A somewhat shallow comment, but why do post-Cold War U.S. weapon systems have such intentionally bland names? ATACMS, HIMARS, etc? They used to give weapons names that made them sound aggressive, dangerous, legendary, bold: Thor, Dragon, Phoenix, Patriot, etc. It has happened to vehicles as well, which used to be named after venerated war leaders: Abrams and Bradley are now HMMWV and MRAP.
Is this an intentional effort to make warfighting sound more like a kind of bureacratic exercise?
Is this an intentional effort to make warfighting sound more like a kind of bureacratic exercise?