Current Designations of U.S. Unmanned Military Aerospace Vehicles

Copyright © 2000-2022 Andreas Parsch

1 The Designation System

2 Designation Listings

2.1 Missiles, Drones and UAVs
2.2 Rockets
2.3 Probes
2.4 Boosters
2.5 Satellites

3 Sources

1 The Designation System

The current designation system for U.S. military missiles, rockets and target drones was introduced by the Department of Defense in 1963. It became formally effective on 27 June 1963, and closely followed the pattern of the aircraft designation system, which had been introduced the year before. As such, it was not based on any previous missile designation system used by the U.S. military services, and therefore all missiles then in service were assigned new designations under the new system. The designation system has since been slightly revised and extended (notably by the inclusion of space-related vehicles in the 1988/89 time frame), and the latest version is defined by Air Force Instruction (AFI) 16-401(I) (formerly Air Force Joint Instruction 16-401) Designating and Naming Military Aerospace Vehicles (PDF file, 480 kB), dated 14 March 2005. AFI 16-401(I) not only covers the aircraft and missile designation systems, but also some of the bureaucratic red tape to be followed for actually assigning a name or a designation to a military aerospace vehicle.

A U.S. military aerospace vehicle designation is also known as an "MDS Designation" (MDS = "Mission-Design-Series", see aircraft designations). An MDS for missiles, rockets, etc. looks as follows (all examples are real-world designations):

In the following section, each of the eight elements is explained in detail. For all letter symbols a year range is given in brackets to document when this particular symbol is/was valid. If one of the bounds is given as a range (e.g. 1988/89), this means that I don't know the respective year more exactly.

(1) Vehicle Type: This letter defines the broad category of the vehicle, and defines in which series the MDS is numbered (see section (4) below).

• B - Booster  [1988/89-today] (see note 1)
• M - Guided Missile, Target Drone, UAV  [1963-today] (see note 2)
• N - Probe  [1963-today] (see note 3)
• R - Rocket  [1963-today] (see note 4)
• S - Satellite  [1988/89-today] (see note 1)

(2) Mission: The letter to the left of the vehicle type symbol designates the mission of the vehicle. The following mission symbols are defined (see note 1):

• C - Transport  [1988/89-today] (see note 2)
• D - Decoy  [1963-today]
• E - Special Electronics, Communication  [1963-today]
• G - Surface Attack  [1963-today]
• I - Interception  [1963-today] (see note 3)
• L - Launch Detection  [1988/89-today]
• M - Scientific Measurements, Calibration  [1988/89-today] (see note 2)
• N - Navigation  [1988/89-today]
• Q - Target Drone (formerly also UAV)  [1963-today] (see note 4)
• S - Space Operations Support  [1988/89-today]
• T - Training  [1963-today]
• U - Underwater Attack  [1963-today]
• W - Weather  [1963-today] (see note 5)

(3) Launch Environment: This letter describes the launch environment of the aerospace vehicle. The original regulation of 1963 allowed the omission of the launch environment letter, if a status prefix letter was used. This option has been removed in the 1970s, resulting in a few redesignations (like YQM-94A to YGQM-94A). Designations for satellites and ground-launched boosters do not use the launch environment symbol. While this is no surprise for satellites, a "P" or "G" launch environment letter would certainly be appropriate for ground launched space boosters like Atlas, Delta or Titan. The following launch environment symbols are defined:

• A - Air  [1963-today]
• B - Multiple  [1963-today] (see note 1)
• C - Coffin  [1963-today] (see note 2)
• F - Individual  [1966/70-today]
• G - Runway or Ground  [1976-today] (see note 3)
• H - Silo Stored  [1963-today] (see note 4)
• L - Silo Launched  [1963-today]
• M - Ground Launched, Mobile  [1963-today]
• P - Soft Pad  [1963-today] (see note 5)
• R - Surface Ship  [1963-today]
• S - Space  [1988/89-today] (see note 6)
• U - Underwater  [1963-today]

(4) Design Number: Each vehicle type is used to form a separate series of design numbers, each starting from 1. The numbers in each series are to be assigned in strict numerical sequence without reference to manufacturers' model numbers and/or existing numbers in other MDS series. It is possible that multiple versions of a missile for different purposes and/or with different launch options exist. These versions would use the same design number with different letter combinations. An example for this is the LTV Regulus II missile: RGM-15A was the ship-launched ground-attack missile, MQM-15A was a ground-launched target drone version.

