Firm Base and 3 Forward Operating Bases

Inisfree has four topside (surface; outdoors) practice facilities for military/deployment operations rehearsals; our practice Firm Base, and our 3 practice Forward Operating Bases (FOBs).

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Table of Contents:

Vocabulary
Dimensions
Capacities
Purpose
Features
Use
Access
Expansion
Conceptual Images

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Vocabulary:

The ‘Firm Base’ describes a secure environment, at home (in one’s home country) or overseas, that sustains the Army (or any branch of service),
enables training for, and deployment on, operations,
and ensures the consent and support of the public and host nations.
A forward operating base is any secured forward operational level military position, commonly a military base, that is used to support strategic goals and tactical objectives. A FOB may contain an airfield, hospital, machine shop, or other logistical facilities. The base may be used for an extended period of time.
For reference: The next level down from FOB is outpost, then field camp / observation position.

The difference:

Firm Bases are large, like airbases, but do not always include an airfield/runway.
Firm Bases have a great variety of assets/facilities, and play host to more than one large military unit at a time.
Firm Bases are full-sized towns where an entire battalion or even larger units can muster, remain, regroup, etc..
Hosts a regional command.
Big enough for a full airport.
FOBs are smaller than Firm Bases, and used to extend a Firm Base’s reach/territory.
FOBs do not have as many assets/facilities as a Firm Base.
FOBs have the bare minimum needed to provide rest, shelter, and some resupply of forward-deployed (smaller) forces/units.
Hosts a municipal or county command.
Might only have a secured/enclosed/walled landing-pad (for helicopters, not airplanes).
Think of the Firm Base like the planet,
and the FOBs as its moons,
with the Sun in this analogy being the home-country.

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Dimensions:

The Firm Base in Inisfree measures: 1,254′ x 1,254′ (slightly >1/4 mile along each side); ~1,572,516 square feet (36.1 acres),
big enough for ~361 average-sized houses; multiple neighborhoods’ worth
Each of the 3 FOBs in Inisfree measures: 198′ x 198′; ~39,204 square feet (.9 of 1 acre),
big enough for 9 average-sized or small houses; the equivalent of 1 small neighborhood / street’s worth

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Capacities:

average Firm Base hosts: 2,000-7,000 troops/personnel; multiple battalions (up to a couple/few brigades/regiments),
sustaining all those people indefinitely
average FOB hosts: 120-1,000 troops/personnel; multiple companies (or 1 battalion),
sustaining those people with routine/monthly resupply from its Firm Base
for reference: average outpost = ~60 troops/personnel; a couple platoons,
sustaining a small number of people who typically have to bring their own re/supplies with them (from their FOB)

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Purpose:

acclimate troops to normal day-to-day life/work in a remote base always exposed to the elements
acclimate troops to high-desert conditions/environment; somewhat above sea-level, dry, windy, punishing sunlight, etc.
practice maintaining such a facility/base
practice patrolling (keeping secured) such a facility/base
practice running convoys/patrols to/from such a facility/base
(for pilots) practice landings and take-offs to/from such a facility/base (such as during sandstorms; brown-out conditions)
practice alerting such a facility/base for different types of incoming (e.g. hurrying troops out of targeting buildings, or to damaged ones requiring assistance triaging, etc.)
occasionally practice construction (or even destructing; systematic) such a facility/base
occasionally practice defending such a facility/base
occasionally practice reconquering such a facility/base
occasionally study whether such a facility/base (a given layout of one) is as efficient as desired/required/commanded

Not for:

dynamic-entry rehearsals
large-aircraft landing, taxiing, or take-off (only moderately-sized cargo-planes and smaller aircraft should be attempting landings/operations here)
prototypes testing
underground operations (such as in bunkers or DUMBs)

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Features:

