Afghan War News > Afghan War Glossary > F

The military community uses a multitude and variety of terms, phrases, and expressions in its vocabulary. This is especially true in the Afghan theater of operations. Some terms, phases, and words are formal in nature while others are derived from common usage. This glossary is intended to assist those new to the Afghan theater or others unfamiliar with terminology or slang used by those working or serving in Afghanistan.

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click on the first letter of the word below.

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F

F-15.

FAC. Forward Air Controller.

FAH. Foreign Affairs Handbook.

Fahim. Marshal Mohammed Qasim Fahim was a mujahideen who fought against the Communist regime, the Soviets, and the Taliban. He was also a politician, Minister of Defense, and Vice President. Many other vocations attributed to him included drug runner, corrupt politician, and crime boss. Learn more about Marshal Mohammed Qasim Fahim.

Falcon View Lite. A software application fielded to some Afghan staff sections (G2, G3, etc.) for conducting operational planning.

FAM. Foreign Affiars Manual.

FAM. Fighting Age Male.

Family Response Unit (FRU). Located in provincial headquarters and large districts, the FRUs provide legal advisors and policewomen to help alleviate the huge domestic violence problem in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, these poorly trained personnel did not have many resources and rely on "mediation" to solve difficult situations while being dependent upon a corrupt judicial system. The unit was founded in 2006 in Kabul. The policewomen were trained by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Read more about Family Response Units in WikipediA.

FAN. Feet, ass and nuts. What you smell in an overcrowded tent.

FAP. Federal Acquisition Program.

FAR. Federal Aviation Regulation.

FARP. Forward Air Refuel/Rearm Point.

FASCAM. Family of Scatterable Mines.

FAST. Functional Area Support Teams are a group of 500 experts that are subject matter experts recruited out of Afghan universities and technical programs. They currently (or in the future) will serve in their field at both the ministerial and ANA corps level. FAST program personnel will receive specialized training in areas such as finance, procurement, and facilities management.

Fast Mover. A fighter jet trying to be a ground attack aircraft. Not as good as an A-10 Warthog, AWT, or AC-130.

FAT. Functional Area Training received by training audience in Bydgosczc, Poland at the Joint Force Training Command of NATO.

FATA. Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Border areas in Pakistan. Where the insurgents spend their "winters", plan the insurgency, and meet with their Pakistani mentors and supporters.

FATF. Financial Action Task Force. An inter-governmental body established to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory, and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. In June 2014 FATF threatened to put Afghanistan on the 'bad boy' list which prompted several nations to end financial dealings with Afghan financial institutions.

FB. Firebase.

FBI. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

FbSFA. See Functionally-based Security Force Assistance below.

FCM. Fire Control Measure.

FDD. Focused District Development (ANP program).

FDM. First Deputy Minister.

FDO. Foreign Disclosure Officer. Someone who is certified to release classified information to other countries. As in a member of the U.S. military passing intelligence to an Afghan intelligence officer.

FDRC. Financial Disputes Resolution Commission.

FE. Facility Engineer.

FEBA. Forward Edge of the Battle Area. The furthest point toward the enemy occupied by friendly forces. There is no FEBA in Afghanstan; unless you are on the border facing Pakistan.

FET. Female Engagement Team. Similar to a Cultural Support Team (CST).

FF. Friendly Forces; in this case the coalition.

FFIR. Friendly force information requirement.

FGS2F. An acronym for the National Security Agency's Southwest Asia Narcotics Division. In Afghanistan the FGS2F provided real time support to counter-narcotics operations, targeting processing laboratories, trafficker's compounds, and drug traffickers.

FHA. Foreign Humanitarian Assistance.

FID. See Foreign Internal Defense below.

Field Strip. Taking apart a weapon (or anything) for cleaning or to ensure it is functioning properly.

FINCA. FINCA International is a global microfinance charitable organization operating in the Middle East, South / Central America, Africa, Asia, and Afghanistan. www.finca.org.

FinTRACA. Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Afghanistan.

FIS. Fingerprint Identification System.

FIS. Foreign Intelligence Service.

FIT. Financial Investigative Team.

"Five Pillars of Afghan Government". The five pillars of the Afghan government are known as Governance, Security, Rule of Law, Diplomatic Engagement, and Public Awareness.

FLE. Forward Logisitics Element.

FLIPL. Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss (US Army).