(5) Series Letter: Variants of a basic vehicle type are designated by a suffix letter. The first model always receives suffix "A" and subsequent series letters are to be assigned in strict sequence (omitting "I" and "O" to avoid confusion with numerals "1" and "0"). The series letter is actually a mandatory component of a conforming MDS, and therefore "plain" designations like "AIM-120" always designate the general type of vehicle and never a specific model.

(6) Status Prefix: Any vehicle, which is not in normal operational service or is of a special non-operational configuration, can receive a prefix letter in its designation to reflect its current status. The following status prefixes are defined:

• C - Captive  [1978/86-today] (see note 1)
• D - Dummy  [1978/86-today] (see note 2)
• J - Special Test, Temporary  [1963-today] (see note 3)
• M - Maintenance  [1978/86-1993] (see note 4)
• N - Special Test, Permanent  [1963-today] (see note 3)
• X - Experimental  [1963-today]
• Y - Prototype  [1963-today]
• Z - Planning  [1963-today] (see note 5)

(7) Configuration Number: This is an optional element of the designation, and not part of the MDS proper. Minor modifications or slightly differing sub-variants of a specific missile or rocket model can be indicated by an additional suffix number, separated from the series letter by a dash.

(8) Popular Name: Most missiles receive a "popular name" or acronym very early in the planning or development phase. While the name is not part of the official designation, many missiles are almost exclusively referenced by their name, both in the popular press and in official government news releases and documents.

2 Designation Listings

For each vehicle type, a list of assigned designations is provided (ellipses in suffix letters denote all letters in between, excluding I and O). For most vehicles, only the manufacturer and the popular name is given. This should provide a useful reference in most cases. Only for vehicles without a name, or for some "less known" vehicles (i.e. not normally found in standard sources) are a few details given. The link in the left column leads to the corresponding page in the Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, which includes more information about the missile, like one or more photos and reference to the major differences between the variants. A link in the "Previous Designations" column will point to an explanation of the system, under which the designation was assigned.

2.1 Missiles, Drones and UAVs

In 1997, the designation system for manned aircraft was extended to include a Q category for UAVs. The following designations have since been allocated:

Notes:

Undesignated Missiles, Drones and UAVs

Only a few operational missiles after 1963 have not (yet) received standard designations. These include:

• Boeing GBI (Ground-Based Interceptor). The missile component of the GMD (Ground-Based Midcourse Defense) segment of the Ballistic Missile Defense System.
• Lockheed Martin M30/M31 GMLRS Rocket (Guided MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) rocket). Guided derivative of the M26 MLRS rocket.
• Lockheed Martin (Loral) Patriot PAC-3. Hit-to-kill anti-ballistic missile, originally known as ERINT (Extended Range Interceptor).
• Martin Marietta Sprint. Short-Range ABM component of Safeguard system. Note: Although several sources explicitly say, that the Sprint never received an LIM designation, one of the designations XLIM-99A and XLIM-100A might have been reserved for the Sprint (see note 9 above).
• Matra/BAe Rapier (British surface-to-air missile). The US bought Rapier systems for the air defense of USAF bases in the UK, but the systems were operated by Royal Air Force personnel. That was probably the reason why Rapier didn't receive a DOD MIM-n designation.

There are numerous drones, targets and UAVs, which were funded and/or procured by the U.S. military services, but did not receive standard designations. The following list includes only those vehicles, which were at least briefly used in an operational role. There were many more research and test vehicles, most of which are listed in the Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 4.

• Advanced Ceramics Research Silver Fox. Small light-weight reconnaissance and surveillance UAV for the U.S. Marine Corps.
• BAI XPV-1 Tern. Tactical UAV for U.S. Navy special forces.
  
