thunderchief
Senior Member
Well, not exactly
Killer Names: The Funny Side of Some of Russia's Most Lethal Weaponry
From small arms to tanks to aircraft to intercontinental ballistic missiles, Soviet and Russian military design bureaus have a long history of trolling potential adversaries by thinking up funny and endearing names for their weapons systems.
Russian tank designers seem to be some of the best-known trolls, making up understated and gentle names for their death on wheels designs. For instance, designers named the T-72B2, a heavily modernized variant of the T-72, the 'Slingshot' (Rogatka). Another modernized variant of the T-72, the T-72M1, has been nicknamed the 'Banana' (Banan). Meanwhile, the world's most powerful flamethrower system attached to a tank chassis, the TOS-1, has been given the moniker 'Pinocchio', (Buratino).
© Sputnik/ Artem Zhitenev
The TOS-1A variant of the TOS-1 'Buratino' (Pinocchio) heavy flamethrower, nicknamed the 'Solntsopek' (Sun Heat).
Designers of self-propelled artillery systems are just as humble, if a little less creative, naming a series of vehicles after flowers. This includes the 2S1 'Gvozdika' (Carnation), the 2S3, 'Acacia' (Akatsiya), the 2S4 'Tulip' (Tyulpan), the 2S5 'Hyacinth' (Giatsint), and the 2S7 'Pion', the last of which is capable of shooting nuclear artillery rounds. The Russian military analysis site TopWar.ru once commented on this series of weapons, noting that "it is unlikely that any potential adversary would like to smell such a bouquet." ...........................................
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