# Why are Russian/former Soviet aircraft only referred to by their NATO reporting name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 4, 2026, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russian-former-soviet-aircraft-only-referred-to-by-their-nato-reporting-name/1028190 "2026-03-04T14:30:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chelonaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@Chelonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chelonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2026, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russian-former-soviet-aircraft-only-referred-to-by-their-nato-reporting-name/1028190/21 "2026-03-09T09:18:51Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > There is no such thing as perfect, the allies names for japanese planes may have some weaknesses, “ZERO” seems like it could be easily confused to mean something else ??? but it was early days for the concept The A6M Zero was a special case. The official allied code name was Zeke, but in the field it was commonly referred to as Zero, after the japanese type designation Mitsubishi Navy Type 0 carrier fighter (rei-shiki-kanjō-sentōki), or rei-sen (type Zero) for short. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2026, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russian-former-soviet-aircraft-only-referred-to-by-their-nato-reporting-name/1028190/22 "2026-03-09T09:34:57Z")
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