| AA | Anti Aircraft |
| AAA | Anti Aircraft Artillery |
| AAR | Air-to-Air Refulling |
| AAV | Armoured Amphibious Assault Vehicle |
| ABC | Atomic, Biological, Chemical (weaponry) old term for NBC |
| ABM | Anti-balistic missle |
| ACA | Agile Combat Aircraft |
| ACM | Air Combat Manoeuvres |
| ADAM | Air Denial Artillery Munition |
| ADATS | Air defence Anti-Tank system |
| ADI | Attitude Director indicator (shows pitch and bank) |
| AEW | Airbourne Early Warning |
| AFB | Air Force Base |
| AFTI | Advanced fighter Technology Integration |
| AGL | Altitude above ground level |
| AGM | Air-to-surface (ground) missile |
| AIM | Air-to-air Missile |
| ALR | designation for Radar warning receiver |
| AOA | angle of attack |
| AP | Armour piercing |
| APC | Armoured Personnel Carrier |
| APG | designation for nose-mounted fighter radar |
| ASARS | Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System |
| ASPJ | Advanced Self-Protection Jammer |
| ASW | Anti-Submarine warfare |
| BAR | Browning Automatic Rifle |
| BMEWS | Balistic Missle Early Warning system |
| BFM | Basic flight manouevrees |
| CFE | Conventional forces in Europe |
CM | Cruise Missile |
| CND | Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament |
| CP | Command post |
| CRT | Cathode-Ray Tube |
| DLB | dead-letter box |
| EO | Electro-optical |
| ECM | Electronic countermeasures |
| EW | Electronic warfare |
| FBW | Fly-by-wire |
| FLIR | Forward looking infra red |
| GATT | general agreement about tolls and trade (?) |
| GDP | Gross Domestic Product |
| GNP | Gross National Product |
| HE | High Explosive |
| HMS | Her Majesty's Ship |
| HQ | headquaters |
| HSI | horizontal situation indicator |
| HUD | Head-up Display |
| HumInt | Human Intelligence |
| ICBM | intercontinental ballistic missile |
| I/J | band Radar frequencies from 8 to 12 GHz |
| INF | intermediate-range nuclear forces |
| IRBM | Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile |
| JTIDS | Joint Tactical Information Distribution System |
| KIA | Killed in Action |
| LANTIRN | Low-altitude Navigation and Targeting by Infra-red at Night |
| NBC | nuclear, biological, chemical |
| M | Mach (velocity of sound = 1224 km/h = 760 mph) |
| MAD | mutual assured destruction |
| MBFRT | Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction Talks |
| MBT | Main Battle Tank |
| MIA | Missing in Action |
| MIRV | multiple indipendent targetable re-entry vehicle |
| MRCA | Multi Role Combat Aircraft |
| NLF | National Front for Liberation of South Vietnam |
| |
| POW | Prisoner of war |
| RMS | Royal Majesty Ship |
| RWR | Radar Warning Reciever |
| SAC | Strategic Air Command |
| SALT | Strategic Arms Limitation Talks |
| SAM | Surface to Air Missile |
| SDI | Strategic Defence Initiative |
| SLBM | Submarine (Sea) Launched Ballistic Missiles |
| SS | Surface to surface |
| START | Strategic Arms Reduction Talks |
| SWF | Swept-forward Wing |
| TAC | Tactical Air Wing |
| TFG | Tactical Fighter Group |
| TFS | Tactical Fighter Squadron |
| TFTS | Tactical Fighter Training Squadron |
| TFW | Tactical Fighter Wing |
| TOW | Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-Guided missile |
| TWT | Travelling wave tube (power source) |
| USS | United States Ship |
| VTOL | Vertical Take Off/Landing Aircraft |
| WMD | Weapons of Mass Destruction |
