The Russian Navy Report

NATO vs. Russia

During the cold war NATO assigned reporting names for Soviet/Russian submarines. This was done in order to streamline reporting among the NATO allies. So that France didn't call a ship on thing, and Germany call it something completly different.  The names were often derived from the NATO alphabet.

Here is a list of the reporting names for Soviet/Russian submarines and ships.

Painting of an ALFA class submarine.

The practice for surface ships was to name the class after the lead ship of that class.

Everything went according to the plan until the late 1980's when the Typhoon class submarine came out. This class caused confusion in reporting circles because it is called Typhoon by NATO, but Akula by the Soviets.

After the fall of the Soviet Union NATO adopted the process of calling the class after the lead ship in the class. That's why we now have the Severodvinsk class and Borei class submarines. But even these are often called by different names.