| AAI |
AAI Corporation |
| AAM |
air-to-air missile |
| AEW |
airborne early warning |
| AGM |
air-to-ground missile |
| aileron |
aircraft roll control |
| ALCM |
air-launched cruise missile |
| altitude |
height above sea level |
| ART-V |
aircraft recognition training-visual 35-millimeter slide kit |
| ASM |
air-to-surface missile |
| aspect |
aircraft appearance with respect to a ground observer |
| assault gunship |
rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft, armed and equipped to carry combat
troops into battle and operating from land or sea |
| ASW |
antisubmarine warfare |
| ATF |
advanced tactical fighter |
| ATGM |
antitank guided missile |
| ATOLL |
AA-2-2 air-to-air missile, CIS (former USSR) |
| attitude |
inclination of aircraft in relation to the ground (heading, pitch, and roll) |
| Avenger |
30-millimeter cannon on A-10A Thunderbolt II. FAAD weapon system |
| AWACS |
Airborne Warning and Control System |
| BAe |
British Aerospace (aircraft manufacturer) |
| butterfly tail |
rounded tail fin and flats of a particular aircraft type (O-1 Bird Dog) |
| cabin |
housing on an aircraft for troops or cargo |
| CAI |
computer aided instruction |
| canards |
winglets, controllable or fixed, located forward of the center of gravity |
| canopy |
cover for cockpit |
| CAS |
close air support |
| CASA |
Construcciones Aeronauticas SA |
| CBU |
cluster bomb unit |
| CD |
compact disc |
| chord |
straight line joining the leading and trailing edges of an airfoil section |
| CIS |
Commonwealth of Independent States (formerly USSR) |
| clean |
aircraft in flight with landing gear, flaps, slats retracted, and or
without external stores |
| cluttered |
aircraft with external stores (bombs, missiles, and fuel tanks) |
| cockpit |
housing for crew and aircraft instrumentation |
| COIN |
(co-in) counterinsurgency |
| detection |
(DOD) in tactical operations, the perception of an object of possible military
interest, but unconfirmed by recognition. (NATO) the discovery by any means the presence of
a person or object of potential military significance. |
| DHC |
DeHavilland Canada (aircraft manufacturer) |
| dihedral |
upward or positive slope of the wings or tail flats (anhedral is the downward
or negative slope) |
| DOD |
Department of Defense |
| dogtooth |
horizontal step in the leading edge of the wing resulting from an increase in chord |
| dorsal spine |
fairing along the back of an aircraft, usually housing avionic equipment |
| drone |
pilotless aircraft (remotely controlled) |
| ECM |
electronic countermeasures |
| elevator |
a hinged, horizontal surface that controls the pitch of an aircraft |
| ELINT |
electronic intelligence |
| EMB |
Embraer (aircraft manufacturer) |
| Exocet |
French-built air-to-surface missile (antiship) |
| FAAD |
forward area air defense |
| fairing |
streamlined covering (also curvature in spine connected to the tail fin) |
| fence |
projection parallel to the wing chord that modifies the distribution of pressure |
| ferry range |
maximum range without payload |
| fin |
vertical stabilizer |
| flap |
movable surface that increases the lift or drag of an aircraft |
| flat |
horizontal stabilizer |
| FLIR |
forward looking infrared |
| fuselage |
body of an aircraft |
| GCS |
ground control station |
| glove |
located at the pivots on variable-geometry aircraft. It is impossible to have
one-piece pivotal aircraft because at zero sweep, the inner ends would overlap (the solution
to this problem is a fixed inner wing called a glove). |
| GOAR |
ground observation aircraft recognition (an obsolete 35-millimeter slide kit
superseded by ART-V) |
| Grail |
CIS-built built SA-7, man-portable antiaircraft missile |
| gunship |
generally a helicopter that was designed for battlefield attack. Also some fixed-wing
aircraft are designated gunships (AC-47, AC-119, and AC-130). |
| hardpoint |
reinforced stations to which external stores can be attached. Pylon is another term. |
| HARM |
US-built AGM 88A high-speed antiradiation missile used against air defenses. |
| Hellfire |
helicopter-launched fire and forget. The missile is also fired from some attack
fixed-wing aircraft (A-10A Thunderbolt II). |
| HOT |
air-to-ground antitank missile, also called Euromissile Hot. Full name is
"hautsubsonique optiquement teleguide tire d'un tube". |
| IAI |
Israel Aircraft Industries (aircraft manufacturer) |
| IAT |
International Aerospace Technology |
| identification |
(DOD/IADB) the process of determining the friendly or hostile character of an
unknown detected contact. In ground combat operations, discrimination between recognizable objects
as being friendly or enemy, or the name that belongs to the object as a member of a class. (NATO)
In imagery interpretation, the discrimination between objects within a particular type or class. |
| IFF |
identification, friend or foe (generally electronic) |
| incidence |
angle at which a wing is set in relation to the fuselage axis |
| IR |
infrared |
| KMPH |
kilometers per hour |
| knot |
one nautical mile (1.152 land miles per hour) |
