Glossary of war
- AAA: Anti-Aircraft Artillery
- AA: Anti-Aircraft
- SPAAG: Self-propelled anti-aircraft gun
- ASM: Air-to-surface missile (alternatively, Anti-Ship missile, though most use AShM or SSM)
- AShM: Anti-ship/Air-to-Ship missile
- AGM: Air-to-Ground missile
- AAM: Air-to-Air missile
- BMD: Ballistic Missile Defence (or, a Russian airborne IFV)
- IFV: Infantry Fighting Vehicle
- APC: Armored Personnel Carrier
- MBT: Main Battle Tank
- SP Arty: Self-propelled Artillery
- Arty: Artillery
- AD: Air Defence
- CAP: Combat Air-Patrol
- CCG: Guided Missile Cruiser
- CV: Aircraft Carrier
- CVN: Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
- DDG: Guided Missile Destroyer
- FFG: Guided Missile Frigate
- SITREP: Situational Report
- SAM: Surface to Air Missile
- SSK: Conventional Attack Submarine
- SSN: Nuclear Attack Submarine
- SSGN: Cruise/Guided Missile Submarine (Nuclear)
- SSBN: Ballistic Missile Submarine (Nuclear)
- Tango/Charlie: Opposing Forces
- OPFOR: Opposing Force
- Fox One: Launch of semi-active radar guided missile
- Fox Two: Launch of infrared-guided missile
- Fox Three: Launch of active radar guided missile
- Fox Four: Simulated firing on a target (jokingly used by pilots as a mid-air collision or "ramming")
- Guns: Firing of aircraft cannon/firearms
- WMD: Weapons of Mass Destruction
- "Blue-on-Blue:" Friendly fire
- AP: Anti-personnel
- AT: Anti-tank
- MRL: Multiple-Rocket Launcher
- MLRS: Multiple Launch Rocket System (primarily M270, a US MLRS)
- HIMARS: High-mobility Artillery Rocket System (a truck mounted version of the M270 MLRS)
- M: Model
- Passive Sonar: Basically a device that "listens" to sounds in the water
- Active Sonar: A device that emits sound signals in water, much like radar
- AR: Assault Rifle
- MG: Machinegun
- G: German acronym for "Gewehr", or "rifle"
- K: German acronym for "Karabiner" or "Carbine"
- SMG: Submachinegun
- Suppressed/Suppressor: A "silencer"
- "Hush Puppy:" Read: Suppressor
- M16/M4: A US Assault weapon, standard in many militaries
- AKM: A modernized AK-47, the AKM is the world's most widely used firearm
- G3(A1, A2, A3, A4, etc.): A German battle rifle of Cold War vintage, widely used
- FN FAL: A Belgian battle rifle of Cold War vintage, once saw service in UK, Australian, Canadian militaries
- FAMAS: A French 5.56mm Assault Rifle
- 5.56mm NATO: A 5.56X45mm (dimensions) round. Standard in Western world
- 7.62mm: Usually refers to one of three rounds
- -7.62X54mm, a Russian full-power round, first saw use in Mosin-Nagant, still used to today in weapons like PKM, SVD
- -7.62X51mm, a NATO full-power round, used in weapons like FAL, G3, M14, M60 etc.
- -7.62X39mm, a Russian intermediate round, first saw use in SKS and AK-47
- Round Classification:
- Full-power, rifle round
- Intermediate, assault rifle class
- pistol, a pistol/SMG power round
- AAW: Anti-air warfare
- AWACS: Airborne-warning and control system
- AEW&C: Airborne Early Warning & Control
- MANPADS: A man-portable, usually IR-guided SAM system
- SHORAD: Short-range air defence
- Point-defense: An air defence system intended for close-in air/missile defence
- SRBM: Short Range Ballistic Missile
- BRBM: Battlefield Range ballistic missile
- MRBM: Medium Range Ballistic Missile.
- IRBM: Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile
- ICBM: Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile
- MT: Megaton (1,000 KT)
- KT: Kiloton (equivalent to 1,000 tonnes of TNT)
- Special Weapon: Biological, Chemical, or Nuclear Weapons (Alternatively, CBRN, with the R being Radiological)
- BW: Biological Warfare
- CW: Chemical Warfare
- TEL: Transporter-Erector Launcher (basically a missile-carrying land vehicle)
- "Dirty-Bomb"/Radiological Weapon: A bomb/weapon combined with radioactive material to cause fallout
- DU: Depleted Uranium
- AP: Armor-Piercing
- HEAT: High-Explosive Anti-tank
- HE-Frag: High Explosive Fragmentation
- HE: High-explosive
- WP/"Wily Pete": White phosphorous round, burns skin, muscle tissue etc. Oft-used as an illumination round
- APDS: Armor-piercing discarding sabot (an advanced kind of armor-piercing round)
- APDS-FS, HE-FS, He-Frag-FS, HEAT-FS, HESH-FS: A round plus -FS, which means "fin stabilized."
- HESH: High explosive squash head, an anti-armor round, largely superseded by HEAT, but still used by many countries (i.e. India), in particular against fortifications
- "Silver-Bullet": A US-made DU APDS
- "Excalibur": A Swedish-designed laser-guided, 155mm artillery projectile (XM777)
- ."" cal(iber): The diameter of a round, as measured by the decimal of an inch (like 0.50 caliber)
- 14.5mm: A Russian, "super-heavy" machine gun round, about twice the power of NATO's 12.7mm (also called .50 caliber)
- HMG: Heavy Machine Gun (like Browning M2)
- GPGM: General Purpose Machine Gun (British nick: "Gimpy")
- LMG: Light Machine Gun
- SAW: Squad Automatic Weapon (often refers to M249 SAW)
- UGL: Underslung/Underbarrel Grenade Launcher
- AGL: Automatic Grenade Launcher
- SSM: Surface-to-Surface Missile
- FAC: Fast-Attack Craft
- K: Komercheskiy (Russian designation for export models)
- UB: Uchebno-Boyevoy (Rssian designation for trainer variant)
- UBG: Uchebno-Trenirovochnyy s Gakom (Russian designation for carrier takeoff trainers)
- M: Modernizirovannyy (Russian designation for modernized)
- T: Tankovy (Russian designation for anti-tank variants for attacker aircraft or tanks themselves)
- TACAN: TACtial Air Navication
- JSTARS: Joint Surviellance Target Attack Radar System
- FOV: Field of View/Vision
- AESA: Active Electronically Scanned/Steered Array
- PESA: Passive Electronically Scanned/Steered Array
- MSA: Mechanically Scanned/Steered Array
- SRAAM: Short Ranged Air-to-Air Missile (Alternatively, WVRAAM, or Within Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile)
- A2A: Air-to-Air
- AMRAAM: Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AIM-120 in particular)
- BVRAAM: Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile
- PB: Patrol Boat
- EW: Electronic Warfare
- SIGINT: SIGnals INTelligence
- ELINT: ELectronic INTelligence
- COMINT: COMmunications INTelligence
- A: Attack (American military aircraft designation)
- B: Bomber (American military aircraft designation)
- C: Cargo (American military aircraft designation)
- E: Electrionic (American military aircraft designation)
- F: Fighter (American military aircraft designation)
- H: Helicopter (American military aircraft designation)
- O: Observer (American military aircraft designation)
- P: Patrol (American military aircraft designation)
- T: Trainer (American military aircraft designation)
- X: Experimental (American military aircraft designation)