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Aircraft Designators

A designation consisted of the word "Type" and a single number to indentify the type of aircraft, e.g. "Type 39" for the Tupolev Tu-16. Numbers were assigned in strict numerical sequence. The system was cancelled in 1955 because it was obviously impractical in the long run. The US Air Force began identifying newly appearing Soviet aircraft and missiles by a type number in 1947. The Type Number system was found to be difficult to remember and easy to confuse over a poor radio connection. The Air Standards Coordinating Committee (ASCC)--composed of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand--then stepped in and adopted a system similar to that used during World War II to identify Japanese aircraft. This new system, devised in 1954, assigned each Soviet vehicle a codename or reporting name according to its primary mission. The first letter of the reporting name indicates the type of vehicle.

Notes:
1. Not all aircraft with a "Type" designation had ASCC/NATO names allocated.
2. These aircraft have nothing in common with later aircraft with the same designation (a Russian speciality!)
3. In essentially all published lists of "Type" numbers, the numbers 13, 17-20, 22, 24 and 38 are described as follows:

The corrected data, as presented here, has been provided by Helge Bergander, who obtained his information from detailed analysis of original Soviet documents of the time. In the original table, the entry #20 was suspected to erroneous anyway, because the MiG-17 was out of timeline. Numbers 18, 19, 21, 22 etc. were allocated to aircraft which were first seen around 1949, while the MiG-17 didn't fly before 1950 and didn't appear in public before 1954. The slot #38 is much more plausible for the MiG-17.

Research and Prototype Aircraft

The DOD assigned preliminary codes to newly discovered Soviet or Chinese aircraft, which had not yet been identified. A designation consisted of a code for the place of identification, and a sequential letter.

CASP - Caspian Sea

KAZ - Kazan

NOVO - Novosibirsk

RAM - Ramenskoye

RAM-H was described in a classified CIA memo of 1974 as a 'large delta-wing aircraft'. It seems unlikely it was really Tu-144D as is sometimes reported, since the Tu-144 was well known by 1974 so it would have been recognised and described as a CHARGER variant. The RAM-A through RAM-F block most likely includes Sukhoi T6-1, Sukhoi T6-IG and Sukhoi T-4. Other RAM coded aircraft may include specially modified test, training, and electronic warfare versions of series aircraft like the AEW version of the Il-76 ('A-50' 'Mainstay') or the Myasishchev 'VM-T' transporter, and other experimental or prototype aircraft like the Ilyushin Il-102 ground attack prototypes, the Tsybin 'NM-1' strategic reconnaissance plane prototype, and the Mikoyan experimental orbiter 'Spiral' prototype MiG Product 105-11.

SIB - SibNIA

TAG - Taganrog

Notes:
1. Candidates for TAG-B and TAG-C are the KM and A-90 Orlyonok WIGs.

VLAD - Vladimirovka / Akhtubinsk