USA historical military materiel WW2

This is the consolidated reference for historical U.S. and historically plausible alternate-history materiel names/designations from 1936–1950 discussed so far. I interpret “major production rotten” as major-production roster: the main list favors equipment built and used at scale, while a separate niche section preserves specialized but useful naming precedents.

The key rule is: use the real historical designation and name whenever the equipment is a historical analogue; use a plausible alternate designation only when creating a genuinely new program. U.S. names and designations were service-specific rather than a single unified system. The project’s current HOI4 USA guide likewise treats the U.S. as a production-rich, two-ocean power whose air, armor, screen, and carrier branches benefit from distinct specialization—not one generic equipment line.[1]

Naming conventions

The Army used P for pursuit until 1948, when the independent Air Force adopted F for fighter; the older P-80 accordingly became the F-80. The Navy system instead encoded mission, manufacturer, and that manufacturer’s sequence number, so an F6F and F4U are not “Fighter 6” and “Fighter 4” across the whole Navy.[2][3]

Major production roster

Land systems

The durable historical tank line is M2 Light → M3/M5 Stuart → M24 Chaffee for light tanks and M2 Medium → M3 Lee/Grant → M4 Sherman → M46 Patton for medium tanks. The M26 is the sole worthwhile heavy-tank entry in a major-production roster: it saw WWII combat, led directly to the M46, and was subsequently redesignated a medium tank as classifications changed. The M4 was the mass-production centerpiece, with more than 50,000 produced between 1942 and 1945.[4][5][6]

Aircraft: main land-based production families

For a 1941 long-range strategic bomber “after the B-17,” the historical answer is Consolidated B-24 Liberator. It was the other principal U.S. WWII heavy bomber and entered service in 1941; the B-29 is the more advanced very-long-range successor, but it did not enter combat until late 1944.[7][8]

Aircraft: main naval and Marine production families

The TBF/TBM Avenger distinction is manufacturer rather than mission: Grumman built the TBF, while General Motors’ Eastern Aircraft Division produced the licensed TBM. Of 9,836 Avengers, 7,546 were GM-built TBMs, because the shift enabled Grumman to concentrate on F6F Hellcat production.[9][10]

Naval vessels: main production families

For a strict industrial roster, the mass-production heart of the Navy is Benson/Gleaves, Fletcher, Allen M. Sumner, Gearing; Cleveland and Baltimore; Essex; Casablanca; Gato, Balao, Tench; and the Evarts/Buckley/Cannon/Edsall/John C. Butler DE classes. The historical peak force listed 28 fleet carriers, 71 escort carriers, 72 cruisers, 377 destroyers, and 232 submarines in August 1945.[11][12]

Specialized and niche cases

Torpedo cruisers

The U.S. Navy did not create a separate torpedo-cruiser classification. A 1940 6-inch-gun cruiser with unusually strong torpedo armament remains a Light Cruiser, CL-##. A torpedo-armed 8-inch-gun cruiser remains a Heavy Cruiser, CA-##. Cruiser names remained city names; the armament is a design descriptor, not a hull-symbol change.[13][14]

The real Omaha-class CLs provide the clearest precedent: they carried ten 21-inch torpedo tubes yet remained ordinary CL light cruisers.[15][16]

Important correction: specific examples previously given with hull numbers—such as “USS Tacoma (CL-45)” or “USS Seattle (CA-45)”—should be treated as flavor examples only. Do not reuse those exact hulls in a detailed alternate order of battle without checking the sequence, because historical hull numbers and city names can conflict with real ships.

Float-equipped land-based torpedo bomber

The best historical analogue is the Hall XPTBH-2, not a generic Army TB designation.

XPTBH-2 means Experimental Patrol Torpedo Bomber, Hall, second design. It was a twin-engine, twin-float aircraft created for the unusually broad patrol/torpedo/bombing requirement, making it the right model for your desired 1940 land-based naval floatplane lighter than a B-25.[17][18]

If the same aircraft is Army-operated rather than Navy-operated, the Army would normally use A-# for a small attack aircraft or B-# for a twin-engine bomber. It would not use the Navy’s TB code merely because it carries torpedoes. A B-26 Marauder carrying a torpedo, for example, would still be a B-26.[19][20]

Midget submarines

The United States had no operational combat midget-submarine class in 1936–50. The actual U.S. Navy midget submarine was USS X-1 / SSX-1, laid down in 1954 and launched in 1955; it had no official proper name.[21][22]

For conventional submarines in the period, fish names are highly authentic: Gato, Balao, Tench, Gar, Gudgeon, Sculpin, Mako, and Barracuda all fit the U.S. naming culture. But many such names were used by historical fleet submarines, so assigning them to midgets changes the rest of the naming pool. The fish-and-denizens-of-the-deep convention applied from 1931 through 1947.[23][24]

Recommended alternate roster

This is the most internally consistent set of historically styled hypothetical names for gaps or specialized lines, without replacing historical mass-production equipment unnecessarily.

