weird that the O-1 and O-2 Cessnas which were used in the same visual observation/FAC role didn't get the 'V' in their designation.
@@1337flitethe ov-10 is a short take of and landing aircraft ( STOL ) , same as the ov-1. Both specifically designed for rough and short landing strip's.
Apparently the US had some kind of restrictions on the maximum amount of bombers that they could have, so in order to keep the Nighthawk (F117) they somehow destroyed one of their own dummy helicopters to meet the requirements of a fighter (at least one kill)
Heard a pilot say the F-117 was given the "F" designation was to trick pilots into signing on to fly it. Because bombers are boring and everybody wants to fly fighters.
X means special experimental. For example the bell X-1 was designed to break the sound barrier. However that is not the only experimental designation, as YF designation also has experimental connotations, usually pertaining to black projects, prototypes or stealth projects. For example YF-110 is a captured MiG-21, YF-16 was the F-16 prototype, and YF-117 was the designation of the F-117
X means experimental test bed, Y means production protoype. While Y is eventually intended to be put into service, X is meant to be more of a tech demonstration aircraft.
I heard that the F-117 got the F designation because thete was a lack of pilots to fly it because all pilots wanted to fly fighters, so they designated the F-117 bomber with the " F" designation.
@HalNordmann The Centuary series are Well known fighters - They were high Speed interceptors F-104 Starfighter F-102-Delta Dagger F-111 Aardvark was designed to be a land based platform to use the same AIM-54 Pheonix the F-14 is famous for The F-4 Phantom was originally the F-110 Spectre
@HalNordmann Well the F-104 came into service from 58 to 70 in the USAF, and the F-111 was in from 68 to 94 So its a naming convention that spanned over 40 years I checked this out and found all of the Migs captured were designated YF-1xx where of 3 types that I can see why they would be labeled as Centuary class as they would have been assumed interceptors MiG-17 - which were believed faster than they where and had a 37mm gun for anti bomber work MiG-21 - Catagorically would be classed as a short range interceptor MiG-23 - Used for both A2A and A2G with visual similarities to the F-111
designation of F was that the Air Force thought they would get more interest from the best pilots to get into the secret program if they thought it was for a fighter rather than a bomber.
I heard something different: F117 is actually an attack aircraft, but they didn’t think pilots would want to fly an attack aircraft (since it was top secret, potential pilots wouldn’t know anything more than that), so they gave it the F designation.
The thing with the sr 71 isnt true actually, because it was originally called rs 71 but then on the announcement conference johnson misspelled it and so it was now called the sr 71
"Attack cargo" they put an A in front of its name to represent its new purpose samye story with the KC 46 which was originally a cargo aircraft that now does arielle refueling though I believe it's still capable of some cargo transport
It was more because at the time they didn't really know how to classify things that were too small to be considered bombers as the attack role didn't exist this is why the f111 has a f destination too in spite of being ground attack
Sorry but this is factually inaccurate The F-111 is a "Centuary" series fighter - that number range is used for interceptors The F-111 was developed to use the same AIM-54 Phoenix missile the F-14 used, it also was originally developed with a Vulcan 20mm
The attack role did exist, e.g the A-6 Intruder, the A-4 Skyhawk, the A-3 Skywarrior ( which was also a strategic bomber as part of SIOP when it;s carrier was wighin range of the USSR), the A1 Skyraider. The A-3 was also called the B66 in tbe Air Farce.
This is just my understanding and hypothesis about it, so do correct me if I’m wrong. But I believe since the F-15E and F-16C (all models, I just wanted to use one) are mainly fighters that have special design to carry more payload. But it could also be cuz it don’t sound good. I mean, F/A-15 or A-15 doesn’t really sound good, does it?
@@AirWasTaken I think it was mostly because they were originally fighters and they didn't want to change the destination when they got upgraded for multi role now for f22 and f35 which were designed with multi role in mind (especially 35) my guess is that they're mainly designed for air superiority and bombings things was more of a secondary capability
They're all multirole fighters, so they all simply use the "F" designation. Also there's the fact that, even though these fighters are multirole fighters today, they all were originally designed and envisioned as pure air superiority fighters. The story of the F/A-18 is a bit different. The Hornet was originally going to be a straight air to air fighter (F-18) but then the US Navy found itself in trouble as the lifetime of their A-6 Intruder attackers was in their lasts legs and those aircraft would soon need to be replaced. They came up with the idea of building a derivate version for ground attack, which was the A-18, to replace the ageing A-6s. However, because of increasing costs they ended up cancelling the A-18 dedicated attack version and simply converted the F-18, again originally to be 100% air superiority fighter, into a multirole so as to take on both fighter and attacker missions and so fill the gap left by the retired A-6s. Before the A-18 was completely axed, however, the USN brass would refer to both the F-18 and A-18 simultaneously as the "F/A-18" and that moniker, nonsensical as it was, took off and stuck with the aircraft, and they never bothered to change it back to simply F-18.
