- F-22 — F-22 Raptor
- US 5th-generation air-superiority stealth fighter (Lockheed Martin / Boeing). Combines all-aspect low observability, supercruise (sustained Mach 1.8 without afterburner), and AESA radar. Production ended at 187 airframes; not exported.
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- F-22 Raptor
- US fifth-generation air superiority stealth fighter with supercruise and thrust vectoring. AESA radar with integrated EW. 187 produced; not exported.
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- F-35 — F-35 Lightning II
- US-led 5th-generation multirole stealth fighter (Lockheed Martin). Three variants: F-35A (CTOL, USAF), F-35B (STOVL, USMC/RAF), F-35C (CV, USN). Sensor fusion across AN/APG-81 AESA, DAS, EOTS, and tactical datalinks.
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- F-35 Lightning II
- Fifth-generation multirole stealth fighter in three variants: F-35A (CTOL), F-35B (STOVL), F-35C (carrier). Features sensor fusion, AESA radar, DAS, and networked operations.
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- F10.7 — Solar Radio Flux at 10.7 cm
- Measure of solar activity affecting upper atmospheric density. 70 sfu = quiet, 150 = moderate, 250+ = solar max.
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- F2T2EA — Find, Fix, Track, Target, Engage, Assess
- The complete kill chain sequence used in joint targeting. Each step can be performed by a different domain's capability — the key insight of capability-centric warfare.
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- F3EAD — Find, Fix, Finish, Exploit, Analyze, Disseminate
- A targeting methodology that integrates intelligence and operations to engage and exploit targets.
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- FAA — Federal Aviation Administration
- The US government agency responsible for regulating civil aviation, airspace, and air navigation facilities.
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- FAA Part 107
- US Federal Aviation Regulation governing commercial operation of small UAS (under 25 kg) within visual line of sight. Requires Remote Pilot Certificate, restricts altitude (400 ft AGL) and airspace, and prohibits flight over people without waiver.
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- Diagram
- FADEC — Full Authority Digital Engine Control
- Digital system with full control of an aircraft engine.
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- FAE — Fuel-Air Explosive
- Munition that disperses a fuel cloud and then ignites it, producing a large overpressure wave. Effective at neutralising pressure-fuzed mines across a broad lane.
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- Diagram
- FAF — Final Approach Fix
- The point on an instrument approach where the final descent to the runway begins.
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- Fairing
- The protective aerodynamic shell enclosing the payload during atmospheric ascent. Jettisoned after ~110 km altitude. Fairing volume constrains maximum payload dimensions.
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- FAR — Federal Acquisition Regulation
- The primary regulation governing how U.S. federal executive agencies acquire goods and services.
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- FARP — Forward Arming and Refuelling Point
- Temporary forward base where rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft refuel and rearm closer to the engagement area, reducing sortie cycle time. Typically established by combat engineers and aviation logistics.
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- FASCAM — Family of Area Scatterable Mines
- US family of mines emplaced rapidly via artillery, helicopter, fixed-wing, or ground delivery. Self-destruct timers vary by variant; enables shaping obstacles at depth on short notice.
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- Diagram
- FAT — Factory Acceptance Test
- Customer-witnessed, gated test demonstrating compliance with contractual key performance parameters. Produces the Acceptance Data Package signed by both contractor and customer before delivery.
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- FBCB2 — Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below
- A digital battle-command system providing situational awareness and messaging to lower-echelon Army units.
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- FBW — Fly-By-Wire
- Flight control by electronic signalling rather than mechanical linkages.
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- FCA — Functional Configuration Audit
- A formal audit verifying that a configuration item has achieved its required functional performance as specified in its functional and allocated baselines.
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- FCC — Functional Combatant Command
- A combatant command with worldwide functional responsibilities not bounded by geography.
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- FCR — Fire Control Radar
- A radar system providing precise tracking data for weapon guidance and engagement. Typically operates in a narrow beam for high-accuracy target state estimation.
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- FDIR — Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery
- Onboard logic that detects anomalies, isolates the cause, and commands recovery or safe-mode.
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- FDM — Frequency Division Multiplexing
- Combining multiple signals on one medium by assigning each a separate frequency band.
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- FDMA — Frequency-Division Multiple Access
- Channel sharing by allocating distinct frequency bands.
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- FDNF — Forward-Deployed Naval Forces
- Naval forces based overseas to provide rapid presence and response in a region.
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- FDOA — Frequency Difference of Arrival
- A geolocation technique using the difference in Doppler shift measured at two or more receivers to determine an emitter's location. Complementary to TDOA.
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- FDR — Flight Data Recorder
- A crash-protected device that records aircraft flight parameters for accident investigation.