Preferred naming vocabulary

Use names from these families when an actual historical name is unavailable:

The practical conclusion is to keep the real high-volume backbone—Sherman, Fletcher, Essex, Gato/Balao, B-24, B-29, P-47/P-51, F6F/F4U, TBF/TBM—and reserve invented designations for niche doctrinal divergences such as the PTBH-2 Sea Lancer, a torpedo-focused CL, or an experimental SSX midget-submarine program.

Sources
[2] List of U.S. DoD aircraft designations - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._DoD_aircraft_designations
[3] Pre-1962 Naval Aircraft Designation Systems https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2019/august/pre-1962-naval-aircraft-designation-systems
[4] M4 Sherman Tank https://www.nationalww2museum.org/visit/museum-campus/us-freedom-pavilion/vehicles-war/m4-sherman-tank
[5] The M24 Chaffee Light Tank - The Army Historical Foundation https://armyhistory.org/m24-chaffee-light-tank/
[6] The Birth of Armored Forces | Article | The United States Army https://www.army.mil/article/2413/the_birth_of_armored_forces
[7] B-24 | WWII Bomber, USAAF, Consolidated Aircraft https://www.britannica.com/technology/B-24
[8] Development of the Boeing B-29 - National Museum of the USAF https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196652/development-of-the-boeing-b-29/
[9] TBM Avenger - Naval History and Heritage Command https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nnam/explore/collections/aircraft/t/tbm-avenger.html
[10] H-072-1: VT-8 at Midway - Naval History and Heritage Command https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-072/h-072-1.html
[11] US Ship Force Levels - Naval History and Heritage Command https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/us-ship-force-levels.html
[12] US Navy in ww2 https://naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/us-navy.php
[13] The Evolution of Ship Naming in the U.S. Navy https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/customs-and-traditions0/ship-naming/the-evolution-of-ship-naming-in-the-u-s--navy.html
[14] CL/CA - Light and Heavy Cruisers https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/cruisers/light-and-heavy-cruisers.html
[15] USS Omaha (CL-4) - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Omaha_(CL-4)
[16] Omaha-Class Cruisers - Fair Winds & Following Seas https://thetidesofhistory.com/2019/09/29/omaha-class-cruisers/
[17] Hall XPTBH - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_XPTBH
[18] Hall's Aluminum Wonders - HistoryNet https://historynet.com/halls-aluminum-wonders/
[19] History: Martin B-26 Marauder | National Air and Space Museum https://airandspace.si.edu/explore/researchers/projects/flak-bait/history/martin-b26-marauder
[20] U. S. Army Aircraft Designations 1939-45 - RWebs.Net http://www.rwebs.net/avhistory/acdesig/usarmy.htm
[21] USS X-1 - Naval History and Heritage Command - Navy.mil https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/alphabetical-listing/x/uss-x-1-.html
[22] Why The U.S. Military Only Ever Built & Used One Midget ... https://www.slashgear.com/1698072/why-united-states-only-built-one-midget-submarine-ss-x-1-military-vessel/
[23] A Fish Story - Smithsonian Institution Archives https://siarchives.si.edu/blog/fish-story
[24] Submarine Naming throughout the Years - Submarine Force ... https://ussnautilus.org/submarine-naming-throughout-the-years/

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Do you have more to add?

The prior report is a strong core naming-and-designation framework, but it is not fully complete across all U.S. armed-forces materiel. Its principal omission is that it focused on tanks, warships, submarines, and combat aircraft while leaving out several equipment families that were operationally central to U.S. WWII force design.

The most useful additions are below, along with a few corrections that will make any historical or alternate-history naming scheme more internally consistent.