F-111 was Robert McNamara brainchild, who intended to obtain a genuine all purpose aircraft. Actually F-111 revealed itself as a formidable low level attack bomber, but nothing else.
@@andreamassara590 I'm afraid this is factually wrong the F-111 was developed as an interceptor, it became a useful bomber later It was originally a contemporary with the F-14: both where designed around the radars needed for thee AIM-54 Phoenix long range AAM as the Airforce and Navy refused to share a platform
@@bengrogan9710 I'm afraid this is factually wrong. The F-111 was not contempary of teh F-14 it preceded the F-14. The F-14 program was started when the Navy pulled out of the F-111 program.
Basically there’s aircraft designations meaning that the labels of aircraft are given by their mission. Ex: F-16, MQ-9, AH, HH, etc. and same thing goes with the designations at the end like the C in F-16C. And the B in F-35B meaning that it’s a bomber variant of the f35
In WW2 it was similar. F4U - Fighter P41 - Pursuit (Faster but weaker) B-17 - Bomber However there was also one exception here. The P-38 was too heavily armed to be considered a Pursuit Plane, Too Fast to be a Fighter and too maneuverable to be a Bomber (and also didn't carry the same level of ordinance) so despite being named a "Pursuit" fighter due to its speed, it's actually designated as the only American Interceptor in WW2.
What ive heard is that the nighthawk's flight characteristics didn't resemble traditional bombers in profile or stability and needed pilots with fighter experience but there was a pride element between fighter and bomber pilots where the fighter pilots were not happy about the idea of being assigned to a bomber designated aircraft, so they categorized it as F to massage egos in that early period of the transition toward bombing missions often using smaller more nimble 'fighter-bomber' style platforms
Fun fact: the F/A-18 should technically be called the AF-18 for its dual role as attack and fighter. But when it was being developed, they started out with two separate versions, one for each role. But in documentation, rather than typing out "F-18 and A-18," they referred to both planes together as "F/A-18." So when they decided to make only one variant to handle both roles, the designation stuck despite the naming system requiring multi-role aircraft to be named alphabetically and it not allowing slashes.
Also another exception,the p38 lightning.it was faster than all enemy planes,so its not a pursuit,cause that means the enemy will get away.its a fighter and a bomber,but could do more than any other plane.so they made its own classification.i dont remember what its called,but it has its own class
The F117 had the "fighter" designation not to confuse the enemy but because originally they needed a fighter pilot to fly it and no fighter pilot wanted to fly a bomber. So they gave it the F designation.
The first letter is the primary designation and the second letter is the secondary designation. SR is an exception. I learned this from a Warthunder short so don’t take my word for it.
No. Under the tri service designation 'P' means patrol. It's used for martime patrol aircraft, like the P-2 Neptune, the P-3 Orion and the P-8 Poseidon. 'P' used to mean pursuit in the Army and the early Air Farce.
The F-117 carried sidewinders and could theoretically be used to engage enemy surveillance aircraft without being detected. Therefore, it has a fighter mission.
The Swedish JAS Gripen is a jet which can be equipt, fast, to execute several different tasks using the same platform as in Swedish JAS means: J=jakt (F), A=attack (B) and S= Spaning (Recon).
The K is for Tanker because T is for Trainer, Y is a carryover from when the US Chair Force was part of the Army and the P for Pursuit was retained as a potential designation.
FA stands for "Fighter/Attack " aircraft, and you will see them mostly on the US Navy's formidable F/A 18 Hornets, a long-range fighter bomber squadron.
That's not why the Nighthawk got a F designation, the AF gave it that because it couldn't get funding for a new bomber program so they simply called it a fighter and called it a day.
Fun fact: The F-117, even though it's a bomber, has the letter F and not B because it was so ugly that pilots didn't want to fly it as a bomber, so they changed its designation from bomber to fighter so that pilots could at least say they piloted a fighter jet.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
K is for Kanker…and Y is for Yrotoype…its only logical
Ten minutes holy crap I’m early
C= cyan
M= magenta
Y= yellow
K= klack
😆
They couldn't use T as it was already designated as Trainer.
