Pennant number
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In the modern Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth, ships are identified by pennant numbers (sometimes referred to as pendant numbers). The system was adopted after World War I to distinguish between ships with the same or similar names, to reduce the size and improve the security of communications, and to assist recognition when ships of the same class are together. A pennant number consists either of a letter (known as a flag superior) followed by a number, or just a number (as not all pennants have a flag superior). Typically, all the ships in a class share the same flag superior. For example, many aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy have flag superior "R". The system was used throughout the navies of the Commonwealth so that a ship could be transferred from one navy to another without changing its pennant number.
When ships were sunk, their pennant numbers were reissued to new ships. In a few cases, the flag superior for whole ship classes changed while the numbers stayed the same. For example, many F-class destroyers of the Royal Navy changed from "F" to "G" in 1940.
Post 1945 the Royal Navy's system was changed and the first letter indicated the basic type of ship as follows.
- A - Auxiliary (includes depot ships, boom defence vessels etc)
- B - Battleship
- C - Cruiser
- D - Destroyer
- F - Frigate (includes sloops and corvettes)
- M - Minesweeper
- N - Minelayer
- R - Aircraft carrier
- S - Submarine
Later additions were:-
- H - Hydrographic vessel
- L - Amphibious warfare ship
- P - Fast patrol boat
Aircraft carriers had a different form of pennant "number" painted on the flight deck to aid identification by aircraft attempting to land. This was in a position clearly visible on the approach path. The Royal Navy used a single letter (typically the first letter of the ship's name) but the USN with their larger fleet used the numeric part of the pennant number. Royal Navy ships that carry aircraft are assigned a deck code, usually of a pair of letters from the vessel's name, painted prominently on the flight deck.
International pennant number
Several European NATO and Commonwealth navies agreed to introduce a pennant number system based on that of the Royal Navy. The system guarantees that, amongst those navies and other navies that later joined, all pennant numbers are unique.
Participating countries, with their assigned number ranges [link], include:
- Australia (uses US hull classification symbols now)
- Belgium (900; M: 400)
- Denmark (N: 000; M/P: 500; F/S/Y: 300)
- France (R: 090; C/D/S: 600; M/P/A: 600, 700; L: 9000)
- Germany (D: 100; F: 200; M: 1000, 2600)
- Greece (D/P: 00, 200; A/F: 400; L/S/M: 100)
- Italy (500; M/A: 5000; P: 400; L: 9000)
- Kenya
- Malaysia
- New Zealand
- Netherlands (800; Y: 8000)
- Norway (F/S/M: 300; P: 900; L: 4500)
- Poland
- Portugal (F/M: 400; S: 100; P: 1100)
- Spain (00)
- South Africa
- Turkey (D/S: 300; F: 200; N: 100; A/M: 500; P: 100, 300, L: 400; Y: 1000)
- United Kingdom (R: 00; D: 00 & 100; F: 00, 100, 200; S: 00, 100; M: 00, 100, 1000, 2000; P: 100, 200, 300; L: 00, 100, 3000, 4000; A: Any)
See also
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