16.1 Integrated Defense & Force Protection Conditions
Key Takeaways
- The purpose of security is to never permit the enemy to acquire an unexpected advantage, and integrated defense is an 'All Airmen' program.
- The nine integrated defense desired effects are anticipate, deter, detect, assess, warn, defeat, delay, defend, and recover.
- The base security zone is a USAF-unique intra-service term for the area outside the base perimeter from which the base may be vulnerable to standoff weapons and waterborne threats.
- Protection Level 1 covers resources whose loss would cause unacceptable mission degradation to strategic capability or catastrophic consequences for the nation, such as nuclear weapons and presidential aircraft.
- The base defense operations center is the command and control center for integrated defense operations during routine and emergency operations.
The Purpose of Security
AFH 1 opens with a single-sentence statement of purpose worth memorizing verbatim: "The purpose of security is to never permit the enemy to acquire an unexpected advantage."
Security applies to all members of the USAF at all times, and integrated defense does not stand alone — planners create an effective program by coordinating with other Department of Defense and Department of the Air Force programs. The protection and defense of air bases "requires the coordinated effort of emergency management, antiterrorism, and other mission support function forces under the mission assurance umbrella," producing "a seamless progression of mission assurance programs" that completes the installation's defense-in-depth picture.
The Integrated Defense Program
"The USAF Integrated Defense Program is the integration of multidisciplinary active and passive, offensive, and defensive capabilities, employed to mitigate potential risks and defeat adversary threats to USAF operations."
The goal: "to neutralize security threats within the base boundary and the base security zone to ensure unhindered USAF operations."
| Category | What AFH 1 lists |
|---|---|
| Threat actors | Terrorists, insiders, criminals, foreign intelligence, and security services |
| Potential hazards | CBRN-high yield explosive attacks; natural and man-made disasters; major accidents; and accidental or deliberate release of hazardous materials, toxic industrial materials, or chemicals |
The identity claim is a reliable item: "Integrated defense is an 'All Airmen' program." The teaming of integrated defense forces "creates a united, seamless defense, stronger than the defensive efforts of individuals or individual units," ensuring all Airmen are trained to defend themselves and integrate into defense operations while in garrison or deployed. The reference is AFPD 31-1, Integrated Defense.
Three Geographic Terms
These three are defined within a page of each other and are constantly swapped on exam items.
| Term | AFH 1's definition |
|---|---|
| Base perimeter | The physical boundary of the installation |
| Base boundary | Per JP 3-10, Joint Security Operations in Theater, "a line that delineates the surface area of a base for the purpose of facilitating coordination and deconfliction of operations between adjacent units, formations, or areas." Established with consideration for mission, enemy, terrain and weather, time, troops available, and civil considerations (METT-TC). Critically: "Boundaries may not necessarily coincide with the fenced perimeter, property lines, or legal boundaries" |
| Base security zone | "A USAF unique concept and term to be used intra-service only." The planning term describing the area of concern around an air base, specifically the area outside the base perimeter from which the base may be vulnerable from standoff weapons (mortars, rockets, and man portable air defense systems) and waterborne threats |
The commander's obligation: the installation commander "should identify and arrange to have the base security zone recognized as the base boundary." If the boundary does not include all terrain of the security zone, the commander is responsible for either mitigating the risk (through coordination with local, state, federal agencies, or the host nation or area commander) or accepting the risks of enemy attack from the terrain outside the base boundary.
Two discriminators: the perimeter is physical; the boundary is a coordination line that may not match the fence. And base security zone is USAF-unique and intra-service only — that qualifier is itself a testable fact.
The Nine Desired Effects
Commanders execute integrated defense "with the objective of achieving nine desired effects based on the risk management process."
