In the middle of the night, on September 14th, 2012, a team of Taliban fighters broke through the perimeter of Camp Bastion and began attacking the base. Bastion, later called Camp Shorabak, was located northwest of Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province, Afghanistan and housed Marine Corps Harrier Jump Jets. Marines and Royal Air Force personnel bravely defended their base and killed the Taliban intruders after a six-hour firefight. Over a dozen friendly personnel died or sustained wounds, and the enemy destroyed or damaged eight aircraft. The attack severely degraded Bastion’s ability to project combat power and support friendly ground forces. The Taliban gambled, correctly, that the best way to strike back against coalition airpower advantage was to attack the aircrafts in their most vulnerable state; on the ground.
-Frederick the Great’s Instructions for His Generals, 1747
In Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO), our adversaries will pose a greater threat to friendly support and sustainment operations. Air bases are essential nodes that allow for the rapid movement of personnel, equipment, and vehicles into a combat theater. They also present targets that could, if destroyed, cripple a formation’s ability to project logistics and combat power.
Base Defense Basics
The first step for establishing base security is understanding the organization of your base defenses. JP 3-10 provides a common lexicon for security operations. I reference the joint publication because air bases, especially air bases generating combat sorties, will often be joint bases. The future of war is purple (joint).
Base Commander
This is the senior ranking officer in charge of the base’s functions. Ideally, this officer should have a background in the base’s primary function (e.g., a fighter pilot should be the base commander for a fighter jet base). They are responsible for the security and defense of their base.
Defense Commander
Typically, the base commander will assign a Defense Commander to oversee the base’s defense forces and security planning on their behalf. The Defense Commander should have a combat arms or security/police background.
Base Defense Operations Center (BDOC)
This is the Defense Commander’s command center for base security operations. A good BDOC allows the Defense Commander to command & control security operations and defense forces. They usually have liaisons for other critical base emergency functions such as fire protection, medical, and engineers.
Security Forces
The Base Commander assigns on-call combat forces to conduct base security operations. These can be dedicated security specialists (such as U.S. Army Military Police or U.S. Air Force Security Forces), combat arms forces, or host nation forces. They should not be composed of combat units with competing missions. For example, an infantry company using the base as a tactical staging area would not be an effective Security Force.
Get in The Zone
Unlike offensive combat operations–where units have assigned areas of operations, phase lines, and objectives–the Defense Commander for an air base must think in terms of zones. First, you have the actual air base which includes the runway, aircraft hangars, and supporting infrastructure. Then you have the base perimeter, which is the physical barrier that keeps animals (and people) off the base. The air base is situated on the Base Boundary (BB) which is the legal boundary of the base as defined by a host nation agreement and that may/may not coincide with the base perimeter. Security Forces must defend against threats to the base that are within the Base Security Zone (BSZ), which is the area that the Defense Commander has determined where adversary forces can launch attacks against the base. The Defense Commander must employ their forces using zone-specific tactics to defeat enemy forces.
Example of different security zones surrounding an air base. (Reference, AFI 31-101, Integrated Defense)
Confused? Think about base defense like home defense. Think of the base as your house. The house is nice and has lots of nice stuff. People should feel safe in your house. Now think of the BB as your property. That’s the land you legally own as defined by law. You have a fence around your house, but that fence doesn’t necessarily have to go to the property line, only what you deem is important to physically keep people out. That fence is your base perimeter. Finally, think of the BSZ as anywhere that people could throw bricks or rocks at your house. They don’t necessarily have to be on your legal property to be close enough to throw a brick. As the owner of the house, you have to determine how and where people could damage your house and then be prepared to defend against them.
How to Defend an Air Base in Six Easy Steps
Step 1 – Deter
Deterrence is a powerful tool for a Base Commander and Defense Commander. Large walls, mobile security patrols, camouflage, hardened facilities, and random defensive measures all help dissuade a potential adversary from even attempting an attack in the first place. Unfortunately, a determined enemy will try and find weaknesses and launch an attack anyway, which brings us to the next step.
Step 2 – Detect
The base must have the resources necessary to detect potential threats at a far enough distance that allows Security Forces to react. This could include cameras, sensors, guard towers, tripwires, K9 patrols, and local HUMINT tips.
Step 3 – Assess
Now that your forces have spotted a potential hostile force, they must be able to quickly relay this information to the BDOC, which can then start coordinating a response. Now, someone actively shooting at you is easy to assess as a threat. But what about suspicious civilian traffic right outside the perimeter? Assessment is a continuous process of matching intelligence from S-2 assets with what Security Forces and other friendly forces on the ground are seeing and then acting based on clear ROEs.
Step 4 – Delay
The Defense Commander should employ mechanisms that delay an enemy attack and provide responding forces with enough time to counterattack. Examples of delaying mechanisms include landmines, barbed wire, obstacles, and natural terrain. These mechanisms should also double as a means of channeling an adversary into the Security Forces’ engagement area.
Step 5 – Defeat
This is the crucial moment where the collective efforts of base Security Forces and supporting forces crush the attackers in their path. Security Forces can use direct or indirect fire from static positions or fire & maneuver from mobile platforms to overwhelm the attackers. The resources a Defense Commander has will dictate the ways and means. But, what’s more important is that Security Forces fight in an aggressive manner based off of a well-rehearsed security plan.
Step 6 – Recover
Now that the attack is over, it is essential that the base return to normal operations as soon as possible. A Defense Commander who has set up a good base defense plan will be able to quickly reconsolidate their forces and report the “All-Clear” to the Base Commander. From there, the Base Commander can coordinate recovery efforts such as facility repairs or medical care.
An example of defensive priorities of work for an air base. (Reference, JP 3-10, Joint Security Operations in Theater)
Special Considerations for Defending Air Bases
Aircraft are especially vulnerable to Man Portable Air-Defense Systems (MANPADS). These weapon systems are highly mobile, easily concealable, and most effective against low flying aircraft that are landing or taking off. To defend against MANPADS, Defense Commanders should determine the area within the BSZ where air traffic is lower and slower (typically, these are the ends of the runways). From there, the Defense Commander should coordinate patrols or surveillance of these positions with Air Traffic Control so that Security Forces can rapidly defeat MANPADS threats to aircraft.
Using Close Air Support (CAS) to defend the base presents the Base Commander with a dilemma. Obviously, combat airpower is one of the quickest and easiest organic methods of defending the base from enemy attack. However, if the Base Commander allocates aircraft for base defense then they take away CAS resources that combat forces at the FLOT need. Base Commanders and Defense Commanders should carefully consider what resources they need for base defense versus fueling the fight at the frontlines.
Final Thought
Defending an air base (or any rear-echelon base for that matter) isn’t so different from defending a patrol base. Defense Commanders should focus on the basics of defense-in-depth, positioning key weapons and leaders correctly, and creating a security plan that gives friendly forces the maximum amount of time possible to react. By using these basic defensive principles, coupled with some special considerations to account for the unique vulnerabilities of air bases, we will keep our friends safe and the planes flying.
Andrew is a U.S Air Force Security Forces officer stationed at Minot AFB, ND. He leads nuclear security operations that support 150 Minuteman III nuclear ICBMs. When he’s not inside hiding from -20 ℉ temperatures, Andrew likes to go snowboarding and take road trips with his wife Amanda and dog Frederik.
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