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Special
Operations Glossary > A
The Special Forces community and the military
services in general use a multitude of words, phrases, and acronyms in its
vocabulary, documentation, correspondence, and publications. This
glossary is intended to aid those unfamiliar with specific special
operations terminology.
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A
AAA. Anti-Aircraft
Artillery.
AAR. After Action Report.
ABCCC. Airborne Battlefield
Comand and Control Center. An aircraft that is employed as an
airborne command post or communications relay. It is equipped with
computers, data links, and comms equipment to coordinate air and ground
operations.
AC-130. An Air Force Special
Operations gunship; modified C-130 mounting two to three weapons to include
a 105mm howitzer and 40mm gun. It flies principally at night providing close air
support, air interdiction, and armed reconnaissance. Close air
support missions to SOF teams on the ground include troops in contact,
convoy escort, and point air defense. There are currrently two models -
the AC-130H and the AC-130U. Read more on the U.S. Air Force
fact sheet for the AC-130H/U.
ACE. Ammunition, Casualty,
and Equipment (report). An ACE report is submitted periodically or
after contact with the enemy.
ADA. Air Defense Artillery.
ADVON. Advanced Echelon.
AFATDS. Advanced Field
Artillery Tactical Data System. This system provides net-centric
battle command to coordinate land, air indirect fire systems in support of
maneuver operations. See Raytheon's
description of AFATDS.
AFSOA. Air Force special
operations aviation.
AFSOC. Air Force Special
Operations Command. HQs is located on Hurlburt Field, Florida. Visit
the AFSOC website.
AFSOD. Air Force Special
Operations Detachment. A small aviation element that sometimes is
OPCON to a CJSOTF or other special operations command.
AFSOE. Air Force Special
Operations Element.
Agent. A recruited field operative
directed by an intelligence service or other similar type organization.
AGL. Above Ground Level.
AI. Area of interest.
AIWC. See Army Irregular Warfare
Center below.
ALICE. All-purpose, Lightweight,
Individual Carrying Equipment. The Army's ALICE rucksack was one of
the better rucks made. Now discontinued. See a description of
the ALICE pack on
Trails.com.
ALO. Air Liaison Officer.
ALT. Alternate. As in
alternate drop zone.
AM. Amplitude Modulation.
Learn more about AM radio communication
here at Radio-Electronics.com.
AMC. Air Mission Commander.
Antiterrorism. Defensive
measures used to reduce the vulnerability of individuals and property to
terrorist acts.
AO. Area of operations.
AOB. Advanced operational
base. In SF terms, the location for a "B team" or Special Forces
company headquarters augmented by other support personnel to support
operations in the AOR.
AOR. Area of responsibility;
a geographical area associated with a unit or command that has the
authority to plan and conduct operations.
AP. Armor Piercing.
API. Armor Piercing
Incendiary.
API-T. Armor Piercing
Incendiary - Tracer.
AR. Army Regulation. Army
regulations can be found at the Army Publishing Directorate at
www.apd.army.mil.
AR. Automatic rifleman.
ARCENT. U.S. Army Forces of
U.S. Central Command. Visit the U.S. Third Army ARCENT
website.
Area Assessment. A
prescribed collection of specific information that commences upon
employment and continues during the operation. It confirms,
corrects, refutes, or adds to previous intelligence acquired from area
studies and other sources prior to employment. ODAs will conduct an
area assessment once infiltrated into their operational area. See
Area Assessment Guide.
Army Irregular Warfare Center (AIWC).
The AIWC is the organization responsible for doctrine concerning irregular
warfare. Learn more here at
Army Irregular Warfare Center.
Army SOF. A term referring
to special operations units in the Army such as Rangers, Special Forces,
and the 160th SOAR that are organized, trained and equipped to conduct and
support special operations. Sometimes abbreviated as ARSOF.
All Army SOF come under the command of the United States Army Special
Operations Command. Visit their
website.
ARNG. Army National Guard.
See
National Guard Special Forces.
ARSOA. Army Special
Operations Aviation.
ARSOF. Army Special
Operations Forces. See "Army SOF".
ARSOTF. Army Special
Operations Task Force. A temporary or semipermanent grouping of
ARSOF units under one commander and formed to carry out a specific
operation or a continuing mission.
ARTEP. Army Training and
Evaluation Program.
ARTY. Artillery.
ASAP. Advanced Strategic Arts
Program at the Army War College.
ASAP. As Soon As Possible.
ASAS. All-Source Analysis
System. Learn more about the ASAS system
here on GlobalSecurity.org.
ASAS-L. All-Source Analysis
System-Lite.
ASAS-RWS. All-Source
Analysis System Remote Workstation.
ASPS. All-Source Productioin
Section.
Asset. Any resource -
person, group, relationship, instrument, installation, or supply - at the
disposition of an intelligence organization for use in an operational or
support role. Ofen used with a qualifying term such as agent asset
or propaganda asset. (JP 1-02).
Asymmetrical Warfare. Warfare
where opposing groups or nations have unequal capabilities and the weaker
opponent uses unconventional tactics and weapons to exploit the
vulnerabilities of the more capable opponent. Other terms associated with
asymmetric warfare are guerrila warfare, insurgency, resistance,
terrorism, counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. See Wikipedia's take on
asymmetric warfare
here.
Asymmetrical Warfare Group (AWG).
A unit located on Fort Meade, MD that conducts asymmetrical warfare. The
AWG provides observation, analysis, training and advisory support to Army
and Joint Force unit's to enhance their capabilties to predict, mitigate,
counter, and defeat asymmetric threats and methods.
www.awg.army.mil.
ATACMS. Army Tactical
Missile System. This is a deep strike precision weapon. Read more
here on Defense-Update.com.
A-team. The basic operating
element of Special Forces. A twelve-man detachment of two officers
and ten senior enlisted men. One Captain (18A), one Warrant Officer
(180A), one MSG (18Z), one SFC (18F), two 18Bs, two 18Cs, two 18Ds, and
two 18Es. Depending on the mission or deployment the A-team may be
augmented with several other individuals to include a cook, mechanic, CA,
MISO, intel analyst, interpreter, and others. Read more about the
Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha
here on GoArmy.com.
AT/FP. Anti-Terrorism / Force
Protection.
ATO. Air Tasking Order.
See WikipediA for more
info about the ATO.
ATV. All-Terrain Vehicle.
AU. Army University.
Authentification. In evasion
and recovery operations, the process whereby the identity of an evader is
confirmed.
Auxiliary. The support wing of a
partisan or resistance movement.
AVATAR. A USSOCOM
open-source data-mining program to run automatic keywork searchs across a
variety of websites and databases allowing SOF operators to enhance their
view of their specific operating environment. The acronym stands for
"Automated Visualization for Tailored Analytical Reporting". AVATAR is
somewhat related to a short-lived experiment by USSOCOM called
Quantum Leap.
AWACS. Airborne Warning and
Control System. An Air Force plane with lots of navigation and
communications gear on it. Learn more about the E-3 SENTRY (AWACS)
aircraft from the U.S. Air Force
fact sheet.
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