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Russians call everything a rocket anyway. RPG-7 is a rocket, Saturn V is a rocket, Sidewinder is a rocket. They’re not confused about it, they regard all to be in the same category.

It’s a bit political than technical that in American English guided rocket weapons are always called “missiles“. Same reason as J in NASA JPL stands for _jet_ though they don’t normally do turbine jets.

So calling non-military rockets as munitions could be, I think, potentially more straightforward.



> Russians call everything a rocket anyway. RPG-7 is a rocket

Bad example. РПГ is "ручной противотанковый гранатомёт", approximately "man-portable anti-tank grenade launcher". Its round, "ПГ-7" is "anti-tank grenade". Rocket-propelled grenade is a backronym.




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