Ship identification

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The ship identifier is a standardized identifier consisting of numbers and letters to identify a warship .

The system of ship identification was first introduced by the Royal Navy after the First World War and then by most of the other navies. It should help to distinguish ships with the same name. A ship identification usually consists of a letter that identifies the type of ship, followed by a sequence of numbers that identifies the ship, or just a sequence of numbers.

The most commonly used system is that of the Royal Navy and the systems of NATO and the USA derived from it . This system is used by all NATO states and the states of the Commonwealth .

General

The letters of this system used since 1945 have the following meanings:

Aircraft carriers have their numbers painted on the flight deck or the ship's superstructure, other ships on both sides usually near the bow .

US Navy, Coast Guard and NOAA ship identifiers

The United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use a ship classification system called the Hull Code to classify their ships by type and individual ship within a type to identify.

It enables a US Navy ship to be identified immediately and clearly. For example, the Hull code CVN-72 stands for number 72 of the aircraft carrier, with the N additionally identifying the nuclear propulsion source (the USS Abraham Lincoln ).

Since the system describes the function of a ship and does not have the function of a vehicle identification number , a ship that has undergone significant changes or is used in a different function can be assigned a new number: for example, the same ship, the USS Patoka , received different numbers one after the other Hull numbers, AO-9 (oil tanker), AV-6 (seaplane mother ship) and AG-125 (other ship).

The system has been revised and reorganized several times since it was introduced in 1907. Therefore, as part of the reorganization of the system, a ship can sometimes be assigned a new number even though it has not undergone any changes. For example, the USS Midway initially had the code CVB-41, then CVA-41 in 1952, and CV-41 in 1975.

A separate identifier is used in combination with the name . The US Navy identifier consists of two to four letters followed by a number. Unlike the hull number (for sport boats), the ship identification can be changed, as described above.

As of May 2006, the following identifiers are in use:

The letter G usually designates the equipment with guided weapons, N at the end gives information about the type of propulsion (nuclear).

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stefan Terzibaschitsch : Sea power USA . Augsburg 1997. ISBN 3-86047-576-2