Attack, defend, pursue—the Space Force’s new naming scheme foretells new era

A little more than a century ago, the U.S. Army Air Service came up with a plan to name the military’s growing fleet of airplanes.

The Aircraft Designation Code of 1924 produced memorable names such as B-17, A-26, B-29, and P-51.-B for bomber, A for attack, and P for pursuit.-During World War II. The Army later changed the prefix for pursuit aircraft to F for fighter aircraft, leading to recognizable modern names such as F-15 and F-16.

Now, the newest branch of the military is getting its way with a new document detailing how the Space Force, which can trace its lineage to the Army Air Service, will name and designate its “weapon systems” on the ground and in orbit. Ars obtained a copy of the document, which was first written in 2023 and revised in 2024.

These changes may eventually lead to the retirement of burdensome bureaucratic abbreviations, or at least an emphasis on them. You can think of it as similar to how the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter program evolved into the F-35 Lightning II.

The memorandum outlining the new nomenclature of the Space Force in 2023 was signed by then-Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, who was the branch’s chief strategy and resources officer at the time. Bratton is now a four-star general serving as deputy chief of staff for space operations, the No. 2 uniformed position in the Space Force.

The document titled Space Force Instruction 16-403 contains “Nomenclature and Designation of Space Force Weapon Systems”. It provides guidance to new designers. The Space Force says compliance with the directive is mandatory for new programs, but it does not require updates for existing satellites.

“All new weapons systems developed after the effective date of this directive will require a designation,” the memo said. The new names will consist of letters identifying each system’s purpose and orbital regime, followed by numbers or letters describing its design number and design series.

John Shaw, a retired Space Force lieutenant-general, was part of internal discussions about reviving the military satellite naming scheme several years ago.

“We were considering it in 2018, before we had the Space Force, and were trying to fit it into the Air Force nomenclature,” Shaw told Ars. “And it kind of ended because the Air Force wasn’t properly prepared for it. You really needed to start over. It wasn’t going to happen very easily. Now that we have a Space Force, we can start over again… I’m glad to see that it’s becoming a reality.”