Kompleks Navigatsiya?

Going all brutal now against the Iraqi uprisings would basically destroy the last (and in my view only viable) excuse the US administration had for invading Iraq: removing a brutal dictator which behaved in a ruthless manner against his own population. I personally think that this would remove the minuscule bit of credibilty the Bush government might still have on the Iraq issue, and i seriously think GWB tries to save himself from that embarrasment.

Of course, going on a killing spree in Iraq is a perfect way for the US to make sure the coalition ‘pardners’ no longer want to be associated with the whole Iraq fiasco, and an even better way to make the US a lot more impopulair amongst several breeding grounds for future terrorists.

Besides, US military service personell is professional and voluntarily. Any US serviceman or woman who joined the military without knowing or realising that with American expeditionary military tendencies is IMHO an idiot which shouldn’t have been allowed in the military in the first place. And if the US government any given number of killed or wounded soldiers is worth any given political goal, so be it. I can’t really feel sorry for them, unlike for the innocents who get killed without having a choice.

Well then they missed at least one:
Modifitsirovannyi, Postanovchik Pomekh (Su-24MP)

Don’t confuse yourself even more by digging into all the different designation systems mentioned in that glossary. The glider, seaplane and Popov designations have nothing to do with the system we were debating in this thread.

And, just like Aerospacetech, i have never come across a Russian source for Yak-36MP. The explanation for Yak-36M -> Yak-38 does come from a Russian source though. Besides, at one point you’re arguing Yak-36MP is for Mod., Palyubnyi and now for Mod. Perekhvachik which isn’t really consistant. If you also realise that a Forger doesn’t even have a radar you will see that Perekhvachik doesn’t make any sense for a designation. With both the Forger and the original Freehand being designed for shipborne operations from the start, adding the suffix P for “modified to operate from ships” doesn’t make sense either – it wasn’t modified to do that, it was designed like that from the start!

EDIT (in a reply to your edit 😉 ): the MiG-25MP designation was never assigned. The development of the later MiG-31 was under the Ye-155MP designation, even though the original MiG-25 is indeed the Ye-155.

Yak-36MP never was a Soviet designation, although the final 100 or so Yak-38s built were of the Yak-38M variant.

There never was a Yak-36MP designation for the Forger, but it was initially built as and used in service as the Yak-36M. This was a political move to make sure there wouldn’t be any delays in getting from the Yak-36 Freehand prototype/technology demonstrator to the Yak-36M (Yak-38) Forger operational shipboard light attack/fighter aircraft. Only after about one or two years in operational AV-MF service was the Forger redesignated to Yak-38 – interestingly enough, the Yak-36M became the Yak-38 almost one year before the Yak-36MU became the Yak-38U…

As for the meaning of different suffixes, it is totally dependent on the aircraft. I think K is probably the suffix with the most possible meanings, apart from the ones mentioned already (Korabelnyi, Kommerchicheskii, Kitai):
Kompleks: a missile guidance and launching system, e.g. Tu-95K
Kaira: with the Kaira laser targeting system, on the MiG-27K
Kosmonavticheskii (or something like it): zero-G training aircraft, the Il-76MDK
Kub: with a Kub ELINT system, e.g. Tu-22RDK
…and if anyone knows what the K in An-12BK stands for, i’d be glad to learn.

Then, to make things even more fun, a single suffixes can also exist of more than just one letter, like in the Mi-6VKP. This means Vozduchnyi Kommandnyi Punkt or High (=flying) Command Post, and as such are actually one single suffix. The same is true for the PP in Yak-28PP, where PP means Postanovchik Pomekh or Jamming Station. To make things more confusing, the Postanovchik Pomekh variants of the Su-24M or Tu-22 are simply called Su-24MP and Tu-22P rather than Su-24MPP or Tu-22PP.

And sometimes letter-suffixes aren’t used at all, but instead complete names are put after the aircraft designation. The Tu-16Korvet (SAR variant) or Il-22 Zebra (one of the flying command post variants of the Il-18).

I have been playing for some time to actually start compiling a list of these suffixes. It’s most likely too confusing and inconsistent to be of any use at all, but it might still be helpful.
Come and think of it – Paul, could it be something to add to your site?

Don’t put the bucket over your head afterwards.

Adolescent skin… self-moisturising… Estée Lauder’s dream!

Me bad – still have lots of learning to do on post WW2 British props (my excuse for being here 😉 )

Don’t forget that deliveries were really fast, and the MKK2 did’t seem yet fully developed when the Indonesian Su-30MK(suffix?) were ordered.

MKK seems logical.