A forward operating site (FOS) is the middle tier of a military base outside the motherland in the United States. These are bases, which primarily serve as an operational basis for regularly changing units. The infrastructure of the facilities themselves should work with minimal effort, but provide the necessary military services for troops with high combat readiness, who are deployed there from deployments in the region. FOSs are also limited to provide additional equipment in order to be able to station and maintain considerably larger units within a short time. They also offer the opportunity to train local soldiers and police units.
The FOSs are based on a concept presented by US President George W. Bush in August 2004 for the deployment of the United States forces. It sees a withdrawal of US troops in particular from Western Europe and a transfer to the USA until 2014, and to a lesser extent in other countries. Central elements of this new deployment concept are the FOSs main operating bases (MOB) and Cooperative Security Locations (CSL), which are subordinate to them.
The FOSs are arranged in the so-called "arc of instability" from West Africa to South Asia and the Pacific Ocean to the Andes. Each is firmly subordinated to a MOB. The Camp Lemonnier, which was set up in October 2002 at Djibouti, served as a template for the following FOSs. Examples of FOSs are "Eagle Base" near Tuzla in Bosnia, Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, RAF Fairford in the UK, Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, Air Force bases Thumrait and Masirah in Oman. Edit source text Categories of the US armed forces
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