• GAF Jindivik. Australian full-scale target briefly used by the U.S. Navy.
• Boeing/Zvezda-Strela MA-31 SSST (Supersonic Sea Skimming Target). A target missile derived from the Russian Zvezda-Strela Kh-31 anti-ship missile (AS-17 Krypton), used by the Navy as an interim target.
• Boeing/Insitu ScanEagle. Long-endurance surveillance mini-UAV used by thr USMC.
• Developmental Sciences R4E-40 SkyEye. Multi-mission UAV briefly used by the U.S. Army.
• General Atomics I-Gnat. Optionally armed multi-mission UAV used by U.S. Army.
• Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk. Reconnaissance mini-UAV for the USAF base security forces.
• Navmar XPV-2 Mako. Surveillance UAV for special forces.
  

Several ballistic missile targets, which are used in testing anti-ballistic missiles, don't have standard missile designations. xQM-n designations could be applied to the following targets:

• Space Vector Aries. Tactical ballistic missile target based on Minuteman I 2nd stage.
• Coleman Aerospace Hera. Tactical ballistic missile target based on Minuteman II 2nd and 3rd stages.
• Coleman Aerospace SRALT (Short-Range Air-Launch Target). Single-stage air-launched ballistic missile target.
• Orbital Sciences SR19-SR19. Ballistic missile target consisting of two Minuteman II 2nd stage motors.
• Orbital Sciences Storm I / Storm II. Theater ballistic missile targets.
• Sandia STARS (Strategic Target System). Target payload booster based on Polaris A-3 rocket motors.

Currently, there are several missiles under development, which have not yet received a numerical designation. Missile programs, which are still in the planning phase, are not included in the following list.

• Lockheed Martin LAM (Loitering Attack Missile). Part of the U.S. Army's NetFires NLOS-LS (Non-Line-Of-Sight Launch System).
• Lockheed Martin THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense). Short/medium-range anti-ballistic missile interceptor.
• NAWC/DRS Spike. Small shoulder-launched missile against unarmoured ground targets.
• ONR/Titan Affordable Weapon. Navy-sponsored low-cost cruise missile.
• Raytheon PAM (Precision Attack Missile). Part of the U.S. Army's NetFires NLOS-LS (Non-Line-Of-Sight Launch System).

Research and test missiles (other than RPVs) did never receive a standard designation (there is no appropriate designator for pure test missiles). Among these are:

• Atlantic Research Athena. USAF/Army missile to test reentry vehicles.
• Boeing HIBEX (High-g Boost Experiment). A close range ABM test missile with even higher acceleration than Sprint.
• Lockheed HOE (Homing Overlay Experiment). Army demonstrator for hit-to-kill ABM technology.
• LTV FLAGE (Flexible Leight-Weight Agile Guidance Experiment). Demonstrator for hit-to-kill ABM technology.
• LTV ALVRJ (Advanced Low-Volume Ramjet). Test vehicle for integrated rocket/ramjet technology.
• Marquardt LASRM (Low Altitude Short Range Missile). A test missile for the IRR (Integrated Rocket/Ramjet) propulsion system of the planned ASALM (Advanced Strategic Air-Launched Missile).

There are numerous missile programs, which reached the flight-test stage but never received a numerical designation. These include:

• Ford SIAM (Self Initiated Anti-Aircraft Missile; Navy project)
• Hughes Brazo / Pave Arm (air-to-air anti-radar missile; Navy/Air Force project)
• Lockheed ERIS (Exoatmospheric Re-entry Vehicle Interceptor System; ABM missile project)
• Lockheed Senior Prom (stealth cruise missile; Air Force project)
• Martin Marietta/McDonnell Douglas ASALM (Advanced Strategic Air-Launched Missile; Air Force project)
• McDonnell Douglas HEDI (High Endoatmospheric Defense Interceptor; ABM missile project)
• Shorts Starstreak (short-range anti-aircraft missile). The air-launched version ATASK (Air-To-Air Starstreak) was evaluated by the Army as an AAM for helicopters.
• Vought HVM (Hyper-Velocity Missile; Air Force anti-armour missile project)

Rocket-propelled guided projectiles are effectively gun-launched guided missiles. However, this type of ammunition is designated by the services as "projectiles" and not "missiles".

