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From the "mk2, mod 0" I'd guess this is a U. S. Navy or Marine object. Rather than U. S. Army. For guns and tanks and that sort of discrete, utilitarian, object, the U. S. Army uses "M1A1" kinds of nominclature, which mean, essentially, the same as a Navy "Mk 1, Mod 1". M1A1 is a version of the Abrams main battle tank, for example, made between the M1 and the M1A2. M4 was the familiar WWII Medium tank that most of the world knows as a Sherman. Probably even the Army calls them that, now, but "M4 Medium Tank" is the official name. Using Civil War generals (Sherman, Lee, Grant, Stuart) as names for US tanks in WWII was a UK innovation that the US only slowly adopted.

The weakness of this system is that there's a M1 or Mark 1 or Mk 1 of everything- so when you write "Mk 1" it could be a display board, inflatable dinghy or atomic bomb. It *really* could be an M1 Abrams tank, an M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle, M1 Carbine or M1 Helmet, to name one modern and 3 WWII objects. M3 is about as bad, there being an M3 armored car, M3 medium tank, M3 light tank and the M3 version of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

Once you're out of the single digits, it gets easier. M-16 is a familiar assault rife (now upgraded and known as an M-4, M4A1, etc.). M 997 is the big 8 X 8 truck, like an airport fire truck or a concrete pumper. Mark 82 is a 500 lb bomb using the "Aero 1A" shape that Douglas Aircraft perfected in the 1950s. Mk 57 *is* an nuclear bomb, now renamed B-57 for clairity, leaving only Mk 57 vertical launch assemblies that hold missiles on ships OR Mk 57 submarine-laid anti-submarine mines. The advantage of numbers is that they can be easily organized in tables. Using names that honor people, places or events makes for more complex book keeping. But makes it easier to keep things straight, if some planning goes into which names are used for what. (Civil war Generals for tanks. State names for battleships, city names for cruisers, hero's names for destroyers, Army, Air Force and Marine bases.)

But you can overthink anything, and the exhaustive use of fish names for US submarines (Tunny, Wahoo, Perch, Balao) gave way to statesman's names for ballistic missile subs (Washington, Jefferson, Lafayette, Ethan Allen) and city names for attack subs. (Los Angeles, San Diego). Except for the USS Jimmy Carter, because he'd been a submarine captain. Most Republican presidents get an aircraft carrier, but I wouldn't hold my breath for the "George W. Bush." Or The "Lyndon Johnson", "Bill Clinton" or "Barak Obama". I think there is a case for the three Democrats, and I'd even trade those three for the "W". But the "Richard Cheney" ain't gonna happen, even if it could get through today's House of Representatives. Maybe.

Years ago, IBM reportedly did a study that established that sequential, non-meaningful, numbers were the simplest and easiest way to keep track of arbitrary collections. Like parts for IBM products, when that meant type balls for Selectrics and memory cards for Series 1s, fan-feed green-bar paper for computer printers and various international keyboards for terminals. Maybe its because my dad was in the U. S. Navy, but I like the popular name + number in class system best. It works very well for airplanes - DHC-6 Twin Otter as well as ships - CVA-63 USS Kitty Hawk.
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Source 40mm ammunition display board DSC_0995
Author Bill Abbott

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by wbaiv at https://flickr.com/photos/9998127@N06/13374969213. It was reviewed on 15 April 2023 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.

15 April 2023

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25 November 2013

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current11:36, 15 April 2023Thumbnail for version as of 11:36, 15 April 20233,538 × 2,590 (1.44 MB)Юрий Д.К.Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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