Most Awesomely Bad Military Acronyms 8

By Noah Shachtman
Danger Room, February 2, 2010

Reporters groaned yesterday, when Pentagon comptroller Bob Hale introduced the Defense Department’s plans for a “Consequence Management Response Force, ‘C-SMURF,’ as it’s called.”

Even in a building known for its brain-melting jargon, “C-SMURF” was pretty horrendous. The journalists in the Pentagon briefing room knew it. And so did Hale. A moment later, he paused the briefing. ”I have a list of favorite acronyms in the Department of Defense. I shall add ‘C-SMURFs’ … to that list.” The room cracked up.

Anyway, Bob, if you’re looking for more examples of awful mil-speak, we’ve got some suggestions. Here are our latest nominees for the Most Awesomely Bad Military Acronyms (”MAMAs,” for short):

* Extensible Contr Lang for Adv Info LRetr (ECLAIR)

* Protocol Emulation for Next Generation Wireless Networks (PENGWUN)

* Progressive Advanced Wideband Processor/Real-Time Net-Centric Tracker (PAWPRNT)

* Modeling Adversary Reactions, Validating Experiment Limitations (MARVEL)

* Local Control of Chemistry (LOCO)

BTW, Bob — and the rest of you guys — if you’ve got some MAMAs you’d like to share, drop us a line, or tell us about it in the comments.

Source: Danger Room

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