A

• ablution facility; ablution unit; ablution module; Porta Cabin [prefabricated, relocatable units (usually 10' or 20' ISO containers) for use by up to 30 people, and equipped with showers, mirrors, WCs, wash basins, urinals, hot water tanks, fans, electrical wirings and fittings etc.; they are often made of sandwich panel construction and washable surfaces] see also : hard-walled camp; soft-walled camp

• absolute emergency [when calling the medevac chopper, the call can be "priority" (for non-mortal wounds), '(absolute) emergency' (for mortal wounds or ailments) or 'tactical emergency' (casualties of a seriousness or on a scale such as to endanger mission)] see also: tactical emergency

• access point [point on the BZ boundary, where the police stops vehicles to check the drivers' and passengers' passes]

• accounts officer [of a PKO's finance section; is a civilian; FS or GS]

• acknowledge [A proword used by the originator of a comunication requiring the adressee(s) to advise the originator that his communication has been received and is understood.]

• actual time of arrival (ATA)/ - departure (ATD); estimated time of arrival (ETA); estimated time of departure [In difference to the assumed time of arrival/ departure, the time at which units supply, etc. are actually arriving, departing. ]

• Administration Unit - Established Missions; AU-EM [Personnel Management and Support Service, Field Administration and Logistics Division, Office of Planning and Support, Department of Peace-keeping Operations]

• Administration Unit - Special Missions; AU-SM [Personnel Management and Support Service, Field Administration and Logistics Division, Office of Planning and Support, Department of Peace-keeping Operations]

• administrative officer; AO [is a civilian]

• Administrative Support Unit; ASU [Logistics and Communications Service, Field Administration and Logistics Division, Office of Planning and Support, Department of Peace-keeping Operations]

• advance party; advance team [sent 1) prior to a PKO, to make a reconnaissance of the area in order to assess the availability of accomodation and logistic resources and establish a list of essential items and facilities which cannot be obtained locally. sent 2) to prepare the transition and contingent rotation: the incoming contingent's advance party include logistics personnel to enable a handover of stores and equipment]

• aeromedical evacuation; AE [the movement of patients under medical supervision to and between medical treatment facilities by air transport; the evacuation can be inter-theatre or intra-theatre]

• aide-de-camp; ADC [part of Force Commander personal staff]

• air (operation) cell [where the PKO has air support, a small air cell is deployed as part of the Ops branch; an air cell at HQ can be composed of a chief air staff officer (CASO) and several air liaison officers; it is also in charge of CASEVACs]

• air controller [ At an airport the air traffic is coordinated and regulated by one or more air controller. ]

• air liaison officer; ALO [where the PKO has air support, a small air cell is deployed as part of the Ops branch; an air cell at HQ can be composed of a chief air staff officer (CASO) and several air liaison officers (ALO). The ALO advises the chief operations officier (COO) and staff on the capabilities, limitations, and employment of tactical air operations. He operates the Air Force request net. ]

• air logistic support [support by air landing or air drops, including air supply, movement of personnel, evacuation of casualties and recovery of equipment and vehicles]

• air operations centre; AOC [for standby forces: for a specified airfield, provides air traffic control, operates an air operations room, issues flights plans and briefs pilots and crews, provides ground handling services and meteorological services]

• air point of disembarkation; APOD [movement control; the destination airport]

• air point of embarkation; APOE [movement control; also found as : place of embarkation] [see also: point of embarkation; sea point of embarkation]

• air strike [refers to strikes against any tactical or strategic target and as such, should be distinguished from close air support, which involves protecting friendly troops on the ground against attack and striking directly at the immediate source of the threat] see also : punitive air strike; close air support

• air tasking order; ATO [1. military operations: daily list of missions which includes take-off and landing times, air refueling tracks, the quantity of fuel to be transferred, altitudes to be flown as well as assigned targets; one is posted in the squadron room while a more detailed one is given to the aircrew; 2. movement control: form detailing a flight itinerary (location, ETD and ETA), cargo information (dimensions, weight, number of pieces) and passenger information (UNID, rank and name, etc.)]

• air traffic control; ATC [is done by an air controller. The regulation of air traffic in an airspace. ]

• airborne warning and control system; AWACS

• airdrop [a parachute jump or a supply delivery by parachute from an aircraft in flight; in logistics, an airdrop (for resupplying a unit) is sometimes called "vertical replenishment"] see also: platform drop

• airlift [the carrying of troops and equipment over large distances by air to bring them into crisis areas rapidly also found: 'airlifters' (referring to personnel or planes)] see also: air mobility command

• airmobile troops [airborne troops which can be delivered into a battle zone by helicopter]

• alert status [to 'remove from', or 'take off, alert status' = "to stand down" (to descend to a lower level of alert or combat readiness)]

• allowance and payment officer [of a PKO's finance section; is a civilian; P-2, FS or GS]

• ammunition; ammo [include for infantry: small arms and cannon ammunitions, combat grenades, mortar ammo and pyrotechnics]

• ammunition dump; ammo dump [The place where ammunition is stored. ]

• amphibious operation [ An operation launched from the sea by naval and landing forces embarked in ships or craft involving a landing a shore of a crisis area. ]

• anti-tank guided weapon; ATGW [ Any kind of anti tank weapon which is guided by means of laser-, or wire-, etc. guiding systems. ]

• anti-aircraft machine gun; AAMG [ Machine gun which is mounted on a special carriage and is used for air defence in addition to other air defence weapons, or if there are no other air defence weapons available. ]

• anti-personnel mine; AP; Apers; bouncing betty [ Mine which is used to injure or kill soldiers who are dismounted. Especially anti personnel mines means a enormous danger for the civilian population (examples: Cambodia; Afghanistan).

