Hacker News Reader

Good question, why did Russia rename the Shahed-131 to Geran-1? Those are allegedly Iranian made, and Geran-2 is allegedly a slightly modified Shahed-136. Of course, as they keep modifying them they slowly become their own thing, but there's a clear tech ancestry.

View on HN

Russia renamed it because it chose to. This is a general rule: if you produce something, you name it.

For example, the Storm Shadow missile in the UK is essentially the same as Scalp missile in France. Yet whoever produces chooses a name.

Renaming a Russian made drone is WEIRD. You can only name the weapons you make.

It is not weird to call something by the name of something that is much more widely known, that it is closely related to. It is maybe a little bit weird to get really angry online about that, unless you are upset about the association being reinforced.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com