Official MDS database listing — current official DoD aircraft designations

Andreas Parsch said:
C-40D
Date: 22 July 2024
Service: Air Force
Manufacturer: Boeing
Engine(s): 2x High-bupass turbofan CFM LEAP-1B

Comment: A planned C-40 variant as VIP transport
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First 737 MAX procurement for the military, given the engine type. Which does make sense as the P-8 and E-7 are orphan programs now compared to civil production.
 
Scott Kenny said:
Maybe it was supposed to be the FARA program that got canceled?
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But then a designation for FARA, had it been allocated, should still be in the list.

Canceling a program does not "cancel" an MDS designation, if one has already been assigned to the forthcoming aircraft or missile. As I said above in another posting, removing an MDS is paperwork, which probably nobody wants to do.
 
Andreas Parsch said:
ME-11B
Date: 25 April 2024
Service: Air Force
Manufacturer: Bombardier
Engine(s): 2x Rolls-Royce BR700-710D5-21

Comment: I vaguely remember to have read about an E-11 variation, but I can't pin it down. Can someone help here?
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A slightly more thorough attempt at identifying the ME-11B ...

The engine model (BR700-710D5-21) is marketed as "Pearl" (or "Pearl 15"), and powers the Bombardier Global 5500 and 6500 aircraft (but not the 6000). The 6500 is the airframe for the Army's ATHENA (mentioned above) / HADES program, but that wouldn't match the "Service" entry of the MDS record. There are also two web sources, saying that the latest (since 2022) USAF E-11 BACN aircraft are based on the 6500:

https://www.scramble.nl/military-ne...ield-airborne-communications-node-handed-over
https://www.key.aero/article/usaf-receives-seventh-e-11-bacn-bombardier

If these sources are correct, then I think the Global 6500-based BACN is a better candidate for ME-11B than ATHENA/HADES.
 
Am I nuts, or are there two very different configurations of BACN E-11s?

This clean-looking airframe:

1740001429922.png

And this version, with two very large antenna fairings

1740001477090.png

Is it possible they decided to differentiate these two? Or am I just missing something basic about the BACN aircraft?
 
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Andreas Parsch said:
YRQ-10A
Date: 27 December 2024
Service: Army
Manufacturer: Textron Systems
Engine(s): 1x Lycoming EO-101

Comment: Q-series numbering is apparently out of control ;). Also, I have no immediate idea to which UAS this refers. Google doesn't even find an "EO-101" engine. Ideas, anyone?


YRQ-11A
Date: 27 December 2024
Service: Army
Manufacturer: Griffon
Engine(s): 1x HFE DA-215 EFI Hybrid Generator

Comment: Same as for YRQ-10A - except, that at least a "DA-215" engine seems to exist. OTOH, the Q-number duplication is even weirder, because the RQ-11 Raven is still in use. Also, the Griffon website doesn't seem to list an UAV with a DAI-215 engine.
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I tried to dig down into these two mystery designations, and came up with an interesting lead:

Army Awards FTUAS Options 3 and 4
The Army’s Future Tactical Uncrewed Aircraft System Program Achieves Two Major Milestones

So the two "finalists" in the Army's ongoing FTUAS program are the Griffon Valiant and Textron Aerosonde 4.8 HQ. Given that the YRQ-10A and YRQ-11A are closely related (the two MDS records have the same date, so were assigned in one go), this can't be a coincidence. Unfortunately, neither Griffon nor Textron are open about the engines used in the UAVs. Griffon doesn't say anything, and Textron only says "Heavy Fuel Engine" - but because there is no info on a "Lycoming EO-101", this doesn't help a lot. However, the Valiant has a hybrid-electric system (where a combustion engine provides the power for electric motors, which drive the propellers), which would fit the "Hybrid Generator" part of the engine descriptor very well.

So for the time being, I think the Textron Aerosonde 4.8 HQ and Griffon Valiant are by far the most likely candidates for the YRQ-10A and YRQ-11A designations, respectively.
 
Stargazer said:
These do not look doctored, but the first one did (especially the serial and markings on the fuselage, which incidentally DON'T appear on your other photos.
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11-9001 is well known as a BACN airframe.

I figured it out -- apparently the ex-RAF airframes have those radomes left over from their surveillance role and they are not required for the BACN function. (See the end of the article below)

https://theaviationist.com/2025/01/05/u-s-e-11a-yellow-sands/
 
TomS said:
11-9001 is well known as a BACN airframe.

I figured it out -- apparently the ex-RAF airframes have those radomes left over from their surveillance role and they are not required for the BACN function. (See the end of the article below)

https://theaviationist.com/2025/01/05/u-s-e-11a-yellow-sands/
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11-9001 is, I think, the "prototype" aircraft, which has been retired.