P had already been used for Pursuit as well.
as a dutch guy it took me a few times to read this like u meant it haha
KC is for kerosene cargo
AC130 = Attack using your cargo.
😂
And that's why we invented the "rapid dragon" so we can drag dez nuts all over the enemy's face.....
Chyort! What are they firing at us, crates?!
@diapason89 crate loads of ammo perhaps 😂
@@diapason89I mean... Yeah
Fun fact: the SR 71 was supposed to be named RS 71. However, when introduced to the world by the current president at that time, he misread the name. Since the air force didnt wanna correct the president, they renamed the plane to SR 71.
SR has a better ring to it anyways don’t ya think? 🤷♂️
Racing Series 71
So from Aprilia it became Cf
SR doesn't really mean strategic reconnaissance,
The S is used for space planes if it is before the mission letter.
But since it is after the mission letter.
SR-71 means
Anti submarine warfare reconnaissance 71
I also heard that Johnson read the designation correctly but the stenographer made the mistake and hand it to the Press without correcting. Both versions are adamant and I guess we'll never know...
BB= battleships, DD=Destroyer, CV=Carrier, CL=light cruiser
CA - Heavy Cruiser although it was originally armored Cruiser
CG - guided missile Cruiser
Dude, DD stands for Daniel Defense. They make AR’s and AR stands for Attack Rifle.
@@ThatSoonerGuy No, AR stands for Armalite Rifle. And Daniel Defense is a company, not a weapon system. DD is destroyer. DDG is a guided missile destroyer.
@@SiriusMinedno dude, DDG is a famous rapper. 🙄
@@captainidowork8506 I’m glad you understand brother. Some people think they know everything 🙄
- Make rule
- Break rule
- confusion.
So which one should I go for as a daily? F150 Raptor or F22 Raptor?
F22
Well, the F150 has 128 more Fs, so that one
@@exmachina1405 but it’s made by cheap aluminum and suck at its own job so I would go with the F-22
Ironically most Raptor Pilots drive over to their F-22 in a Dodge Caravan
Gas prices are gonna kill you 😂
For those wondering AC in the AC-130 means Attack Cargo, since it is an cargo plane that can attack
if outta ammo they can throw the cargo at the enemy 😅
Uhm, the AC-130 means Attack/Counterinsurgency 130. It isn't used for cargo, rather used as an air support for ground troops as an attacker or counterinsurgency.
C130??????
@Super_Ashton0908 that's what the AC-130 is made from
@@Imlegitthatonedude actually based on the MDS Designation system, the "C" stands for "Cargo" which is the basic mission of the aircraft, in this case is C-130 as a cargo plane. But the aircraft is modified to serve as an attack aircraft which gives the letter "A" in front of "C" which stands for "Attack" as its modified mission.
Moreover, when there an aircraft has a modified mission, it may or may not maintain the capabillity of doing its basic mission. Thus, in AC-130, letter "C" doesn't stands for counterinsurgency but cargo instead.
"How did that jet kill all our guys"
"We thought it was a different letter"
common russian l
No they knew it was F-117. The U.S. named it like that on purpose. They knew the correct letter but it was to fool them
The Nighthawk was not given the Fighter designation to confuse enemy intelligence - USAF knew they needed fighter pilots to fly their new bomber and gave it the "F" as a sneaky way to get fighter pilots into the Nighthawk program.
My drunk ass said
“Well, it’s f for flight, their mission is flying “
Damn, my wife isn’t happy lol
🤣
X-29: *cries in experimental negative wings*
Also X-55 I think
Agreed! The X-series is quite a long list of the USAF's goofiest, and most fascinating aircraft, shaaaame for the omission. Lol
what does X stand for?
@@blackwingz55 Experimental
@@blackwingz55eXperimental
What is u for the u-2?
Reconnaissance aircraft, back then they call it a weather plane when a U-2 was shot down on May 1st 1960
@@jamezzz0035 U-2 never got shot down buddy
@@kcck7588uh yes it was?
not only over the soviet union in the 60s but also during the cuban missile crisis
When I'm in a misinformation competition and my opponent is @@kcck7588
@@kcck7588yes it most certainly did. May 1st 1960
Also P means pursuit. Like the P 51 Mustang. Unless you're the P 38 Lightning, which was technically an interceptor. Interceptor isn't actually a class of aircraft, but they needed something that could do fighter and pursuit work better than any fighter or pursuit plane ever at the time, so they made something up. Then they just went with P because it fit the closest.
what about the p-8 poseidon?
@djcolombana7994 That's a newer designation, since pursuit aircraft aren't really a thing anymore. That's a maritime patrol aircraft. It's a navy aircraft, so they just reused the P designation.
