Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Glossary

A

ABCA allies - American, British, Canadian, and Australian allies

Active defense measures - Measures taken to find and destroy either the munitions or the delivery systems of an NBC attack.

ADA - Air defense artillery

APC - Armored personnel carriers

Arthropods - Group of invertebrate animals that have a jointed body and legs such as insects, arachnids, and crustaceans.

AWS - Air weather service

C

CAT - Cloud arrival time. Used for biological agent calculations.

CB - Chemical/biological

CDM - Chemical downwind message

CET - Cloud exposure time. Used for biological agent calculations.

CFA - Covering force area

CHEMWARN - Friendly chemical attack warning

COMMZ - Communications zone

E

ECM - Electronic countermeasures

ECCM - Electronic counter-countermeasures

EW - Electronic warfare

F

FDC - Fire direction centers

FEBA - Forward edge of the battle area

FLOT - Forward line of troops

FSE - Fire support element

FSOP - Field standing operating procedures

G

GN - Grid north.

GMT - Greenwich Mean Time

GZ - Ground zero

K

km - Kilometer

M

METT-T - mission, enemy, terrain, troops, and time available

Minimum safe distance - Distance corresponding to a degree of protection needed to remain in the area.

MOPP gear - Protective clothing and equipment worn appropriate to the threat, work rate imposed by the mission, temperature, and humidity.

MSD - Minimum safe distance

N

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NAV CDM - U.S. Naval Chemical Downwind Message

NBC - Nuclear, biological, and chemical

NBCC - NBC center

NBCWRS - NBC warning and reporting system

O

OPSEC - Operational security

OPORD - Operational order

OPLAN - Operations plan

OPCON - Operational control

P

Passive defense measures - Measures taken to reduce possibilities of (or effects of) NBC attack.

Pathogens - living microorganisms that cause disease in man, animals, or plants.

POW - prisoner of war

S

SIGSEC - Signal security

SOP - Standing operating procedures

T

TARR - Time of arrival

Toxins - Poisonous substances produced as by-products of microorganisms (the pathogens), plants, and animals.

U

Universal transverse mercator - Meridians and parallels of latitudes appearing lines crossing at right angles.

USMC - United States Marine Corps

USMTF - United States Message Text Format

UTM - Universal transverse mercator