What do the letters in helicopter designations stand for?

Modeling Subjects Helicopters
1

Riddle me this, please. Trying to figure out what the letters mean in front of helicopter designations? Such as:

A as in AH = Attack (yes?)

U as in UH = Utility (yes?)

S as in SH = ???

H as in HH = ???

Just wondering about this, as I sit here avoiding working…[}:)]

2

First two are correct, Attack helicopter, Utility helicopter.

S as in SH = ??? Seagoing, maybe. SH is a Navy designation.

H as in HH = ??? HH is for a rescue helicopter. (Don’t know why it is HH and not RH.)

Hope that helps.

3

There is also MH, or “Multi Mission” (MH-60, MH-53, MH-6, MH-47, et al).

Cheers,

4

How could I forget that. Gotta love those Spec Ops birds.

5

The first letter is the modifier, the second letter in the designator.
So AH= ATTACK (modifier) Helicopter (designator)
H was the letter assigned for the modifier Search and Rescue , so you have HU, HC, HH.
I believe S is (Anti-)Submarine or just maybe Submarine??

Don

6

S is for ASW (Antisubmarine Warfare)

H is for Search and Rescue

R used to be minesweeping, but M seems to be used now for those helicopters (MH-53E)

7

You forgot OH!!!
Observation Helicopter, aka scout, but the S was already taken for Antisubmarine.

8

DOH!, how could I forget that one!

9

Thanks for jogging the memory on some of those.

10

then there is the CH… cargo

11

XH-experimental
YH-prototype
X-you will only see those on new type helos or Y-those accepted for service but not yet in production. Y replaces X, when in production the Y is replaced by U, A, C or whatever will be it’s primary use (UH-1 UH-60, CH-47, etc.)

12

“R” may be intended for recon now instead of minesweeping (RAH-66)

13

Which is redundant now, considering we have the OH designation already!

14

Heh, true that! Of course now we don’t have the RAH-66 anymore so it’s a mute point.

15

Here’s the entire list from the beginning:
http://www.driko.org/usdes2.html#1962

16

Thank you all for the info!