@@jakeferreira1211 ah makes sense, it’s one my grandfather worked on, even gave me a couple of the first shavings on some of the production parts of the first poseidon.
@@djcolombana7994 That's pretty cool. Funnily enough, my grandfather helped oversee the construction of the General Electric T700 motors for the Black Hawk helicopter. Kind of a similar story there.
@@jakeferreira1211 nice! any other projects he worked on? my grandpa worked on the KC-46 as well as some more I can’t recall. He even got the chance to work on the B-2. But he declined, he enjoyed an office with a window 😂
"To confuse your enemies you have to confuse yourself first" moment
I was having a conversation about this with my son the other day, neither of us understood the F-117. Thank you!
This guy is wrong, people seem to mistake the F-117 stealth fighter with the B2 stealth bomber.
The F-117 was a picked in the cold war as a mis direct
F-100+ are all supersonic interceptors
F-104 Starfighter, F-102 Delta Dagger, F-111 Aardvark
The idea was to terrify the Soviets if they stumbled across the F-117: It could in theory carry 2 large Nuclear warheads called AIR-2 Genie's
The premises is that the F-117 could delete a bomber formation without ever being seen
Some people think it worked and lead to the USSR pivoting to IRBM and ICBMs as their method of choice
This helped me so much
Its all true except for the explanation of the F designation for the Nighthawk. It was given the F to comply with NATO rules regarding how many bombers the US was supposed to have. They had more room in their fighter paddock, so they designated it a fighter even though it is, in all practicality a bomber.
@Daniel-Goodfeather goateddddddddddd
Another mistake in this video was SR stands for Surveillance/Reconnaissance, not Strategic Reconnaissance. It's the same thing with F/A-18, meaning Fighter/Attack, or AC130, meaning Attack/Cargo, and so on.
I am going to add F prefix to my RC plane to confuse spies.
they've done a lot of similar stuff, like iirc SEAL team six (there's no team 1 to 5) is used to confuse soviet intelligence.
I’m a Soviet spy and I found your comment counterproductive.
An RCF would be a Lexus
@@lyllechoi5621 There is a SEAL team 1-6. I think it goes up to 10 or so, although some numbers may be missing. I believe west coast teams have an odd number and east coast are even numbered.
The supposedly SAS used numbers to confuse the Germans in the manner you are talking about in WWII.
F1 17 nighthawk only received an F designation due to the strategic arms reduction treaty meaning we were only allowed to have so many fighters and bombers in our air fleet. That’s how you get around having so many fighters and bombers by giving them different design designations
Exactly. This video is misleading.
I thought it was because the flight controls were so bad they tagged it as a fighter to get better pilot candidates
All wrong, according to FFP interview the F-117 had a limited air to air capability in that it could carry sidewinder missiles, being able to engage Soviet AWAC on the way in or out of a strike.
F-117 wasn't strategic bomber, but they were deployed with fighters units that obviously provided safety for them on certain stages of the missions.
Happy someone else said this before I did. 🤓
Same with Helicopters. UH = Utility, AH = Attack, CH = Cargo, OH = Observation
u=utility
l=laser
t=training
h=helicopter
u-2 was technicaly a stealth reconisance however was given a u designation for the same reason as the 1-117 just pointed out some of the ones i knew tht he missed and thought this was cool info
There’s also i for interceptor but it was never used as a designation the p-38 is the only interceptor I know of but they didn’t use i as its designation they used p for pursuit
😆 😅
I'd really like a utility laser training helicopter for Christmas. :)
@@alexbarr6160 all US interceptors used P or F designation. P-61 Black Widow, F-89 Scorpion, F-102 Delta Dagger and F-106 Delta Dart being the prime examples of dedicated US interceptors.
The U-2 was also designated as the TR-1, before all were redesignated as U-2R.
You omitted several. W for weather reconnaissance, R for reconnaissance, U for utility, M for special missions, X for experimental, T for training, O for observation... actually you omitted a lot. 🤔
Also P, which means pursuit. It was most commonly used during WW2
Well P also means patrol.
@aidenorr9536 that was before the modern system, which was switched over in 1962 to remove confusion between the 3 different services
Relax bro, maybe he's just stupid
H for helicopter
In also curious to know why only the F/A-18 gets the dual role designation.