The first 4 E-11As were based on the Global 6000. The newer aircraft are based on the Global 6500. It's possible that the 6500-based aircraft could be designated E-11B but at least one has been delivered and has been referred to as an E-11A.

Originally there were 4 E-11As and 24 EQ-4B Global Hawk (Block 20) BACN aircraft. The 24 Global Hawks were retired and the E-11A force was to expand to...... 7. This was now many years ago, but they are still not at that number. 1 E-11A was lost, the "prototype" was retired, and 1 new aircraft was added.
 
quellish said:
11-9001 is, I think, the "prototype" aircraft, which has been retired.

The first 4 E-11As were based on the Global 6000. The newer aircraft are based on the Global 6500. It's possible that the 6500-based aircraft could be designated E-11B but at least one has been delivered and has been referred to as an E-11A.

Originally there were 4 E-11As and 24 EQ-4B Global Hawk (Block 20) BACN aircraft. The 24 Global Hawks were retired and the E-11A force was to expand to...... 7. This was now many years ago, but they are still not at that number. 1 E-11A was lost, the "prototype" was retired, and 1 new aircraft was added.
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E-11 #8 was delivered last year and #9 slated for this year. That will bring the inventory to 7. (Edit: including the lost aircraft and the retirement of 11-9001.)

I was under the impression that there were only 5 EQ-4B BACN aircraft. Not all of the Block 20 Global Hawks were for BACN.

https://www.key.aero/article/usaf-retires-bacn-eq-4b-global-hawks
 
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Revisiting some previous postings ....


Andreas Parsch said:
A slightly more thorough attempt at identifying the ME-11B ...

The engine model (BR700-710D5-21) is marketed as "Pearl" (or "Pearl 15"), and powers the Bombardier Global 5500 and 6500 aircraft (but not the 6000). The 6500 is the airframe for the Army's ATHENA (mentioned above) / HADES program, but that wouldn't match the "Service" entry of the MDS record. There are also two web sources, saying that the latest (since 2022) USAF E-11 BACN aircraft are based on the 6500:

https://www.scramble.nl/military-ne...ield-airborne-communications-node-handed-over
https://www.key.aero/article/usaf-receives-seventh-e-11-bacn-bombardier

If these sources are correct, then I think the Global 6500-based BACN is a better candidate for ME-11B than ATHENA/HADES.
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I was wrong on that one, because ME-11B is actually the Army's HADES aircraft.
To my defense, the entry "USAF" in the Service column of DOD's MDS record for ME-11B is misleading ;) .


Andreas Parsch said:
So for the time being, I think the Textron Aerosonde 4.8 HQ and Griffon Valiant are by far the most likely candidates for the YRQ-10A and YRQ-11A designations, respectively.
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At least I got these ones right. YRQ-10A is confirmed by the Army , and by implication, I regard YRQ-11A for the other FTUAS finalist (Griffon "Valiant") as confirmed as well.
 
Time to revisit this strange (for me, until now ;)) designation ...
Andreas Parsch said:
ML-1A
Date: 29 August 2024
Service: Space Force
Manufacturer: BAE Systems Inc.

Comment: WTF ;)?? So far, "L" was for "Laser Armament". But in that series, L-1 was already used. Also, in the table, the "L" is in the "Vehicle Type", and not the "Basic Mission" column. Never saw an "L" vehicle type. And finally, it's for the Space Force - so far, the USSF only used satellite MDSs. All said, I don't have the slightest clue what this is about.
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Turned out that this is not a Mission Design Series (MDS) designation as defined by Air Force Instruction 16-401. Instead, it's a designation from a relatively new designation system defined by the Space Force (see my posting from today):

M = Meteorological system
L = Low Earth Orbit satellite
-1 = First meteorological system
A = first block/variant of the system

In fact, ML-1A is the nomenclature for the WSF-M (Weather System Follow-on – Microwave) satellite.
 
Andreas Parsch said:
[...] it's a designation from a relatively new designation system defined by the Space Force (see my posting from today):

M = Meteorological system
L = Low Earth Orbit satellite
-1 = First meteorological system
A = first block/variant of the system

In fact, ML-1A is the nomenclature for the WSF-M (Weather System Follow-on – Microwave) satellite.
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who let Space Farce have their own designation system?
 
MDS Updates for 2025 (until early December)

In December, I filed another FOIA request for the latest MDS designations, allocated since January 2025. Today I received the reply.

The list was not exactly what I expected, so some remarks first:
  • Only 12 new MDS records were included. This is very few for 11 months.
  • Of these 12, 4 designations were already known (F-47A, YFQ-48A, AQM-88A, AGM-158D), so there are only 8, which I hadn't seen before. Of these 8, not a single one refers to a manned aircraft!
  • YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A were missing, which is strange, because the USAF announced them quite loudly 9 months ago. One wonders, what else is missing.
So, here is the list of the 8 "new" designations. I show the MDS, Date (of approval), Service, Manufacturer and Engine Data from the official record, followed by my own comment.