• Raytheon ERGM (Extended Range Guided Munition), designated "5 Inch Rocket Assisted Projectile, MK 151" (U.S. Navy program)

There are guided weapons, which frequently appear in compilations of guided missile systems, but which are not proper missiles in the sense of the DOD's missile designation system. These include e.g.:

• Lockheed Martin LOCAAS (Low-Cost Autonomous Attack Subsystem). This is a smart submunition currently under development, which could also be regarded as a guided missile of its own. So far, submunitions have usually received BLU-n/B designations, but guided self-propelled submunitions are actually a fairly new concept for which no really appropriate designation categories exist. The GBU (Guided Bomb) designator does not explicitly exclude submunitions, so a GBU-n/B designation could be assigned.
• Martin Marietta M712 Copperhead (a guided cannon-launched 155mm projectile). The Copperhead has no propulsion of its own, and is regarded as a "projectile" and not a "missile" by the Army. Therefore it received number M712 in the Army's general series for gun projectiles.

2.2 Rockets

Notes:

Undesignated Rockets

Many small rockets, especially infantry rockets and rockets launched from airborne multi-tube launchers, have not received MDS designations. These include:

• 2.75-Inch FFAR (Folding Fin Aerial Rocket; large family of air-to-air and air-to-ground rockets)
• 5-Inch Rocket Zuni (air-to-ground rocket)
• 2.75-Inch Rocket Hydra-70 (family of air-to-ground rockets of FFAR type)
• 66 mm HEAT Rocket M72 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapon)
• 115 mm Chemical Rocket M55
• 83 mm HE Rocket System SMAW (Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon)
• Lockheed Martin Tactical Free Flight Rocket M26 (MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) rocket)

2.3 Probes

2.4 Boosters

Undesignated Boosters

The following launch vehicles have not (yet) received SB-n designations:

• Boeing Delta 4 EELV (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle)
• Lockheed Martin Atlas III
• Lockheed Martin Atlas V EELV (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle)

2.5 Satellites

Notes:

Undesignated Satellites

Many military satellite systems, including all reconnaissance and intelligence satellites, never received MDS designations. The following list does not include satellites, which were already out of service, when the designation series for satellites was introduced in 1988/89.

• Ball Aerospace GFO (GeoSat Follow-On) meteorological/oceanographic satellite (Navy)
• Boeing ARGOS (Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite) research satellite (USAF)
• Boeing TRUMPET electronic intelligence satellite (NRO/NSA)
• E-Systems CHALET/VORTEX communications intelligence satellite (USAF)
• Hughes MERCURY (Advanced VORTEX) signals intelligence satellite (USAF)
• Hughes SDS-1 (Satellite Data System 1) communications satellite (USAF)
• Hughes SDS-2 (Satellite Data System 2) communications satellite (USAF)
• Hughes Syncom IV communications satellite for LEASAT (Leased Satellite) program (Navy)
• Hughes UFO (Ultra-High Frequency Follow-On) satellite (Navy)
• Lockheed Martin LACROSSE SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) imagery intelligence satellite (NRO?)
• Lockheed Martin SBIRS High (Space-Based Infrared System) satellite (USAF)
• Lockheed Martin SB-WASS (Space-Based Wide Area Surveillance System) surveillance satellite (Navy)
• TRW FLTSATCOM (Fleet Satellite Communications System) satellite (Navy)
• TRW/Hughes JUMPSEAT electronic intelligence satellite (USAF/NSA)
• TRW/Lockheed KH-11 KENNAN/CRYSTAL imagery intelligence satellite (NRO)
• TRW/Lockheed KH-12(?) ("Improved CRYSTAL") imagery intelligence satellite (NRO)
• "8X" Enhanced Imaging System (KH-13??) imagery intelligence satellite (NRO)
• AFP-731 ("MISTY") experimental low observables ("stealth") reconnaissance satellite (USAF/NRO??)
• CAPRICORN infrared early-warning satellite (NRO)

3 Sources

In no particular order:

[1] John M. Andrade: "U.S. Military Aircraft Designations and Serials 1909-1979", Midland, 1979
[2] Bill Gunston: "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rockets and Missiles", Salamander Books Ltd, 1979
[3] Department of Defense Publication 4120.15-L: "Model Designation of Military Aerospace Vehicles", 1974, 1977, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1996, 1998 and 2004 editions
[4] Department of Defense: "Model Designation of Military Aircraft, Rockets and Missiles", 7/1964, 1/1965, 7/1965, 1/1970 editions
[5] Department of Defense Missile Nomenclature Records