Because its not a single purpose aircraft. Its designated as Multirole, which it can be used to attack ground and bases, and also carry anti air rockets for air battle. Although many F series aircrafts can be multirole, but usually its not really recommended due the design in mind.. plus, Hornet is one of the cheaper lineups to produce, so might as well make it multirole for logistical purposes
@@ravioliravioli693 Thanks for the explanation. It is still a wee odd to be because I always thought that some craft ,for example the F-15 Strike Eagle series, were always intended as multi-role aircraft. The F-111 Aardvark is another example.
@@Empirehog for the Eagle, I think its not designated the F/A is because they are more leaning for Air to Air combat. Even the victories statistics suggests that. For the Aardvark, I am not really familiar with that, so I can't tell what's what about it.
@@Empirehogthe f15 A-C eagle are air superiority fighters (the f 15 B and D being training versions) the f 15 E strike eagle is a later upgraded variant that incorporated molti role capabilities the reason why it's designated fighter is that its original mission and the destination was not changed with its increased capability same story with the f 16 (f 35 and f22 are primarily air soporoty though both especially f35 are molti role capable)
As for the f 111 it was before the attack destination existed and it was too small to be considered a bomber so it was designated a fighter in fact I'm pretty sure that with the posable exception of the aim 9 it was incapable of defending itself against enemy aircraft same story with the f117
@Empirehog F-15 Was designed for air superiority and to deal with the mig-25
I didn't know this. Thanks for telling me🔥🔥🔥
Merry Christmas all🌲♥️
F-117 nighthawk was my favourite jet when i was a kid.
Why stop at planes?
AH-64 (Attack Helicopter) Apache
UH-60 (Utility Helicopter) BlackHawk
CH-53 (Cargo Helicopter) Sea-Stallion
CH-47 (Cargo Helicopter) Chinook
V-22 (Vertical Takeoff) Osprey
OH-58 (Observation Helicopter) Kiowa Warrior
MH-6 (Multi-Mission Helicopter) Little Bird
and etc…
They have the AH-6 variant as well
The killer egg
you're acting as if he named every single plane and he had to move on to every single helicopter
That answered my question of what the M in MQ meant. Thanks.
I thought the f-111, that really underrated jet
Love the F-111 sexiest machine on the planet
F-111 is designated a fighter because spain and france wouldn’t allow us to fly designated bombers over them when we were flying missions to iraq. they really just designate the planes whatever’s most politically and tactically convienient at the time 😂
@masonagent4009 I mean, it's a fighter... wouldn't recommend it as one, but it'll do something
useless plane
The F-111 was originally designed to be a carrier fighter, or at least that was one of the intended missions. But it didn't work out and then later they went with the F-14.
Very well made vid bro nice job
The SR-71 followed the B-70, but it was not a bomber. The fighter version was the YF-12A and both were developed from the A-11. F and later P for Photo was replaced with the R for Reconnaissance during the Korean War.
When I was a Marine in Parris Island for boot camp, they made me sing the Miami Dolphins fight song over and over again till i cried 😢😢😢😢😢😢
whats OV for OV-10 Bronco?
O: Observation
V: Vertical (or short) take off
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Tri-Service_aircraft_designations
@dmanww thank you
@@dmanww That makes no sense as the OV-10 and OV-1 are both conventional take off and landing.
I believe the 'V' in "OV" indicates visiual reconaissance - well visual observation.
Which is weird for the Mohawk since that was primarily a sensor based platform.
Also weird that the O-1 and O-2 Cessnas which were used in the same visual observation/FAC role didn't get the 'V' in their designation.
@@1337flitethe ov-10 is a short take of and landing aircraft ( STOL ) , same as the ov-1. Both specifically designed for rough and short landing strip's.
Apparently the US had some kind of restrictions on the maximum amount of bombers that they could have, so in order to keep the Nighthawk (F117) they somehow destroyed one of their own dummy helicopters to meet the requirements of a fighter (at least one kill)
Heard a pilot say the F-117 was given the "F" designation was to trick pilots into signing on to fly it. Because bombers are boring and everybody wants to fly fighters.
What does p stand for in p51
It stands for pursuit. In the past, the U.S Air Force called fighter planes pursuit planes.
@DriftNinja5056 idk if is it P-persuit or P-patrol
in 1962 the US switched over to a tri-service designation system, before hand P meant Pursuit (Chasing down enemy aircraft or escorting bombers)
It means prop
P-51 has been created by ford
Oh I didn’t know this. I learned something today. Thanks 🙏
They don't use it anymore, but "P" as in P-38, stood for "Pursuit".
so X means experimental?
