Theemile wrote:OfSMSKarlsbad wrote:
In regards to aircraft, they sometimes get a name assigned by the company which maintains them, for example the Lufthansa's Landshut, but always have an identifier with a prefix and its registration number. For example, the Landshut which was hijacked in 1977, had the identifier D-ABCE.
What if, Like Nato identifiers of Warsaw pact weapons, the identifiers were Nato supplied and nothing like the actual country used? We westerners called them Whiskeys and Novembers, instead of their actual, Russian names or even translations thereof. The RMN might simply translate the Fleet names into something "standard" cannot mangle and live with it.
Alternately, it's a big universe, perhaps such names and acronyms must be registered in the modern era to avoid confusion, and the direct translation was already taken by an old, core world - so the next best thing was applied.
Could be, although the identifiers for aircraft are like registration plates for cars AFAIK.