NATO reporting name

NATO uses a system of code names, called reporting names, to denote military aircraft and other equipment used by the post-Soviet states, former Warsaw Pact countries, China, and other countries. The system assists military communications by providing short, one or two-syllable names, as alternatives to the precise proper names – which may be easily confused under operational conditions or are unknown in the western world.

The assignment of reporting names was previously managed by the Air Standardization Coordinating Committee (ASCC), which was separate from NATO. The ASCC is now known as the Five Eyes Air Force Interoperability Council and no longer has responsibility for generating NATO reporting names.

When the system was introduced, in the 1950s, reporting names also implicitly designated potentially hostile aircraft. However, since the end of the Cold War, some NATO air forces have operated various aircraft types with reporting names (e.g. the "Fulcrum" Mikoyan MiG-29).