[Milsurplus] Format of Military Nomenclature

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Chris,

To add to what Mike and Nick have written, first, there is no such thing as 
"ALQ-144".  It's "AN/ALQ-144".  And before someone claims that it's 
redundant because all of them had it, consider for example "ARC-1" (became 
AN/APR-1) and "AN/ARC-1".  Or "ARA-1" (became AN/ARC-5) and "AN/ARA-1".  Etc.  

Second, AFAIK all component nomenclatures have a suffix so C-10280 or 
C-10280/ is not a choice.  Beyond that, the nomenclature system document does not 
specify that the suffix will be anything in particular because it depended 
upon the intended usage at the time that the nomenclature was assigned.  So 
after the fact, the only way to find out what the suffix is/was is to find 
either the hardware or one of the manuals that covers it.

Acceptible or possible suffixes for your example are:

C-10280/ALQ-144  (CB was originally specified and built on a contract to 
build AN/ALQ-144)
C-10280/xxx/nnn   (CB was originally specified and built on a contract to 
build something else)
C-10280/ALQ
C-10280/xxx
C-10280/AL
C-10280/xx
C-10280/A  (highly unlikely)
C-10280/U  (unlikely given the one set it is known to have been used with)

Also, do not use the Navy Contractor Code in your index.  As with the AN 
system's component ID and associated number, the Navy Type Number is unique.  
But for example at least six different contractors built the NT-46159 (TCS 
receiver).  And at least five built the NT-52245 (transmitter).  There are 
literally hundreds of other examples.  My database, because it is also an 
inventory system, includes the Contractor Code.  But it's in a separate field 
and I don't index on it.

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480


In a message dated 09/25/2013 13:18:20 PM Central Daylight Time, 
chris at codematic.com writes: 
> I am working with a large set of text data (chesson)
> 
> I want to be sure that im listing the nomenclatures correctly... Given the 
> Data below...
> 
> ALQ-144                 Helicopter Anti-IR missile Set    Sanders Asso.  
> TM 11-5865-200-*
>     T-1360/                ALQ-144 IR Jammer
>     C-9576/                ALQ-144 CBx
>     C-10280/             ALQ-144 CBx 
> 
> Should the components, for example "C-10280", be properly identified as:
> 
> C-10280/ALQ
> or
> C-10280/ALQ-144
> or
> C-10280
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Chris Story
> 
> Chris Story
> K6RWJ
> chris at codematic.com