Rolando
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Russian naming of NATO vehicles

Mon 06 Mar 2023, 14:11

Does the russians/soviets have some code names for NATO combat vehicles?

Like the west calling the Mi-24 the "Hind" and Mi-8 the "Hip"?

Does the russians call the A-10 the warthog and the AH-64 the Apache?
 
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Ursus Maior
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Re: Russian naming of NATO vehicles

Fri 17 Mar 2023, 11:39

Russia and the Soviet Union before it do not use such a system. For their own weapon systems the USSR used the so called GRAU index for classification, but this does not apply to foreign material.
liber & infractus
 
Raellus
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Re: Russian naming of NATO vehicles

Sat 18 Mar 2023, 03:27

But the Soviets must have called NATO vehicles and aircraft something. Surely, they used some sort of nomenclature with more specificity than calling every NATO MBT, "tank", every NATO attack helicopter, "attack helicopter", etc.

I'm sure he was making it up from whole cloth but, IIRC, Harold Coyle, in one of his WWIII thrillers* (was it Team Yankee?) had the Soviets call the A-10 Thunderbolt II the "Devil's Cross". I believe he lifted that from what the German's supposedly called the P-38 Lightening II when they first encountered it in North Africa.

*It could also have been a Larry Bond book.

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Last edited by Raellus on Sat 18 Mar 2023, 17:57, edited 1 time in total.
Twilight 2000 discussion forum @ https://forum.juhlin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3
 
Rolando
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Re: Russian naming of NATO vehicles

Sat 18 Mar 2023, 04:10

Exactly, people do that, and soviet soldiers must have some jargon, even if it is discouraged by the officers.

We need more Russians here :D
 
paladin2019
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Re: Russian naming of NATO vehicles

Sat 18 Mar 2023, 09:16

FWIW, codenames for enemy equipment exist to prevent the enemy from knowing what of their stuff you're talking about if they monitor your communications. They can potentially determine what element of theirs you are observing and determine where you have to be observing from and/or alert the element. That the NATO reporting names are over five decades old tends to degrade this notwithstanding.
 
Rolando
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Re: Russian naming of NATO vehicles

Sat 18 Mar 2023, 18:50

The main reason I would like to have these is so my players encounter some deserter russians and they have a chance to give part of their story and maybe some information.
My idea is to make the setting be clear war is hell and it is so for rtussians as much as everyone else.

But the russians may talk like russian soldiers, they will not say "a warthog blasted us some klics east but was downed before pulling out, the wreck may be north of that". they will use whatever name they use for the A-10.

It is just a little bit of flavor to the scene, but I think it will make it more memorable.
 
Raellus
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Re: Russian naming of NATO vehicles

Sat 18 Mar 2023, 18:56

Over on the Legacy T2k Forum (all versions welcome), a member wrote:

"The Russian-language stuff I've seen from the era used Cyrillic transliterations of the NATO names, i.e. Bradlee and Fantom."

https://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=6896

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Rolando
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Re: Russian naming of NATO vehicles

Sun 19 Mar 2023, 14:41

Thanks @Raellus for forwarding the question there, didn't knew of the existence of that forum... will subscribe now :)

Seems the russians don't have a need to use other names other than the english ones, I imagine when you have to read all the funny characters you better invent a name :D

I'll keep an eye there too just in case something new comes up.
 
paladin2019
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Re: Russian naming of NATO vehicles

Sun 19 Mar 2023, 23:03

Note to the OP with this new information, the Russian troop probably won't call an A10 a warthog. More likely is Thunderbolt or perhaps, as google tells me, "udar molnii."
 
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Ursus Maior
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Re: Russian naming of NATO vehicles

Tue 21 Mar 2023, 16:39

But the Soviets must have called NATO vehicles and aircraft something. Surely, they used some sort of nomenclature with more specificity than calling every NATO MBT, "tank", every NATO attack helicopter, "attack helicopter", etc.
This is simple: The West was always open about equipment its armies fielded and what they are called. The Soviets used Western names. The West did not have that luxury as the USSR talked far less about its weapons, including to its own people.
liber & infractus

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