In a reply to a post on Garage Sale Holster Find, Majortoo mentioned National Stock Numbers. I thought I'd write a short explanation of the system for those who might be interestd. If you're not interested, you can stop reading now.
National Stock numbers, NSNs are in the format nnnn-nn-nnn-nnnn. The first four digits are the Federal Supply Classification, FSC. The system was developed by the US Department of Defense and the first FSC: 1000, is weapons; 1100 is ammunition. They go all the way up to 9999. I've never seen an index of the FSCs but there's probably one out there somewhere. The FSC also appears in the numerical title of publications pertaining to equipment such as Army field manuals, and modification work orders; and the equivalent publications of the USAF, Navy and USMC. Absolutely EVERYTHING has an FSC. Once when I was a battalion S4 I remember trying to order some wheel bearings for our missile launcher doors; the list and descriptions of wheel bearings in the FSC catalog was about 40 pages long!
There's no system for the last seven digits; a group of three numbrs and another group of four. They're assigned arbitrarily to the item.
The numbers were originally called Federal Stock Numbers, FSN, and were applied to all materiel in the federal inventory regardless of organization: Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, etc, etc; the format was nnnn-nnn-nnnn. Other countries had numerical systems also; I know France had one and probably other countries as well; I'm too lazy to look up the French system.
The FSN system was well thought out and worked very well indeed. As the US was the major supplier of equipment for NATO, for convenience NATO eventually adopted the system. To indicate the country of origin, a two digit country code was added as the 5th and 6th numbers in the system, and the name was changed to National Stock Number, NSN. As an example, the NSN of the current Beretta M9 pistol is 1005-01-118-2640. Below is a list of the country codes; I don't know why the numbers don't run consecutively. Note that not all of the countries are in NATO.
00 United States
01 United States
11 NATO
12 Germany
13 Belgium
14 France
15 Italy
17 Netherlands
18 South Africa
21 Canada
22 Denmark
23 Greece
24 Iceland
25 Norway
26 Portugal
27 Turkey
28 Luxembourg
29 Argentina
30 Japan
31 Israel
32 Singapore
66 Australia
67 New Zealand
68 United Kingdom
Probably more than you wanted to know about NSNs.
National Stock numbers, NSNs are in the format nnnn-nn-nnn-nnnn. The first four digits are the Federal Supply Classification, FSC. The system was developed by the US Department of Defense and the first FSC: 1000, is weapons; 1100 is ammunition. They go all the way up to 9999. I've never seen an index of the FSCs but there's probably one out there somewhere. The FSC also appears in the numerical title of publications pertaining to equipment such as Army field manuals, and modification work orders; and the equivalent publications of the USAF, Navy and USMC. Absolutely EVERYTHING has an FSC. Once when I was a battalion S4 I remember trying to order some wheel bearings for our missile launcher doors; the list and descriptions of wheel bearings in the FSC catalog was about 40 pages long!
There's no system for the last seven digits; a group of three numbrs and another group of four. They're assigned arbitrarily to the item.
The numbers were originally called Federal Stock Numbers, FSN, and were applied to all materiel in the federal inventory regardless of organization: Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, etc, etc; the format was nnnn-nnn-nnnn. Other countries had numerical systems also; I know France had one and probably other countries as well; I'm too lazy to look up the French system.
The FSN system was well thought out and worked very well indeed. As the US was the major supplier of equipment for NATO, for convenience NATO eventually adopted the system. To indicate the country of origin, a two digit country code was added as the 5th and 6th numbers in the system, and the name was changed to National Stock Number, NSN. As an example, the NSN of the current Beretta M9 pistol is 1005-01-118-2640. Below is a list of the country codes; I don't know why the numbers don't run consecutively. Note that not all of the countries are in NATO.
00 United States
01 United States
11 NATO
12 Germany
13 Belgium
14 France
15 Italy
17 Netherlands
18 South Africa
21 Canada
22 Denmark
23 Greece
24 Iceland
25 Norway
26 Portugal
27 Turkey
28 Luxembourg
29 Argentina
30 Japan
31 Israel
32 Singapore
66 Australia
67 New Zealand
68 United Kingdom
Probably more than you wanted to know about NSNs.
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