Russian Weapons Systems Have the Most Interesting Names - What Will the Laser System be Called?
The Defense Ministry website ended the voting on the name of the new Russian superweapon about which Putin spoke in his address to the Federal Assembly. Combat laser systems, underwater drones, and cruise missiles of unlimited range will be the first weapon systems to be named not by inventors or the military, but ordinary citizens.
Andrey Grigoryev is reporting on how the names for Russian weapons were chosen until recently.
Automatic mortar Cornflower, self-propelled gun Hyacinth, divisional howitzer Acacia. During the volley, fire bursts out in the shape of a flower, the artillerymen explains beautifully. But only the inventor could explain why the biggest and most powerful flamethrower in the world is called Pinocchio.
Nikolai Makarovets, Splav, chief engineer: "I tried to make analogies, but the only thing is that Pinocchio has a short base and a long weapon section, that is, a long nose." The tradition of giving names to domestic military equipment is believed to have started with the legendary Katyusha. It was the soldiers who gave an affectionate nickname to the BM-13 truck-mounted rocket launcher. Its successors — modern rocket launcher systems — got more and more thundering names with each new iteration.
Sergey Zimin, vehicle commander: "Hail can kill a person if it hits a temple".
Grad (hail) sounds like the customer's abbreviation, GRAU (the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defence). Later, in Syria, more stormy names appeared (Whirlwind, Hurricane, Tornado).
Submarines, which were supplied to the Warsaw Pact countries in the Soviet times, were quite predictably named Varshavianka (Varsovian), they're in the Black Sea Fleet now. The Pike project is also a logical name. But the Northern Fleet has its vessels named after members of the cat family.
Alexei Pashovkin, Panther submarine commander: "Leopard, Cheetah, Panther, Tiger. The predators".
Some rise from the water into the sky, for example, the KA-52 helicopter.
Evgeny Morozov, KA-52 commander: "The name Alligator is most likely associated with its predecessor, the Black Shark. These are both water predators, watching the situation and waiting for the best moment to strike".
The anti-aircraft gun Wasp is stingy.
Lev Suleimanov, antiaircraft unit commander: "Like a wasp, it can sting 6 times with 6 missiles".
The antenna of the Thor missile system reminds of the geometric figure, and the system is as powerful as the Scandinavian thunderer.
Mikhail Khodorenok, military expert: "There has never been any naming scheme for it. For example, automated control systems can be called Baikal, or Senezh, that is, named after lakes. By contrast, it could also be called Foundation".
The name of the artillery piece Msta reminds the outsiders of revenge (mest'). Msta is actually a small river in the north-west of Russia. Legend has it that one of the designers of the self-propelled artillery piece vacationed there. But later the first fortified areas of the ancient Slavs turned out to have been located on the banks of this river.
Commander Alexander Pushkin has a more poetic version: "The river of Msta is straight. This machine is very accurate, like a sniper rifle. That's why it's named so".
Of course, all this can and be harmonized by naming them after designers, like in aviation — Tupolev, Antonov, Sukhoi. But, on the one hand, they're military secrets, and on the other hand, Russian military equipment is already known all over the world under the existing names.
Andrey Grigoryev, Oleg Dubinin, Igor Ageyenko, Ivan Ponomarenko, Andrey Greshnev for Vesti.