X means special experimental. For example the bell X-1 was designed to break the sound barrier. However that is not the only experimental designation, as YF designation also has experimental connotations, usually pertaining to black projects, prototypes or stealth projects. For example YF-110 is a captured MiG-21, YF-16 was the F-16 prototype, and YF-117 was the designation of the F-117
X means experimental test bed, Y means production protoype. While Y is eventually intended to be put into service, X is meant to be more of a tech demonstration aircraft.
Yes, the approved X planes are going to the Y phase
@@Cheese_Authoritywhat about the x32?
I heard that the F-117 got the F designation because thete was a lack of pilots to fly it because all pilots wanted to fly fighters, so they designated the F-117 bomber with the " F" designation.
Additionally, the 100-series was kind of a misdirection, as F-1XX was used as a codename for captured MiGs
@HalNordmann The Centuary series are Well known fighters - They were high Speed interceptors
F-104 Starfighter
F-102-Delta Dagger
F-111 Aardvark was designed to be a land based platform to use the same AIM-54 Pheonix the F-14 is famous for
The F-4 Phantom was originally the F-110 Spectre
@@bengrogan9710 I'm well aware of those, but I think that was before the renaming the F-117 and the MiGs were under, no?
@HalNordmann Well the F-104 came into service from 58 to 70 in the USAF, and the F-111 was in from 68 to 94
So its a naming convention that spanned over 40 years
I checked this out and found all of the Migs captured were designated YF-1xx where of 3 types that I can see why they would be labeled as Centuary class as they would have been assumed interceptors
MiG-17 - which were believed faster than they where and had a 37mm gun for anti bomber work
MiG-21 - Catagorically would be classed as a short range interceptor
MiG-23 - Used for both A2A and A2G with visual similarities to the F-111
For anyone wondering why the KC-135 has the c in it's name it's because it can hold cargo so it is a cargo tanker
K means Tanker or Kerosene
Because most jet fuels are kerosene based.
no it's because it's based off of the C-135
@@trgttr335I think it's because all the letters before the K in "tanKer" were taken by other roles (Trainer, Attack, and Naval respectively)
@@towtruckoperator And what type of plane is that
Jp-8 can't melt steel beams
Ah yes, the Tanker Cargo Fighter multi role KFC-99
designation of F was that the Air Force thought they would get more interest from the best pilots to get into the secret program if they thought it was for a fighter rather than a bomber.
I heard something different: F117 is actually an attack aircraft, but they didn’t think pilots would want to fly an attack aircraft (since it was top secret, potential pilots wouldn’t know anything more than that), so they gave it the F designation.
Another one would be the A-12 Oxcart, with the A standing for Archangel
that's a CIA aircraft that is not under the tri-state designation system. its letter has nothing to do with its role
The thing with the sr 71 isnt true actually, because it was originally called rs 71 but then on the announcement conference johnson misspelled it and so it was now called the sr 71
well the videos still correct then just the order was wrong of the letters
Not really because reconnaissance stragetic makes less sense than the other way around, fir what it stands is Reconnaissance systen, rs
no one misspelled anything. they intentionally wrote it down like that
What does the AC stand for the AC-130?
"Attack cargo" they put an A in front of its name to represent its new purpose samye story with the KC 46 which was originally a cargo aircraft that now does arielle refueling though I believe it's still capable of some cargo transport
Air conditioner
It's actually Attack/Counterinsurgency. The AC-130 isn't used for cargo.
@@Itsnotmeee1ah, yes, I love my Air Conditioner 130
Fun fact: the F-35 is also a bomber but was given the F designation to confuse everyone.
"Thats why..." nice loop at the end
I was about to say, what about the F-117?
A wrong designation made up mistakenly on purpose to deceive and mislead potential US adversaries about the true role of the Nighthawk.
Do they know internet exists? @@Leadblast
@@yuraplays1 The F-117 is older than most of what makes up the modern internet, and a decade older than the first search engine.
@@Joesolo13 ah okay thanks
It's not a bomber, it's a stealth fighter.
It was more because at the time they didn't really know how to classify things that were too small to be considered bombers as the attack role didn't exist this is why the f111 has a f destination too in spite of being ground attack
Sorry but this is factually inaccurate
The F-111 is a "Centuary" series fighter - that number range is used for interceptors
The F-111 was developed to use the same AIM-54 Phoenix missile the F-14 used, it also was originally developed with a Vulcan 20mm
The attack role did exist, e.g the A-6 Intruder, the A-4 Skyhawk, the A-3 Skywarrior ( which was also a strategic bomber as part of SIOP when it;s carrier was wighin range of the USSR), the A1 Skyraider. The A-3 was also called the B66 in tbe Air Farce.
