Weapon_system

Weapon System

Weapon System

US military designation scheme

This article is about naming of US military programs. For the general topic of weapons systems and for other US designations, see Weapon. For United States military aircraft designation systems, see Joint Electronics Type Designation System.

Weapon System was a United States Armed Forces military designation scheme for experimental weapons[2] (e.g., WS-220) before they received an official name — e.g., under a military aircraft designation system. The new designator reflected the increasing complexity of weapons that required separate development of auxiliary systems or components.

Quick Facts

In November 1949, the Air Force decided to build the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger around a fire-control system.[3] This was "the real beginning of the weapon system approach [and the] aircraft would be integrated into the weapon system "as a whole from the beginning, so the characteristics of each component were compatible with the others".[4]

Around February 1950, an Air Research and Development Command "study prepared by Maj Gen Gordon P. Saville...recommended that a 'systems approach' to new weapons be adopted [whereby] development of a weapon "system" required development of support equipment as well as the actual hardware itself."[5]

The first WS designation was WS-100A.[6]

US weapon programs were often begun as numbered government specifications such as an Advanced Development Objective (e.g., ADO-40) or a General Operational Requirement (e.g., GOR.80), although some programs were initially identified by contractor numbers (e.g., CL-282).[lower-alpha 1]

List of Weapon Systems

More information Number, Project ...

Notes

  1. When a government program number is not available, a contractor number (if available) is used in the table, e.g., Lockheed CL-282 for the U-2.

References

  1. [1]
    "North American SM-64 Navaho". www.designation-systems.net.
  2. [2]
    "MX - Military and Government". www.acronymfinder.com.
  3. [3]
    Donald 2003, pp. 68–69
  4. [4]
    Grant Historical Study No. 126 p. 53
  5. [5]
    Daso 1997, p. 166.
  6. [6]
    Parsch, Andreas. "Designations Of U.S. Air Force Projects". Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  7. [7]
    Burroughs 1998, p. 80–87.
  8. [8]
    Stares 1985, p. 30.
  9. [9]
    Burroughs 1998, p. 87.
  10. [10]
    Burroughs 1998, p. 139.
  11. [11]
    Stares 1985, p. 31–32.
  12. [12]
    Parsch, Andreas (21 March 2006). "WS-124A Flying Cloud". Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 4: Undesignated Vehicles. Designation-Systems. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  13. [13]
    NORAD Historical Summary 1958 January–June, p. 106
  14. [14]
    "Research Report - Index to Air Force Personnel and Training Research Center" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-16. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  15. [15]
    "Correspondence: Weapon System". Flight. 6 February 1959. Retrieved 2011-09-13 – via Flightglobal Archive.
  16. [16]
    "F-111 Aadvark". Archived from the original on 2012-03-03. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  • Burroughs, William E. (1988) [1986]. Deep Black (paperback ed.). New York: Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN 0-425-10879-1.
  • Daso, Dik (Major, USAF) (September 1997). Architects of American Air Supremacy: General Hap Arnold and Dr Theodore von Kármán. Air University Press. pp. 76, 166.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Stares, Paul B. (1985), The Militarization of Space, Ithaca: Cornell University Press
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