Important corrections

Do not invent exact hull numbers casually

For fictional U.S. warships, use a type and name first:

USS Seattle, Seattle-class light cruiser

Torpedo-armed light cruiser, CL

Only assign a precise hull number—such as CL-## or CA-##—after checking the alternate timeline’s construction and commissioning sequence. Historical numbers were allocated by sequence and can conflict with real ships even if a name is plausible.

Thus, use CL for a light torpedo cruiser and CA for a heavy torpedo cruiser, but avoid treating a fictional “CL-45” or “CA-45” as inherently correct. Torpedoes alter the weapons fit and doctrine, not the Navy’s cruiser hull classification. The real Omaha-class light cruisers remained CL despite carrying ten 21-inch torpedo tubes.[1][2]

“Army naval torpedo bomber” is not an official U.S. category

An Army/USAAF aircraft conducting maritime strike or carrying torpedoes does not become a naval TB aircraft. It remains:

• A-# if it is a light attack aircraft.
• B-# if it is a medium or long-range bomber.
• A descriptive suffix or operational label can clarify its role: B-26 Marauder, torpedo configuration.

The U.S. Army’s B-26 Marauder is the relevant historical precedent: it was a medium bomber, and some B-26s conducted torpedo attacks at Midway, but its official designation remained B-26.[3]

Hall’s float torpedo bomber is a niche precedent

The Hall XPTBH-2 is the best historical basis for a lightweight, twin-engine, land-based floatplane designed for patrol, bombing, and torpedo attack. But it was an experimental aircraft, not a major-production program. Its designation is historically real; a nickname such as Sea Lancer is plausible fiction, not a documented official name.[4][5]

Use this distinction:

The U.S. midget-submarine program is alternate history

The earlier SSX recommendations are plausible extrapolation but should not be presented as WWII U.S. inventory. The Navy’s real USS X-1 / SSX-1 was the only U.S. Navy midget submarine and was laid down in 1954, launched in 1955, and did not receive a formal proper name.[6][7]

For a hypothetical wartime program:

USS X-1 (SSX-1) — most authentic secret-program designation

USS Mako (SSX-1) — plausible if the program becomes openly commissioned and adopts normal fish names

The second form is convincing alternate history; the first is closer to actual U.S. special-submersible practice.

Land-force additions

The tank roster is complete for the major U.S. light, medium, and heavy tank lines, but a full major-materiel reference also needs tank destroyers, self-propelled artillery, half-tracks, armored cars, and amphibious armor.

The key designation insight is that tank destroyers were not formally “tanks.” The M10, M18, and M36 were designated Gun Motor Carriages, with gun caliber included in the formal title. The M36, for example, was officially the 90 mm Gun Motor Carriage, M36, combining a 90 mm gun turret with M10/Sherman-derived automotive components.[8][9]

For an alternate-history naming roster, use this pattern:

For the period’s major-production U.S. land roster, add M3 half-track, M8 Greyhound, M7 Priest, M10 Wolverine, M18 Hellcat, and M36 Jackson beside the M3/M4/M24/M26/M46 tank sequence.

Naval additions

The prior roster correctly captured capital ships, destroyers, submarines, and escorts, but it underrepresented the smaller craft and amphibious systems that made U.S. naval power operationally decisive.

PT boats deserve particular attention in any torpedo-focused U.S. roster. They were small, fast, expendable coastal strike craft built around torpedoes and machine guns for reconnaissance, interdiction, harassment, and supply-line attacks. They used the PT designation—Patrol Torpedo—not a city or person-name system.[10]

For an alternate-history 1940 U.S. light torpedo cruiser program, PT boats are doctrinally relevant: they would be the inexpensive close-range complement to a torpedo-focused CL, while destroyers remain the more normal fleet torpedo platform.

Better naval naming hierarchy

Aviation additions

The aircraft section needs several role distinctions that matter for a comprehensive 1936–50 U.S. historical or HOI4-style equipment framework.

Fighter and interceptor gap

The P-61 Black Widow is a particularly useful niche entry. Although production was modest relative to the P-47 or P-51, it was the U.S. purpose-built night fighter and deserves a specialized radar/night-interception role rather than being treated as a standard daytime fighter.