| Effect | How it is achieved |
|---|---|
| Anticipate | Threat intentions and actions — intelligence preparation of the operational environment or crime trend analysis |
| Deter | Active community policing, boundary and internal circulation control, controlled area marking, and prudent physical security measures |
| Detect | Lighting, intrusion detection systems/early warning systems, and closed-circuit television |
| Assess | Identify friend or foe using cameras, posted sentries, response forces, and intrusion detection systems |
| Warn | Warn friendly forces through mass notification, radio, public address, commander's access channels, voice, hand and arm signals, cellular telephones, and instant messenger/short message system texting |
| Defeat | Appropriate, progressive force application, coordinated security force response, and integration of forces |
| Delay | A layered application of barriers, obstacles, technology, physical security measures, and forces — "another way to say this is to apply defense-in-depth procedures" |
| Defend | Threat- and effects-based planning that integrates all friendly forces into a single comprehensive plan, ensuring forces are trained and qualified on arming and use of force and fighting positions are established where prudent |
| Recover | Applying effective command and control and developing and exercising Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan 10-2 |
The order is not random. AFH 1 walks the logical cascade: prefer to deter; if that fails, detect; once detected, assess; then warn friendly forces; then attempt to defeat; if the threat cannot be defeated, delay it; if delay is not possible, defend to mitigate effects; then recover to consolidate, reorganize, and restore operations.
Items commonly ask which effect follows another in that cascade, so learn the sequence as a chain rather than a list. "Delay = defense in depth" is the pairing most often keyed.
The Base Defense Operations Center
"The base defense operations center is the command and control center for integrated defense operations during routine and emergency operations."
The defense force commander establishes it to coordinate and direct, via the operational chain of command, the tactical control of integrated defense forces and supporting capabilities. Central security control, the law enforcement desk, and other security forces control centers operate under its control at all locations — home station and deployed.
The Integrated Defense Risk Management Process
The process gives commanders, integrated defense working groups, defense force commanders, and planners "the ability to produce effects-based, integrated defense plans by using a standardized model to identify risks and develop risk management strategies" that leverage finite resources against adaptive threats.
It identifies at-risk assets and aids working groups in generating the criticality assessment and risk assessment products. A risk reduction decision is developed "through a logical process involving asset criticality, threat, and vulnerability assessments" — three assessments, based on a clear understanding of what is important, the estimated threat, and how the asset might be damaged or destroyed.
The Four Security Protection Levels
This is the most testable table in Section 18A. Learn the consequence language for each level, because that is what distinguishes them.
| Level | Consequence of loss | Security standard | AFH 1's examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| PL1 | Unacceptable mission degradation to the strategic capability of the United States or catastrophic consequences for the nation | The greatest possible deterrence; maximum means to detect and defeat a hostile force before it can seize, damage, or destroy resources | Nuclear weapons in storage mated to a delivery system or in transit; designated command, control, and communications facilities; aircraft designated to transport the U.S. President |
| PL2 | Significant mission degradation to the war fighting capability of the United States | Significant deterrence; a significant probability of detecting and defeating a hostile force before it can act | Nonnuclear alert forces; designated space and launch systems; expensive, few in number, or one-of-a-kind systems or facilities; intelligence-gathering systems |
| PL3 | Mission degradation to the United States warfighting capability | A reasonable degree of deterrence; the capability to impede a hostile force and limit damage | Non-alert resources that can be generated to alert status; selected command, control, and communications facilities, systems, and equipment; non-launch-critical or non-unique space launch systems |
| PL4 | Adversely affect mission capability — operational or mission support resources that directly or indirectly support power projection assets | Reduce the opportunity for theft of or damage to resources. Resources are secured by containing them in controlled areas with owners or users being responsible for security; security forces provide response to threats | Facilities storing Category I, II, or III sensitive conventional arms, ammunition, and explosives; fuels and liquid oxygen storage areas; USAF accounting and finance vault areas |
How to Keep the Levels Straight
The consequence adjectives ladder cleanly: unacceptable / catastrophic (PL1) → significant (PL2) → mission degradation (PL3) → adversely affect (PL4). The deterrence standards ladder in parallel: greatest possible → significant → reasonable → reduce the opportunity.
PL4 is structurally different from the other three. In PL1 through PL3, security forces are the primary protective measure. In PL4, resources are contained in controlled areas with owners or users responsible for security, and security forces respond to threats. An item asking which level places the security burden on the owner or user is keyed to PL4.
The nuclear discriminator: nuclear weapons mated to a delivery system or in transit are PL1; nonnuclear alert forces are PL2; and conventional arms, ammunition, and explosives storage is PL4 — three different levels for three kinds of weapons resources, which is exactly why the exam tests them together.
Which resource is given as an example of Protection Level 1 in AFH 1?
How does AFH 1 describe the base security zone?
Which integrated defense desired effect does AFH 1 equate with applying defense-in-depth procedures?