Reporting Names: Difference between revisions

Understandably, Soviet types and NATO's believed types don't fully match up.

 

* "Backfire" - The Tupolev Tu-22M medium bomber, which plays a major role in ''Red Storm Rising''. Mach 2+ capable and with the capacity to carry three nuclear or conventional anti-shipping missiles (or a lot of bombs), it scared the West so much that they got the USSR to take the refuelling probes out.

** These turn up a lot in [[Cold War]] naval games. It's a [[Cool Plane]].

** "Foxfire" is the NATO reporting name for the fire-control radar on the MiG-25 "Foxbat" (see below).

* "Flanker" - the Su-27S ("Flanker-B"), the newer version two-seater Su-30 ("Flanker-C", "Flanker-G" for the Chinese version and "Flanker-H" for the Indian one), the carrier-version Su-33 ("Flanker-D"), the limited-number in service Su-35 ("Flanker-E") and the Su-37 ("Flanker-F" or the "Super Flanker" still in prototype stage). A long-range aerial interceptor, it's a pretty maneuverable aircraft and the family has been exported quite a bit. Can be described as the Russian F-15. The former would probably win a fight- although one-on-one fights rarely happen in modern aerial warfare. Capable of doing a move (some other aircraft can do it too) called "Pugachev's Cobra", where the aircraft effectively slides along on its tail. It looks impressive and is often done at air shows, but is of limited combat utility.

** Intra-Russian calling name also produced a famous running gag. There is a rather popular picture "Rooks Flew In" (often less correctly translated as The Rooks Have Come Back, which loses part of the joke) by 19-century artist Savrasov. Needless to say, this picture was, and still is, more referenced by Russian frontline forces then every other piece of art combined. With much relief and Schadenfreude.

* "Fulcrum" - the MiG-29, the Russian counterpart to the F-16. Very agile. Its best known feature is the R-73/AA-11 "Archer" missiles. Coupled to a helmet mounted sight (like ''[[Airwolf]]'' has), these highly agile missiles can be launched by the pilot merely looking at his target, up to about 60 degrees off the centre-line. This led to the U.S. developing improved Sidewinders in response.

*** There's also the X-Tie, the rather amusing combination of the two great rivals. TIE solar panels on an X-Wing fuselage.

*** And X-Ceptor, which is the X-Tie with TIE Interceptor wings.

*** The second edition went by "Impstar deuce"

** "Skips" ([[New Jedi Order|Vong coralcraft]])

* [[Ace Online]] has them too:

* [[Command & Conquer]] vehicles are often given similar names. The GDI Mammoth tank and Orca Aircraft are the most iconic for the series.

** A Nod intelligence item in ''Tiberium Wars'' suggests the name "Gravity Stabilizer" for the Scrin aircraft production is actually a name given by analysts after studying what the unknown "Visitor structure type 8" did. Presumably the other units' names were arrived at similarly, giving them a somewhat more plainly descriptive feel than the original factions' units. One imagines the Scrin themselves were less than interested in telling humans all about their fancy tech.

** The battlecruisers in the original were ''Behemoth''-class, whereas the ones in the sequel are ''Minotaur''-class. Some of the background material suggests an older ''[[Theme Naming|Leviathan]]''-class that was already outdated when the series began.

** The names of the different zerg broods (back when the zerg had discreet broods) were explicitly stated to be names given by terran analysts. Their units are presumably named similarly. The zerg ''are'' shown to use these names themselves, but that's probably just [[Translation Convention]].