| loiter |
flight endurance |
| LEX |
leading edge extension |
| LERX |
leading edge root extension |
| Mach |
speed of sound. One Mach=1,116 feet per second at sea level |
| maritime |
actions performed by forces over, under, or on the seas |
| Maverick |
US-built AGM-65 air-to-surface missile |
| MBB |
Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm (aircraft manufacturer) |
| mission |
primary task |
| mm |
millimeter |
| MPCS |
mission planning and control station |
| MPH |
miles per hour |
| nacelle |
enclosed engine housing (also an enclosed passenger cabin like the C-119) |
| NATO |
North Atlantic Treaty Organization |
| NOE |
nap-of-the-earth (flying low, using natural cover) |
| NOGS |
night observation gunsight |
| NOS |
night observation surveillance |
| open lattice |
uncovered tail boom with visible framework |
| ordnance |
aircraft weapons load |
| Phoenix |
US-built AIM-54 air-to-air missile |
| PNVS |
pilot's night vision sensor |
| port |
left side looking forward |
| pylon |
structure that links aircraft to loads, drop-tank, bombs, and engines |
| PZL |
Panstwowe Zaklady Lotniczc (state aviation works) at the cities of Mielec and
Swidnik in Poland |
| QSTAG |
Quadripartite Standardization Agreement |
| radius |
the distance an aircraft can fly and return including standoff and loiter |
| RAF |
Royal Air Force |
| RAM |
Ramenskoye Flight Test Center in the former USSR |
| range |
performance characteristic expressed as total distance |
| recognition |
(DOD/IADB) the determination by any means of the individuality of objects such
as aircraft. In ground operations, the determination that an object is similar within a category of
something, for example, aircraft (helicopter, fixed wing jet, cargo, etcetera). (NATO) the
determination of the nature or a detected person, object, or phenomenon, and possibly its class or
type. This may include the determination of a individual within a particular class or type. |
| RISTA |
reconnaissance, intelligence, surveillance, targeting and acquisition |
| RN |
Royal Navy |
| role |
function, such as a fighter-bomber |
| RPV |
remotely piloted vehicle |
| SAAB |
SAAB-Scania |
| sawtooth |
a step in the leading edge of an aircraft wing |
| SEAD |
suppression of enemy air defenses |
| service ceiling |
operational height above sea level |
| Shadow |
AC-119 Flying Boxcar gunship |
| Shrike |
US-built AGM-5 air-to-surface antiradiation missile |
| Sidewinder |
US-built AIM-9 -series air-to-air missile |
| signature |
smoke, infrared, or radar fingerprints |
| SL |
sea level |
| SLAR |
side-looking airborne radar |
| Sparrow |
US-built AIM-7 air-to-air missile |
| Spectre |
AC-130 Hercules gunship |
| Spooky |
AC-47 Skytrain gunship |
| SRAM |
short-range attack missile |
| stabilizer |
part of the tail assembly (horizontal flats and vertical fin(s)) |
| starboard |
right side looking forward |
| Stealth |
low-visibility aircraft with little or no radar signature |
| STOL |
short takeoff and landing |
| store |
payload |
| strake |
small stabilizer on aircraft surface (Kfir nose section) |
| strategic bomber |
aircraft designed primarily for long-range bombing or missile attack |
| strategic transport |
aircraft designed primarily for the transport of cargo or personnel over long distances |
| threat aircraft |
bearing the military markings and or having the configuration of an aircraft
employed by a known hostile nation, or meeting the criteria as prescribed by policy |
| swept-back |
backwards inclination of the wing or tail plane, measured relative to the
fuselage by the wing or tail plane center line |
| subsonic |
a speed less than the speed of sound |
| supersonic |
a speed in excess of the speed of sound |
| tactical air ops |
USAF term air operations involving the six combat functions of counter air,
close air support, air interdiction, air reconnaissance, airlift, and special operations |
| TADS |
target acquisition and designation sight |
| tail plane |
horizontal stabilizer-tail flat |
| taper |
diminishing width from base to the tip |
| TEC |
training extension course |
| turbofan |
gas-turbine engine with a large diameter cowled fan |
| turbojet |
simple gas turbine with compressor, combustion chamber, turbine, and propulsive nozzle |
| turboshaft |
as turbine where energy is transferred from gas jet to drive a high-speed shaft
and helicopter blade |
| UAV |
unmanned aerial vehicle |
| UK |
United Kingdom |
| USSR |
former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics restructured to Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) |
| VACR |
visual aircraft recognition |
| variable geometry |
movable wings |
| ventral fin |
stabilizing surface attached to the undersurface of an aircraft, commonly
called a belly fin |
| VSTOL |
vertical short takeoff and landing |
| WEFT |
wings, engine(s), fuselage, tail. Method used to learn aircraft's major parts
for recognition training |
| Wild Weasel |
an aircraft specifically modified to identify, locate, and physically destroy
or suppress enemy ground-based air defense systems |