Why wasn’t the strike eagle A-15 or F/A-15? Same for F-16 which mostly performs strikes
This is just my understanding and hypothesis about it, so do correct me if I’m wrong. But I believe since the F-15E and F-16C (all models, I just wanted to use one) are mainly fighters that have special design to carry more payload. But it could also be cuz it don’t sound good. I mean, F/A-15 or A-15 doesn’t really sound good, does it?
@ I suppose so. The convention just seems completely arbitrary to me.
@ yeah. Some names seem confusing, but sometimes aren’t. One day, we may get the answer. But for right now, we’ll just have to live in mystery.
@@AirWasTaken I think it was mostly because they were originally fighters and they didn't want to change the destination when they got upgraded for multi role now for f22 and f35 which were designed with multi role in mind (especially 35) my guess is that they're mainly designed for air superiority and bombings things was more of a secondary capability
They're all multirole fighters, so they all simply use the "F" designation. Also there's the fact that, even though these fighters are multirole fighters today, they all were originally designed and envisioned as pure air superiority fighters.
The story of the F/A-18 is a bit different. The Hornet was originally going to be a straight air to air fighter (F-18) but then the US Navy found itself in trouble as the lifetime of their A-6 Intruder attackers was in their lasts legs and those aircraft would soon need to be replaced. They came up with the idea of building a derivate version for ground attack, which was the A-18, to replace the ageing A-6s. However, because of increasing costs they ended up cancelling the A-18 dedicated attack version and simply converted the F-18, again originally to be 100% air superiority fighter, into a multirole so as to take on both fighter and attacker missions and so fill the gap left by the retired A-6s. Before the A-18 was completely axed, however, the USN brass would refer to both the F-18 and A-18 simultaneously as the "F/A-18" and that moniker, nonsensical as it was, took off and stuck with the aircraft, and they never bothered to change it back to simply F-18.
* H: Search and rescue and MEDEVAC
* M: Multi-mission
* P: Maritime patrol
* S: Anti-submarine warfare
* T: Trainer
* U: Utility
* X: Experimental
Thanks for exposing military tactics 👍
what is bro talking about
@@CtRAlTtAbto confuse enemy is part of military tactics, when you expose it, you lose the advantage
@@DefendFinlandit was Cold War tactics bro
@@DefendFinlandyes because everyone doesnt have google to look up something that’s been known for decades. 🙄
Not sure why people so serious, merry xmas
This is useful af
What of U2?
Utility
@@smallmanz Nope, the u-2 was an single engine reconnaissance high altitude aircraft
@@arexkenzu123 Yeah, but it's still Utility. It's named like that to reduce suspicion and confuse the enemy.
And the F-111?
Fighter-bomber
F-111 was Robert McNamara brainchild, who intended to obtain a genuine all purpose aircraft.
Actually F-111 revealed itself as a formidable low level attack bomber, but nothing else.
@@andreamassara590 it's not considered a bomber, just an attack aircraft in similarity to that of the A10
@@andreamassara590 I'm afraid this is factually wrong
the F-111 was developed as an interceptor, it became a useful bomber later
It was originally a contemporary with the F-14: both where designed around the radars needed for thee AIM-54 Phoenix long range AAM as the Airforce and Navy refused to share a platform
@@bengrogan9710 I'm afraid this is factually wrong. The F-111 was not contempary of teh F-14 it preceded the F-14. The F-14 program was started when the Navy pulled out of the F-111 program.
Now you just revealed a very crucial information for other spies....
Basically there’s aircraft designations meaning that the labels of aircraft are given by their mission. Ex: F-16, MQ-9, AH, HH, etc. and same thing goes with the designations at the end like the C in F-16C. And the B in F-35B meaning that it’s a bomber variant of the f35
Nice
In WW2 it was similar.
F4U - Fighter
P41 - Pursuit (Faster but weaker)
B-17 - Bomber
However there was also one exception here.
The P-38 was too heavily armed to be considered a Pursuit Plane, Too Fast to be a Fighter and too maneuverable to be a Bomber (and also didn't carry the same level of ordinance) so despite being named a "Pursuit" fighter due to its speed, it's actually designated as the only American Interceptor in WW2.
I can’t believe you spilled the beans on that secret!😮
*Two badass examples. The Aardvark is feeling left out
What ive heard is that the nighthawk's flight characteristics didn't resemble traditional bombers in profile or stability and needed pilots with fighter experience but there was a pride element between fighter and bomber pilots where the fighter pilots were not happy about the idea of being assigned to a bomber designated aircraft, so they categorized it as F to massage egos in that early period of the transition toward bombing missions often using smaller more nimble 'fighter-bomber' style platforms
The f designation also clearly confused the war thunder devs as theyve added the nighthawk to the fighter tree in the game
Thx, I learned something else in my life, which is a good thing.
