The new rules addressed cases such as five separate squadrons having used the VP-1 designation without a lineage connection. Deactivation would retire a unit's insignia and designation history, while genuine reactivation restored that same identity. A newly established squadron could not simply adopt the identity of a deactivated unit. The VP-5 example shows how every earlier designation in one lineage consequently became unavailable to unrelated squadrons. Requiring proposed establishments and designations to pass through aviation historians turned historical consistency into a formal administrative control.
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The US Navy's 1998 lineage rules
A 1998 policy separated reactivation from mere reuse of a designation and reserved each squadron's insignia and designation history.