Why does Canada rename equipment?

[fortuncookie5084]

Why does Canada see a need to rename equipment? Any other country that uses the Hercules to move troops and equipment calls it the C-130 yet Canada adds a superfluous "C," giving us a mutated "CC-130." Same goes for the F/A 18. The F and A are meant to designate the plane‘s intended purpose as a Fighter/Attack aircraft, but Canada renamed the plane CF-18, dropping the "attack" designation completely.

When I meet members of foreign militaries I‘m hard-pressed for an explanation as to why we have funny names for our small arms. Sure, everyone on The War Diary knows about the C6, C7, C9 etc. but when I speak to my American friends, I simply explain that our rifle is an AR15-derivative, our GPMG is the FN MAG, and our section wpn is the FN Minimi. Like the TV commercial says, "There‘s a lot to be said for clarity."

If only to satisfy my own curiosity, why does Canada add superfluous letters to otherwise purposeful designations and change the names of well-known weapons?

 

[RCA]

"C" designation usually stands for Canadian. Although most weapon systems are not designed here a great majority are manufactured (with Canadian modifications)here and therefore the Canadian designation (I‘m Joe and I‘m proud to be Canadian-get the point).

F/A 18 is an American designation and it means Fighter and Attack. Just because we dropped the A doesn‘t change its role.

We have a stand alone army which uses weapom systems suited to us and therefore is identifed by us. As long as we know what it is that is all that counts.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Exactly, RCA.

I don‘t see that this system lacks clarity, in fact, it is much easier to remember the designations C6, C7, C8, C9 than it would be to remember and to write Colt Commando, M16A1, FN FAL, Minimi, etc.

 

[Bloggins]

In at least some cases, the ‘C‘ designation is a meaningful distinction for equipment that has been modified from the original production run. For example, the CF-18 uses (IIRC) different avionics from the vanilla F/A-18. The C7 was different from the contemprary M16 in that it had selectable full auto as well as the bolt assist. I can‘t speak to any of your other examples, but in these cases at least, the equipment has a different name because... it‘s different.