User blog comment:Heatedpete/Battleblog 9: Online vehicle warfare/@comment-68.3.116.120-20110902010243/@comment-2224289-20110902131908

For a quick heads-up, the USAF aircraft are coded according to their inicial purpose when their project was created. The F- stands for Fighter, the A- stands for Attack and B- stands for Bomber

Of course, with the speed of technology, the coding isn't that relevant anymore. The Lightweight Fighter Program in '71 for example, was supposed to design a day air-to-air close range dogfight combat fighter, which resulted in the F-16 Fighting Falcon, but with the time, the F-16 was evolved to a Multi-role fighter :)