Ship Prefixes

A ship prefix is a combination of letters, usually abbreviations, used in front of the name of a civilian or naval seaship or starship.

Prefixes for civilian vessels identify their purpose (such as "RV" for research vessel), and civilian seaships have prefixes that identify the type of propulsion (such as "PS" for Paddle steamer). Civilian prefixes are often used inconsistently, and frequently not at all.

Naval prefixes came into use as abbreviations for longer titles, such as "Systems alliance Space Vessel" in the Alliance Navy, abbreviated "SSV", or "Systems alliance Water Vessel" (SWV) in the sea corps. Today the common practice is to use a single prefix for all warships of a nation's navy and sea corps, and other prefixes for auxiliaries and ships of allied services, such as coast guards.

The alliance navy identifies ships by the series number of the vessel — numerical identification codes used up by a ship's name and a letter indicating it's position in the series (SNV-?-A is the first vessel to bear the series's assigned name, SNV-?-B is the second, et ctetera).

This page lists prefixes as defined by the alliance.

Starships

 * SSV - Systems alliance
 * CSV - Cerberus
 * MSV - Miscellaneous
 * AML - Asari Republics
 * SUS - Salarian Union
 * PFS - Turian Hierarchy
 * CET - Commonwealth of Elcor Tribes
 * IPR - Illuminated Primacy
 * VPFS - Vol Protectorate
 * BCH - Batarian Cultural Hegemony

Seaships

 * SWV - Systems alliance Water Vessel
 * CWV - Cerberus Water Vessel