USAF's Air Force Program (AFP) numbering system

[RB586]

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1750/1

 

[Jos Heyman]

A very useful list and excellent work by Dwayne Day to compile this.
The list involves space programs only and not aircraft.
My addition (as sent to Dwayne) is AFP-43, which refers to the RCA Block 2 meteorological satellites.

The prefix AFP has, however, not always been used in the descriptions of the spacecraft. In a number of instances the reference was just to 'Program'.
(I do not see a problem with this).
Just a note of warning, many of these satellites also received a four digit 'Ops' number which, as far as I can determine, is unrelated to the AFP number.

 

[Andreas Parsch]

I have also a few numbers listed here:

http://www.designation-systems.net/usmilav/projects.html#_WS
http://www.designation-systems.net/usmilav/projects.html#_Other

I have never figured out the relation of the "AFP" or "Project" numbers to the "WS" or "System" numbers . I assumed the numbering was completely unrelated (obviously because of duplicate numbers for completely different systems). On the other hand, there are many numbers, where it is apparently unclear into which "list" they belong - could be one of the two, or both, or none at all . Therefore there are several entries in Dwayne Day's "Project" list, which I have listed in the "WS / System" list.

 

[Byeman]

1. I have never figured out the relation of the "AFP" or "Project" numbers to the "WS" or "System" numbers . I assumed the numbering was completely unrelated (obviously because of duplicate numbers for completely different systems).

2. On the other hand, there are many numbers, where it is apparently unclear into which "list" they belong - could be one of the two, or both, or none at all . Therefore there are several entries in Dwayne Day's "Project" list, which I have listed in the "WS / System" list.

1. There isn't. AFP numbers in the 80's and 90's were random to prevent any "tracking". The same project would have different number for each launch. This was due to more people being involved with the shuttle program.

2. It was different in the 60's and 70's where there were less people involved and the same numbers were used launch to launch