AFI 16-401 — Designating and Naming Defense Military Aerospace Vehicles

What this publication covers

This instruction provides DoD-wide guidance on the following: generating, collecting, evaluating, and processing MDS designator and popular name requests, specifying required and essential coordinating organ izations, outlining MDS designator and popular name approval authorities, determining “next-in-series” MDS designators, and publishing updates to this instruction and a single DoD-wide list of approved MDS designators and popular names for aerospace vehicl es. Additionally, this instruction provides the required evaluation criteria and MDS request package templates, standardized MDS designator symbols, and respective military department points of contacts.

What changed in this edition

This document has been revised and must be completely reviewed. Major changes include the new site for the most recent MDS database on data.af.mil and the cancellation of DoD 4120.15 - L, Model Designation of Military Aerospace Vehicles as the publically accessible MDS database. Major changes also include the addition of MDS designator “e” as a Prefix which indicates that the military defense aerospace vehicle was Digitally Developed. 1. Overview.................................................................................................................. 4 2. Roles and Responsibilities....................................................................................... 4 3. Relationship Between MDS Designator and Popular Name................................... 6 4. MDS Designator...................................................................................................... 6 5. MDS Popular Name................................................................................................. 10 6. Retirement/Reactivation of an MDS Designator Popular Name............................. 12 7. Publication of Approved MDS Designators and Popular Names............................ 14

Publications state their own changes on page 1 — behind a PDF the official host will not serve to a search engine. This is that section, verbatim. It describes the edition above, not every historical change.

If AFI 16-401 changes, who else is affected

5 publications in 4 other communities depend on this one, which Operations Support owns. Each community inspects its own publications; a dependency that crosses communities is owned by nobody, which is why this list normally does not exist anywhere. Built from the publications' own citations, so it reflects what we have read.

Publications that cite AFI 16-401

• AFMAN 23-122 AFMC Sup — Materiel Management Procedures Current 2 mentions
• DAFMAN 65-604 — Appropriation Symbols and Budget Codes (fiscal Year 2023) Current 2 mentions
• AFI 11-200 — Aircrew Training, STANDARDIZATION/EVALUATION, and General Operations Structure Current 1 mention
• AFI 21-103 ACC Sup — Equipment Inventory, Status And Utilization Reporting Current 1 mention
• DAFMAN 23-300 ACC Sup — Materiel Management Procedures Current 1 mention

If AFI 16-401 changes, these are the documents that point at it. Extracted from the publications' own text, so it reflects what we have read, not a complete dependency map. Every publishing office validates its own document; nobody validates the seams between them.

Nearby in the AFI series

• AFI 16-1404 GOODFELLOWAFB Sup — Information Security Program Protection Of Classified Information Current
• AFI 16-1406 EGLINAFB Sup — Air Force Industrial Security Program Not in the current catalog
• AFI 16-201 USAFA Sup — Air Force Foreign Disclosure And Technology Transfer Program Current
• AFI 16-402 — Aerospace Vehicle Programming, Assignment, Distribution, Accounting, and Termination Current
• AFI 16-402 ACC Sup — Aerospace Vehicle Programming, Assignment, Distribution, Accounting And Termination Current