Forward operating site

A forward operating site (FOS) or forward operating location (FOL) is a U.S. military term for facilities, defined as "a scalable, 'warm' facility that can support sustained operations, but with only a small permanent presence of support or contractor personnel as opposed to a FOB or MOB. A FOS will host occasional rotational forces and many contain pre-positioned equipment."^[1] These sites were established as the Pentagon began to address regional threats primarily in Africa and Latin America following its 2004 global posture review.^[2]

An FOS is differentiated from a cooperative security location (CSL) with no permanent force or contractor personnel, or a forward operating base (FOB) and main operating base (MOB), with a large force and a well-defended site.

Locations

They include, but are not limited to the following locations:

Asia

• Paya Lebar Airfield, Singapore^[3]

Caribbean

• Curaçao International Airport, Curaçao, Kingdom of the Netherlands^[4]
• Queen Beatrix International Airport, Aruba, Kingdom of the Netherlands^[4]

Central America

• Soto Cano AB, Honduras^[3]

Europe

• RAF Fairford, United Kingdom^[3]
• Bulgaria,^[5] see List of joint US-Bulgarian military bases
• Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, Romania^[5]

Africa

• Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti^[6]
• Morocco^[5]
• Tunisia^[5]

See also

• Loss of Strength Gradient
• Forward operating base (FOB)
• Naval outlying landing field
• Satellite airfield
• List of established military terms