ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

NATO Stock Number

Imagine you have a huge toy box with lots of different toys. But sometimes you can't find the toy you want because there are just too many of them. That's where NATO Stock Numbers (also known as NSN) come in!

When grown-ups buy things for the military, like guns or food, they need to make sure they get the right things, and that they can find them quickly. So they give every single thing a special code number called an NSN.

An NSN is like a label with numbers on it that tells you exactly what something is and where it belongs. It's like putting a name tag on your favorite toy so you can find it easily when you want to play with it.

The NSN has lots of numbers, and each number means something specific. For example, the first four numbers tell you what kind of thing it is, like "4520" for a heater or "6515" for a medical instrument. The next two numbers tell you which country it belongs to, and the last four numbers tell you what brand or type of thing it is.

So if grown-ups need to buy a new heater for the military, they can search for all the NSNs with "4520" at the beginning and quickly find all the heaters. Then they can look at the last four numbers to pick the exact kind of heater they need.

In short, NATO Stock Numbers are code numbers that grown-ups use to keep track of all the things the military needs, so they can quickly find what they need and make sure everything is in the right place.