Firm Base:

small airstrip and multiple helipads, often with aircraft hangars (if not surface bunkers; hardened hangars)
chow hall for hundreds of people at a time
field hospital for dozens to hundreds of patients at a time
shipping containers stacked in an inner extra-secured resupply/staging area
convoys-staging lanes/areas on actual streets, nearly highway-width/-quality
artillery and anti-artillery areas (often with a trajectory-determining RADAR-blimp which automatically helps direct responses to incoming enemy fire)
actual motor-pool; mechanic shop/s / building/s
fuel and oil storage (typically in semi-sized mega-bladders down in berms to redirect accidental blasts)
[POL: Petrol/gasoline/jet-fuel, Oil, Lubricant]
permanent shelters; Quonset huts and live-in shipping-containers
toilets/bathrooms in some buildings
showers building/s
laundry trucks/tanks (mobile washing and drying units)
MWR facility (actual building with computers and phones)
public gym (typically in a circus-sized tent)
Intel.
concentric perimeter berms and related barriers with reinforced/permanent 2/+ story guard towers (some doubling as makeshift ATC towers)
highly-controlled entry requiring numerous turns past checkpoints with razor-wire, dragons-teeth, vehicle-poles, etc.
ammunition storage
commissary (like a shopping mall / Walmart)
water treatment
waste processing
brig (usually/predominantly for detainees/POWs)

FOBs:

single helipad or two, no/rarely hangars
possible chow hall, only big enough for dozens of people at a time
possible clinic, for several people at a time
supplies/storage wherever possible
rarely any actual/proper/paved streets, let alone convoy-staging lanes/areas
semi-permanent shelters when possible, rarely more than a barebones shipping-container or large (multi-person) tent
portajohns
commandeered/retrofitted crude/primitive dwellings used as a small-unit communications/coordination hub and de/briefing room
small parking lot for light-armored vehicles for a few squads at most
single-berm perimeter, sometimes with 2-story lookout towers (raised shacks/shanties)
well-controlled entry requiring at least one turn past a checkpoint/guardhouse with razor-wire

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Use:

Typically, military units using Inisfree’s Firm Base and 3 FOBs come for a couple weeks, not including travel and/or setup/takedown time; once they are here, they spend half a month, give or take, practicing in a true field-setting what they and other commands have taught/trained their troops and other personnel how to do.

Thus, each calendar-year, it is possible for ~13 units to use Inisfree for such training; each unit needs half a month to satisfactorily practice, giving each of its small-units (squads, etc.) enough time to do their own variations of the general/prescribed drills/maneuvers.

Since food cannot be brought in from the outside of our realm, everyone here eats either what is prepared in the Firm Base chow hall, or our vegan MREs.

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Access:

The troops using these 4 facilities in our realm must have already been prescreened, found compatible enough with us to come take the tour of this city, completed that tour, and been invited back both as individuals and with the military unit they intend to train with.

Such troops arrive through our military air-and-spaceport, then convoy (by air/aircraft or land/highway) to our Firm Base, and from there spread out to our 3 FOBs.

Since humans proved nearly 100% retarded and evil, it is nearly impossible for any of their entire military units to ever get approval to come here. What instead you will see here are the entire military units of other species, such as Elves; of their races Drow, Night, and so on. Why would Elves train for military operations in deserts (outside forests, that is)? To be able to effectively chase and defeat enemies who did not attempt to harm their kind from a forest; most enemies are humans, and most humans come from deserts such as “urban jungles”.

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Expansion:

Not long after the Firm Base and first 3 FOBs here were ready for use/training, a 4th FOB was added. Originally, the first 3 FOBs were in a diagonal line. You can see “FOB4” on the map as being due south of the Firm Base.

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In the millennia ahead, if these 5 facilities ever become “too far booked-out” (IOW: reserved for years in advance), we’ll open up access to our SSA-cities’ identical facilities; all military units who have already completed training at Inisfree’s Firm Base and/or 3 FOBs can instead/then (whenever necessary/desired) go to the Inisfree-like cities in the SSA to use the same types of facilities in them.

219,000 of those cities = (in the SSA) a total of 876,000 of these practice-bases;