YRQ-30A
Date: 29 April 2025
Service: Army
Manufacturer: Griffon
Engine(s): 1 HFE DA-215 EFI Hybrid Generator

Comment: This is exactly the same entry, which was listed as YRQ-11A in my previous data, and therefore refers to the Griffon Valiant, one competitor of the now-cancelled FTUAS (Future Tactical Uncrewed Aircraft System) Increment 2 program. Apparently the Army realized, that they already have an RQ-11A in their inventory (AeroVironment Raven), and changed the designation.
As a side note: In late March 2025, I actually inquired at some Army public relations point-of-contact about the duplicate RQ-11 designation, and also filed a FOIA for relevant documents. I never got a reply, though.


MQM-172A
Date: 05 March 2025
Service: Army
Manufacturer: Griffon Aerospace
Engine(s): 1 3W 68iB-TS, 61 HP, 44.8 kW

Comment: This Griffon's Arrowhead Aerial Target , a Shahed-136 look-alike target drone. I already knew that Griffon markets it as "MQM-172", but didn't yet that this is another out-of-sequence number. I wonder why, because while it does kind of "follow up" from Griffon's MQM-170 and -171, they also build the MQM-186, so they should know that the numbers have advanced a bit.


AGM-188A
Date: 17 September 2025
Service: Air Force
Manufacturer: Zone 5 Technologies
Engine(s): 1 PBS TJ-80

Comment: see AGM-189A below.

AGM-189A
Date: 17 September 2025
Service: Air Force
Manufacturer: Anduril Industries
Engine(s): 1 TDI TJ series

Comment: The AGM-188A and -189A must be the two finalists in the USAF's ETV (Enterprise Test Vehicle) program to develop low-cost cruise missiles. The contracts were announced to go the Anduril (with the Barracuda-500) and Zone 5 (with the Rusty Dagger).


AGM-190A
Date: 21 November 2025
Service: USSOCOM
Manufacturer: Leidos/Dynetics
Engine(s): 1 Pratt & Whitney TJ150-7

Comment: This must be the Leidos Black Arrow "Small Cruise Missile". Manufacturer/Service/Engine is a perfect fit.


AHM-4A
Date: 23 April 2025
Service: Air Force
Manufacturer: Raytheon
Engine(s): 1 Dual-Mode Ramjet

Comment: The "official name" is explicitly given as "Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM)". The H-for-Hypersonic "mission" letter (it's not really a mission, though) was added to the designation system in March 2025. But the design number -4 is a mystery. I would have expected either an in-sequence designation in the M-series, or some "special" number (e.g. AHM-200), or AHM-1, because it is the first designation with the new H-designator (I know, that this wouldn't follow the regulation). But -4? Weird.


X-68A
Date: 20 August 2025
Service: DARPA
Manufacturer: General Atomics
Engine(s): 1 Williams WJ38-15

Comment: The "official name" is explicitly given as "Longshot". I would never have guessed that DARPA designates Longshot as an X-plane!


X-76A
Date: 20 October 25
Service: DARPA
Manufacturer: Bell Textron
Engine(s): 2 GE CT7-8, PW308C+

Comment: Given the data, I think it's very likely, that the X-76A is the demonstrator for DARPA's SPRINT (Speed and Runway Independent Technologies) program, but there is no absolute certainty.
Also, -76 is obviously out-of-sequence. X-69A would have been next in line. Even if they skip -69 for the same reason that H-69 was skipped many years ago, I don't see what's wrong with X-70 (or -71 for that matter). Skipping X-72 and -73 is understandable (because of XRQ-72A and XRQ-73A), but than again -74 seems to be fine. Therefore I guess that -76 was specifically allocated for a certain reason, which we don't know (yet). Maybe Bell wanted to follow-up from their MV-75 plane for the Army?


That's all for now. The next posting of this kind my come in another 12 months ;).
 
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Thanks as always Andreas for keeping us informed!
 
Andreas Parsch said:
MDS Updates for 2025 (until early December)

In December, I filed another FOIA request for the latest MDS designations, allocated since January 2025. Today I received the reply.

The list was not exactly what I expected, so some remarks first:
  • Only 12 new MDS records were included. This is very few for 11 months.
  • Of these 12, 4 designations were already known (F-47A, YFQ-48A, AQM-88A, AGM-158D), so there are only 8, which I hadn't seen before. Of these 8, not a single one refers to a manned aircraft!
  • YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A were missing, which is strange, because the USAF announced them quite loudly 9 months ago. One wonders, what else is missing.
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AQM-88?

Air launched drone missile based on HARM?
 

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