Mark (designation)

The word mark, followed by number, is a method of designating a version of a product. The kind of products that use this convention vary widely in complexity. The concept shares some similarities with both the "Type (designation)" (Hardware) and the 1.0+ (1.1, 1.12, 2.0, 3.0, etc.) Software versioning convention often used to designate general software product releases. It is often abbreviated as Mk or M. Because a mark is often made to measure height or progress, by metonymy the word mark is used to note a defined level of development thus designations like "Mark I", "Mark II", "Mark III", "Mark IV", etc. come to be used as proper names. However, since the same name is used for a wide variety of products, it can have varied connotations for different persons.

Usage

United Kingdom

In British military practice, Mark designations have been given in Roman numerals, often as sub-designations of "Number" designations. For example, the Number 1 rifle, the Number 2 rifle, etc. were major types of equipment, with "Mark" designating a minor variant or production change, i.e. "Number 1 Mark III" or "Number 4 Mark I." However, British Railway practice has usually designated things using Arabic numerals. For example, coaches produced by British Railways went through Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3 series.

United States Navy

The United States Navy uses the terms "MARK" and "MOD" as a method to uniquely designate specific types and configurations of equipment that would otherwise lack military designations. The practice was adopted by the Naval Ordnance group in 1944, and was formalized in MIL-STD-1661^[1] in 1978. As the system came from the Ordnance group, it is primarily used to describe naval guns, gun mounts, and other similar weapon systems.

Examples

Military

• Mark I combat tank (British Army)
• Mark II electromechanical computer system commissioned as a military project (US Navy)
• Mark III, Merkava main battle tank (Israel Defense Forces)
• Mark 4 aerial atomic bomb, several United States atomic gravity bombs employed a Mark-# scheme (USAF)
• Mk V Anti-tank mine (British Army)
• Mk 6 Assault Boat (British Army)
• Mk 11 Sniper Weapon System (US Armed Forces)
• Mark 12 Mod X Special Purpose Rifle (US Special Operations Forces)
• Mk 13 missile launcher (anti-ship/anti-aircraft) (US Navy)
• Mark 14 Mod 0 Enhanced Battle Rifle (US Armed Forces)
• Mk 16 SCAR-L and Mk 17 SCAR-H assault rifle and battle rifle commissioned by the US Army
• Mk 18 CQBR M4A1 Receiver upgrade (US Armed Forces)
• Mk 19 grenade launcher (US Armed Forces)
• Mark 48 torpedo as well as other torpedoes used by the British and US Navies

Vehicles

• The AC Cars Cobra — MkI, MkII and MkIII
• The Ford GT40 series — MkI, MkII, MkIII and MkIV
• Various Jaguar Cars — Jaguar Mark 2, Jaguar Mark IV, Jaguar Mark X, etc.
• The Lincoln Mark series - Continental Mark II, Lincoln Mark VIII, Lincoln MKX, etc.
• Various Lola Cars - Mk.4, Mk.5, Mk.6
• Various Toyota vehicles, especially the MR2 — MkI, MkII, MkIII
• Volkswagen Golf automobile — Mk1, Mk2, Mk3, Mk4, Mk5, Mk6, Mk7
• British Rail Coaches — Mark 1, Mark 4, etc.

Musical and photo instruments

• Rhodes piano — Mark I, Mark II
• Telharmonium, an early electronic musical instrument, Mark I to III
• SELMER Saxophones — Mark VI and Mark VII Series of saxophones
• Canon EOS-1D series — 1Ds Mk II, 1D Mk III, 1Ds Mk III, etc.

Firearms

• Ruger Standard series (Ruger MK I, Ruger MK II, Ruger MK III)
• Weatherby Mark V

Electronics

• Navigation system on BMW cars - Mk I, Mk II, Mk III and Mk IV

See also

Mark I Mark II Mark III Mark IV Mark V Mark VI Mark VII Mark VIII Mark IX Mark X

Mark XI Mark XII Mark XIII Mark XIV Mark XV Mark XVI Mark XVII Mark XVIII Mark XIX Type (designation)

• British military aircraft designation systems

References

1. MIL-STD-1661 (1978-08-01). "Mark and Mod Nomenclature System". Retrieved 2010-05-22.

External links

• Miscellaneous designation systems