The B and SR types look sick!
Thanks! That was informative. I was only up to f and b.
The f117 was normally called as a 'fighter' but they changed it because it was more suitable to hold bombs
Legend has it they called it F-117 because it was hard to fly, so they assigned fighter pilots to it. But those wouldn't want to fly an A or B-117.
Fun fact: the F/A-18 should technically be called the AF-18 for its dual role as attack and fighter. But when it was being developed, they started out with two separate versions, one for each role. But in documentation, rather than typing out "F-18 and A-18," they referred to both planes together as "F/A-18." So when they decided to make only one variant to handle both roles, the designation stuck despite the naming system requiring multi-role aircraft to be named alphabetically and it not allowing slashes.
Though it meant "Friendly Fire" ~houts
And after watching this video they realized they've been bamboozled.
No, it got an F to confuse pilots into thinking it's a fighter.
Also another exception,the p38 lightning.it was faster than all enemy planes,so its not a pursuit,cause that means the enemy will get away.its a fighter and a bomber,but could do more than any other plane.so they made its own classification.i dont remember what its called,but it has its own class
Nighthawk was also designated F117 to entice the best pilots to fly it.
F 22 Raptor is such a badass name
The F117 had the "fighter" designation not to confuse the enemy but because originally they needed a fighter pilot to fly it and no fighter pilot wanted to fly a bomber. So they gave it the F designation.
I heard US pilots weren't picking the B-117 b/c it was a bomber so the AF changed it to F to reel people into the program.
The first letter is the primary designation and the second letter is the secondary designation.
SR is an exception.
I learned this from a Warthunder short so don’t take my word for it.
Oh the played out video loop trick. So clever 👏🏻
Meanwhile, the British: "Let's name this fighter something badass."
And don’t forget P means pursuit as in P-51. They only changed to F to confuse spies.
No. Under the tri service designation 'P' means patrol. It's used for martime patrol aircraft, like the P-2 Neptune, the P-3 Orion and the P-8 Poseidon.
'P' used to mean pursuit in the Army and the early Air Farce.
They don't call it a bomber because fighter pilots don't want to be known for flying bombers.
Imagine an enemy that is so illiterate that could confuse the letters of F-117 😂
The F-117 carried sidewinders and could theoretically be used to engage enemy surveillance aircraft without being detected. Therefore, it has a fighter mission.
i always love the stealth fighter (F-117) ever since i was on grade school. super cool aircraft, timeless design
The nighthawk has been my favorite for the past 21 years 😅 so awesome looking
The Swedish JAS Gripen is a jet which can be equipt, fast, to execute several different tasks using the same platform as in Swedish JAS means: J=jakt (F), A=attack (B) and S= Spaning (Recon).
The Swedish JAS means Jakt, Attack, Spaning, which is Hunt/Fighter, Attack and search/reconnaissance in English. One aircraft for most airfights.
The Warthog doesnt have A for attack..
Its A means awesome..
Bro NEVER thought of this. Thanks for the information
Justice for the F-111
In my encampment OI it explained it a little better. For the KC-135, it was originally a cargo plane, but the first one is its current role.
The K is for Tanker because T is for Trainer, Y is a carryover from when the US Chair Force was part of the Army and the P for Pursuit was retained as a potential designation.
You forgot X for experimental - Bell X-1, the sound barrier breaker, X-15, hypersonic mach 6 rocket powered aircraft, etc.
FA stands for "Fighter/Attack " aircraft, and you will see them mostly on the US Navy's formidable F/A 18 Hornets, a long-range fighter bomber squadron.
That's not why the Nighthawk got a F designation, the AF gave it that because it couldn't get funding for a new bomber program so they simply called it a fighter and called it a day.
I was told that the F117 was designated a "F" because the fighter pilots that would be flying it would not want to fly a bomber.
To confuse the enemy, you must first confuse yourselves.
One more reason the F-117 got a F, the Air Force wanted Fighter pilots to fly it, NO FIGHTER PILOT WILL FLY A BOMBER.
The P38 lightening is the only jet that should get an "I" designation
F117 "the stealth you can achieve but you can't use it". I have remember these words of my letor in Moscow aviation institute.
Fun fact: The F-117, even though it's a bomber, has the letter F and not B because it was so ugly that pilots didn't want to fly it as a bomber, so they changed its designation from bomber to fighter so that pilots could at least say they piloted a fighter jet.