Patrol and anti-submarine gap

These lines are more relevant to the U.S. than they may initially seem: a two-ocean war requires not just carriers and fleet destroyers, but long-range patrol aviation, convoy defense, antisubmarine coverage, and air-sea rescue. The U.S. Navy later used the TBM Avenger family in radar and ASW variants after the war, demonstrating how a common torpedo-bomber airframe could evolve into specialized naval-support equipment.[11][12]

Correct post-1946 carrier-strike rule

The prior report should be read this way:

The Navy retired separate SB and TB categories after WWII in favor of the general Attack designation. Therefore a 1947 aircraft designed to deliver torpedoes, bombs, rockets, and close-support ordnance should be an A[manufacturer]-#, not an anachronistic new TB type.[13][14]

Final framework

The report is now complete enough to serve as a consistent 1936–50 U.S. materiel nomenclature guide, provided its scope is understood as combat and directly combat-support equipment—not every truck, rifle, radar, artillery piece, engineer vehicle, or auxiliary vessel.

For your main production roster, use these as the durable anchor lines:

For specialized alternate-history gaps, the best historically grounded fictional labels remain:

• Hall PTBH-2 “Sea Lancer” for a production twin-engine float patrol-torpedo-bomber.
• Seattle-class Light Cruiser, CL-## for a 1940 torpedo-oriented light cruiser.
• Seattle- or Houston-class Heavy Cruiser, CA-## for a torpedo-oriented heavy cruiser.
• Heavy Tank T1 → Heavy Tank M6 for an accelerated 1940 U.S. heavy-tank line.
• USS X-1 (SSX-1) for a secret experimental midget combat submersible.
• USS Mako (SSX-1) only if that midget-submarine program is openly commissioned and deliberately follows the fish-name convention.

Sources
[1] USS Omaha (CL-4) - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Omaha_(CL-4)
[2] Bluejacket's Manual - Cracking the 'Hull Number' Code https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2017/february/bluejackets-manual-cracking-hull-number-code
[3] History: Martin B-26 Marauder | National Air and Space Museum https://airandspace.si.edu/explore/researchers/projects/flak-bait/history/martin-b26-marauder
[4] Hall XPTBH - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_XPTBH
[5] Hall's Aluminum Wonders - HistoryNet https://historynet.com/halls-aluminum-wonders/
[6] USS X-1 - Naval History and Heritage Command - Navy.mil https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/alphabetical-listing/x/uss-x-1-.html
[7] Why The U.S. Military Only Ever Built & Used One Midget ... https://www.slashgear.com/1698072/why-united-states-only-built-one-midget-submarine-ss-x-1-military-vessel/
[8] M36 tank destroyer - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M36_tank_destroyer
[9] M36 Jackson World War II Tank Ride Experience https://www.americanheritagemuseum.org/tank-driving-experiences-and-tank-rides/m36-jackson-wwii-tank-ride-program/
[10] PT Boats of World War II: From Home Front to Battle https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/pt-boats.htm
[11] TBM Avenger - Naval History and Heritage Command https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nnam/explore/collections/aircraft/t/tbm-avenger.html
[12] AF-2S Guardian - Naval History and Heritage Command https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nnam/explore/collections/aircraft/a/af-2s-guardian0.html
[13] US Navy/US Marine Corps Attack Aircraft Designations https://www.aircraftinformation.info/JB_AIF/usattack/usnavyattackdesig.html
[14] Torpedo bomber - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_bomber
[15] [PDF] The Wrong track: Errors in American tank development in World War II https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1228&context=master201019
[16] Tri-Service Aircraft Designation System https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/tri-service-aircraft-designation-system.55341/
[17] When the M36 Jackson tank destroyer, officially the ... - WW2 Armor https://www.ww2armor.org/about-balagan
[18] The Evolution of Ship Naming in the U.S. Navy https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/customs-and-traditions0/ship-naming/the-evolution-of-ship-naming-in-the-u-s--navy.html
[19] [PDF] APPENDIX 5 Aircraft Designations and Popular Names https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/histories/naval-aviation/pdf/APP05.PDF
[20] Pluck, Pogy, and Portland: Naming Navy Ships in World War II https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/naming-navy-ships-in-world-war-ii
[21] Pre-1962 Naval Aircraft Designation Systems https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2019/august/pre-1962-naval-aircraft-designation-systems
[22] Navy Manuals and Documents Online https://maritime.org/doc/
[23] Hull classification symbol - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_classification_symbol
[24] List of United States Navy aircraft designations (pre-1962) - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Navy_aircraft_designations_(pre-1962)
[25] The M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer - The Army Historical Foundation https://armyhistory.org/the-m18-hellcat-tank-destroyer/

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