{"id":273816,"date":"2025-11-20T15:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T15:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/273816\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T15:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T15:51:10","slug":"attack-defend-pursue-the-space-forces-new-naming-scheme-foretells-new-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/273816\/","title":{"rendered":"Attack, defend, pursue\u2014the Space Force\u2019s new naming scheme foretells new era"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little more than a century ago, the US Army Air Service came up with a scheme for naming the military\u2019s multiplying fleet of airplanes.<\/p>\n

The 1924 aircraft designation code<\/a> produced memorable names like the B-17, A-26, B-29, and P-51\u2014B for bomber, A for attack, and P for pursuit\u2014during World War II. The military later changed the prefix for pursuit aircraft to F for fighter, leading to recognizable modern names like the F-15 and F-16.<\/p>\n

Now, the newest branch of the military is carving its own path with a new document outlining how the Space Force, which can trace its lineage back to the Army Air Service, will name and designate its \u201cweapon systems\u201d on the ground and in orbit. Ars obtained a copy of the document, first written in 2023 and amended in 2024.<\/p>\n

The changes could ultimately lead to the retirement, or at least the de-emphasis, of bulky bureaucratic acronyms. You might think of it as similar to how the Pentagon\u2019s Joint Strike Fighter program<\/a> evolved into the F-35 Lightning II.<\/p>\n

The memorandum outlining the Space Force\u2019s new nomenclature was signed in 2023 by then-Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, who was the branch\u2019s chief strategy and resource officer at the time. Bratton is now a four-star general serving as vice chief of space operations, the No. 2 uniformed position in the Space Force.<\/p>\n

The document, titled Space Force Instruction 16-403, covers \u201cSpace Force weapon system naming and designations.\u201d It provides guidance for creating new designators. The Space Force says compliance with the instruction is mandatory for new programs, but it does not require an update for existing satellites.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll new weapon systems developed after the effective date of this instruction will require a designator,\u201d the memorandum says. The new names will have letters identifying each system\u2019s purpose and orbital regime, followed by numbers or letters describing its design number and design series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Shawn Bratton, then a two-star general, gives remarks as the featured speaker for the 38th Space Symposium Satellite Forum Breakfast in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on April 19, 2023.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/p>\n

US Space Force\/Ethan Johnson<\/p>\n

John Shaw, a retired Space Force lieutenant-general, was part of internal discussions about revamping the military satellite naming scheme several years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking at this in 2018, before we had a Space Force, and trying to fit it into the Air Force nomenclature,\u201d Shaw told Ars. \u201cAnd it sort of hit a dead end because the Air Force just wasn\u2019t set up well for this. You really needed to start over. That wasn\u2019t going to happen very easily. Now that we have a Space Force, we can start over\u2026 I\u2019m glad to see that it\u2019s becoming reality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A little more than a century ago, the US Army Air Service came up with a scheme for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-273816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}