The Army Nomenclature System is a nomenclature system used by the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

for giving type designations to its

materiel Materiel or matériel (; ) is supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commerce, commercial supply chain management, supply chain context. Military In a military context, ...

. It is based on MIL-STD-1464A which was released in 1981 and most recently revised on February 22, 2021.

Usage

The Army Nomenclature System is designed to help accurately reference specific items which may have similar names to other items of their category. It applies to: * Weapons * Ammunition * Vehicles * Explosives * System components * Other equipment associated with handling/storage/management of the above It is not utilized if one of the following nomenclature systems can designate the item: * MIL-STD-196:

Joint Electronics Type Designation System The Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), which was previously known as the Joint Army-Navy Nomenclature System (AN System. JAN) and the Joint Communications-Electronics Nomenclature System, is a method developed by the U.S. War Depa ...

* MIL-STD-1812: Aeronautical and Support Equipment Type Designation System * AFR 82-1/AR 70-50/NAVMATINST 8800.4A: Joint Regulation Designating and Naming Military Aerospace Vehicles (concerning

United States military aircraft designation systems Multiple designation systems have been used to specify United States military aircraft. The first system was introduced in 1911 by the United States Navy, but was discontinued six years later; the first system similar to that used today was design ...

) * MIL-STD-1661 Mark and Mod Nomenclature System (used by

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

)

Application

The complete nomenclature consists of an Approved Item Name (AIN), an extended modifier (if applicable), and the type designation. The AIN is presented in all capital letters, is not abbreviated, and is followed by a colon. Each AIN has a corresponding 6-digit Item Name Code (INC) which can be referenced in the H6 Cataloging Handbook. The extended modifier is in lower case and may contain abbreviations (which are capitalized). The type designation does not use any spaces or hyphens (so "M-16" and "M 16" are incorrect). An example given is "PROJECTILE, 105 MILLIMETER: HE, rocket assisted, M547A3". The Approved Item Name is "PROJECTILE, 105 MILLIMETER"; the extended modifier(s) "HE, rocket assisted", and the type designation is "M547A3". The type designation may not be unique to that specific item and, thus, may not accurately identify an item if the Approved Item Name and Extended Modifier are not included. For example, the type designation M1 is used in the

M1 Carbine The M1 carbine (formally the United States carbine, caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine chambered in the .30 carbine (7.62×33mm) cartridge that was issued to the U.S. military during World War II, the Korean War, and t ...

as well as the M1 Abrams tank, however, the former is specified as "CARBINE, CALIBER .30, M1" while the latter is specified as "TANK, COMBAT, FULL TRACKED: 105-MM Gun, M1". The type designation is rendered as a prefix letter(s) followed by a number, possibly followed by a letter-number suffix to denote various versions.

References

Military of the United States standards Naming conventions {{US-military-stub

Usage

Application

See also

References