"Fly to Advise". The concept of advising from afar. Currently (Dec 2014) two of the ANA Corps are "uncovered" meaning there are no advisors located with them. However, according to ISAF they are being advised. Periodically (once a week, once a month, once a year?) advisors fly to the corps location to meet with their counterpart. In addition, they correspond by email and talk by cellphone. This could probably be called "Level 2 Advising"; advisors call it "Fly to Advise". Military historians will probably label it "stupid and ineffective". Read more in a DVIDS news report.

FM. Field Manual.

FMC. Fully Mission Capable. As in ". . .  We hope that by 2015 we will see that 25% of the Ford Rangers of the ANA are FMC".

FMCS. Foreign Military Construction Services.

FMF. Foreign Military Funding (or financing).

FMFP. Foreign Military Financing Program.

FML. Force Manning Level. Usually referring to an upper limit of personnel who can be in the country.

FMS. Foreign Military Sales.

FMV. Full Motion Vehicle.

FNG.  The ***** New Guy.

FNU. First Name Unknown.

FO. Field Office.

FO. Forward Observer. Calls for and adjusts artillery or mortar fire.

FOB. Forward Operating Base. Where Fobbits work and live. A favorite target of insurgents who use Indirect Fire or IDF.

Fobbit. Someone who works on a FOB and never leaves it. Admin or staff personnel who do reports and PowerPoint slides. Comes from combining "FOB" and "Hobbit". Fobbit replaces "REMF" used in earlier days when we didn't need to be so politically correct. In an effort to provide a more rewarding deployment to those Fobbits that slave continuously over computer keyboards the Army has instituted a program called "Take a Fobbit to Work Day". This new program provides an opportunity for Fobbits to "go outside the wire". Learn more here.

FOC. Full Operational Capability.

FoM. Freedom of Movement. Something the Taliban have in almost all of Afghanistan and the ANSF would like to have.

FOO. Field Ordering Officer.

FOO. Fuel Ordering Officer.

Force Protection. See FP below.

Foreign Internal Defence (FID). Participation by civilian and military agencies of a government in any of the action programs taken by another government or other designated organization to free and protect its society from subversion, lawlessness, and insurgency (JP 1-02). Note: Something that SFODAs do in peacetime and war. FID is a little bit like Security Foreign Assistance (done by conventional units).

FoS. Family of Systems.

FP. Firing Position or Fighting Position.

FP. Force Protection. Something military units do to stay safe from insurgent, insider threats, or terrorist attack.

FPCON. Force Protection Condition.

FPIP. Fiscal performance improvement plan.

FPO. Field Post Office.

FRA. Fire Release Authority.

FRA. French.

FRAGO. Fragmentary Order.

FRG. Federal Republic of Germany. They have good beer there.

FRU. See Family Response Unit above.

FS 14. Fighting Season 14. Started on May 12th, 2014 according to the Taliban.

FSB. Forward Staging Base.

FSB. Forward Support Battalion.

FSD. Forward Support Depot.

FSE. Fire Support Element.

FSF. Foreign Security Forces. FSF is what ISAF is; foreigners in a strange land. U.S. SFA Doctrine would tell you that the other guy (host nation forces) are the foreigners - therefore they are the "FSF". Sorta confusing, huh?

FSI. Foreign Service Institute.

FSN. Foreign Service National.

FSNCO. Fire Support Non-Commissioned Officer.

FSP. Forward Supply Point.

FSO. Field Security Office.

FSO. Fire Support Officer.

FSS. Forward Storage Site.

FST. Forward Surgical Team.

FST. Functional Staff Training. Training received by troops heading to Afghanistan at the NATO Joint Forces Training Center in Poland.

FSU. Former Soviet Union. They are still the evil empire.

FTO. Foreign Terrorist Organization.

FTT. Female Treatment Team.

Functionally-based SFA or FbSFA. This new term, refers to a re-direction of Security Force Assistance Advisors from unit-based advising to advising along functional lines of effort in Afghanistan. Functional SFA will key in on the five functional areas of Command and Control (C2), leadership, combat arms integration, training, and sustainment. Sometimes referred to as "functionally-oriented SFA" or "functionally-based SFA".

Futures Group. Futures Group International Llc.

FW. Fixed Wing Aircraft.

FWP. Former Warsaw Pact. Bad guys turned good; no longer part of the evil empire.

FY. Fiscal Year.

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The definitions provided in this Afghan War Glossary are from many different sources to include publications, documents, and personal knowledge. In some instances, there are several definitions or meanings to a word or phrase.

To suggest additional terms for the glossary or to correct any inaccuracies or broken links send an email to staff@afghanwarnews.info. All external sites open up in an new window. 

Afghan War News > Afghan War Glossary > F