• anti-tank mine; AT; Atk [Mine used for anti tank measures. Often AT's are layed in addition to other mines. ]

• anti-tank barrier [ Any objects which are used to stop the movement of tank (car wrecks; special designed steel bars;...). ]

• anti-tank helicopter; aka: tank killer [ Helicopter which is mainly equipped with anti tank weapons ( Hellfire ATGM,...) and which supports ground forces in antitank measures. ]

• approximate map reference; AMR [a means of identifying an approximate area on the surface of the Earth by relating it to information appearing on a map, generally the graticule or grid; in military field reports, Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid system is often used, combining the transverse Mercator projection with a series of zones designated for different parts of the Earth's surface; the approximate location being given by the grid zone (eg 31), the area designator and the grid reference]

• apron [a defined area on an airfield, intended to accomodate aircraft for purposes of loading or unloading passengers or cargo, refuelling, parking, or maintenance] see also: hard-stand

• arbitrator [member of a tribunal to which will be submitted some disputes and appeals from the award of the claims commission]

• area between forward defended localities; ABFDL see also: forward defended location

• area of influence line [in military operations, the area of influence is a geographical area wherein a commander is directly capable of influencing operations, by manoeuvre or fire support; in peace-keeping, such a line between areas of influence is drawn by various parties (including the UN) to clarify the situation on the ground for themselves; these 'lines' do not involve any formal agreement and are in fact seldom widely accepted]

• area of interest; AOI [area of concern to the commander, including the area of influence, areas adjacent thereto, and extending into territory of the parties -of the conflict.]

• area of limitation in (of) armaments; AOL [area established beyond buffer zone; the usual arrangement is for the 2 sides to agree on equal numbers of small, lightly armed forces in the areas immediately adjacent to the buffer zone] see also: buffer zone; restricted weapons zone; arms limitation agreement; weapons-limitation zone

• area of operation ; AOO; AO [That portion of an area of conflict necessary for the conduct of a peace keeping operation. Areas of operations are geographical areas assigned to commanders for which they have responsibility.]

• area of responsibility; AOR [A defined area of land in which responsibility is specifically assigned to the commander of the area for the. development and maintenance of installations, control of movement, and the conduct of operations.]

• area of separation; AOS [also called buffer zone; area between the forward line of the parties, into which they have agreed not to deploy military forces and which may be placed under the control of a PKO] see also: zone of separation

• armistice demarcation line; ADL [line (more formal than a ceasefire line) to which the parties have agreed in an armistice agreement; it usually becomes a de-facto border]

• armour piercing projectile; AP projectile [ High speed projectile which is able to penetrate an armour because of its speed. ]

• armour vest [ A vest with a high protection level, which is achieved by the use of Kevlar or armor plates. An armour vest is part of the personnel equipment of each soldier. ]

• armoured fighting vehicle; AFV [the category includes: main battle tanks, light tanks, arnoured cars, infantry fighting vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, armoured command vehicles and combat engineer vehicles]

• armoured infantry combat vehicle; AICV [ The essential difference between the AICV and the APC is that the former has firin ports through which the infantry can fire their weapons from inside the vehicle. ]

• armoured personnel carrier; APC [ A lightly armored, higfhly mobilr, full tracked or wheeled vehicle, used primarily for trasnportating personnel and their individual equipment during tactical operations. ]

• armoured reconnaissance vehicle [ A vehicle equipped with HF radios an special optical equipment -like thermal imager- for use in reconnaisance patrols. ]

• arms cache [ Building or are
• arms limitation agreement [by parties to a cease-fire, on both sides of a buffer zone] see also: area of limitation of armaments

• army corps [a tactical unit larger than a division and smaller than a field army; a corps usually consists of two or more divisions, together with auxiliary arms and services (engineer, reconnaissance, artillery, anti-tank, anti-aircraft and maintenance supports)] see also: field army; army group

• army group [the largest formation of military land forces, normally comprising two or more "numbered" armies or army corps under a designated commander] see also: field army; army corps

• assault helicopter [ Any helicopter which supports ground forces in their operations, by delivering troops or equipment, by assisting antitank defence measures with ATGM, etc. (Examples for assault helicopters: Apache, Blackhawk,...). ]

• assembly area [area near the port of embarkation, where troops are gathered before embarking for a mission, or before withdrawing from a theater] see also: quartering area; staging area; area of deployment; marshalling area

• assistant chief military observer; ACMO [military officer]

• assistant chief of personnel and logistics; ACPL [UNCIVPOL; police officer]

• assistant chief of staff; ACOS [there are several of them, all military officers; in charge of, e.g. ACOS administration and personnel (A & P); ACOS liaison; ACOS operations (OPS); the US classification into G1 (personnel), G2 (intelligence), G3 (operations and training), G4 (logistics) and G5 (civil affairs)] see also: deputy chief of staff

• assistant chief of staff (for) logistics; ACOS/LOG [military officer]

• auxiliary power unit; APU

• avenue of approach [an air or ground route taken by an attacking force and leading to its objective or to key terrain in its path]

• azimuth azimuth is the horizontal angle, measured clockwise between a reference direction and the line to an obserever or designated point. There are three base (reference) directions or azimuths: true, grid, and magnetic azimuth. True azimuth is an azimuth referenced to north as defined by the axis of rotation of the earth. Grid azimuth is an azimuth refrenced to grid north. It differs from true azimuth by the amount of the grid convergence. Magnetic azimuth is an azimuth referenced to the local direction of the earth's magnetic field.