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- FEBA — Forward Edge of the Battle Area
- Foremost line of friendly defensive positions in (or expected to be in) contact with the enemy. Reference for fires coordination, obstacle siting, and direct-fire engagement areas.
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- FEC — Forward Error Correction
- A technique that adds redundant data (coding) to transmitted information, enabling the receiver to detect and correct errors without retransmission. Provides coding gain.
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- Federated Architecture
- Avionics architecture in which each function has its own dedicated computing box, connected by buses. Simpler to certify per function but heavier, higher wiring count, and harder to evolve than IMA. Pre-IMA airliners (B737NG, A320 legacy) are federated.
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- Diagram
- FedRAMP — Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program
- US government-wide program standardising cloud-service security assessment, authorisation, and continuous monitoring. Three baselines (Low / Moderate / High) aligned to FIPS 199. An ATO from one agency can be reused across all agencies via the FedRAMP Marketplace.
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- Diagram
- FEEP — Field Emission Electric Propulsion
- A micro-thruster that extracts ions from a liquid-metal propellant by intense electric fields for precise control.
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- FER — Frame Error Rate
- The fraction of received frames that contain uncorrectable errors.
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- FF — Frigate
- A surface warship smaller than a destroyer, used primarily for escort and patrol duties.
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- FFG — Guided Missile Frigate
- Multi-mission surface combatant designed for anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, and escort duties. Typically 3000-5000 tonnes with helicopter capability.
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- FFIR — Friendly Force Information Requirement
- Information the commander needs about friendly forces to develop plans and make decisions.
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- FFP — Firm Fixed Price
- A contract type where the price is not subject to adjustment regardless of the contractor's cost experience. Transfers maximum cost risk to the contractor.
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- FFT — Fast Fourier Transform
- An efficient algorithm (Cooley–Tukey being the most common) to compute the discrete Fourier transform in O(N log N). The workhorse of spectrum analysis, OFDM, and radar signal processing.
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- FHSS — Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
- A method of transmitting signals by rapidly switching carrier frequency among many channels using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter and receiver. Provides anti-jam processing gain proportional to total bandwidth divided by instantaneous bandwidth.
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- FID — Foreign Internal Defense
- Assistance to a host nation to defend against insurgency, lawlessness, or terrorism. Primary SOF mission in peacetime — train, advise, assist (TAA) model.
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- FIDO2
- Open authentication standard (FIDO Alliance + W3C WebAuthn) that replaces passwords with public-key credentials bound to a device + user verification. Resistant to phishing, credential stuffing, and server-side breach. Underpins passkeys.
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- FIE — Foreign Intelligence Entity
- A foreign organization or person conducting intelligence activities against friendly interests.
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- FIFO — First In, First Out
- An inventory method that issues the oldest stock first to reduce obsolescence and spoilage.
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- FIMI — Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference
- Coordinated foreign efforts to manipulate the information environment and interfere with public discourse.
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- FIPS — Federal Information Processing Standards
- U.S. government standards for computer systems used by non-military federal agencies and contractors.
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- FIR — Flight Information Region
- A defined volume of airspace within which flight information and alerting services are provided.
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- Fire Control
- The system or procedure that takes target data (range, bearing, elevation, motion) and computes the aiming solution for a weapon. Includes mechanical, analogue, and digital fire-control computers.
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- First Strike
- An initial nuclear attack intended to destroy an adversary's nuclear forces before launch. Fear of first strike drives force survivability requirements (hardened silos, mobile launchers, SSBNs).
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- FISINT — Foreign Instrumentation Signals Intelligence
- Intelligence from the intercept of foreign electromagnetic emissions associated with the testing and operational deployment of aerospace, surface, and subsurface systems — including telemetry, beacon, and command signals.
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- FISMA — Federal Information Security Modernization Act
- US law requiring federal agencies to develop and maintain information security programs.
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- FL — Flight Level
- Pressure altitude in hundreds of feet referenced to 1013.25 hPa.
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- Flare
- A pyrotechnic infrared countermeasure dispensed from aircraft to decoy IR-guided missiles. Modern flares include spectral matching and MAWS-cued ejection to defeat imaging-IR seekers.
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- FLIR — Forward-Looking Infrared
- Forward-pointed thermal imaging sensor.
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- FLOT — Forward Line of Own Troops
- A line indicating the most forward positions of friendly forces at a given time.
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- Flower Constellation
- Constellation pattern where satellites trace closed petal-shaped ground tracks via synchronous mean motion. Offers persistent regional coverage with fewer satellites than Walker. Theoretical interest, limited fielded use.
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- Fly-by-Wire
- A flight control system that replaces mechanical linkages between pilot stick and control surfaces with electronic signals. Enables relaxed static stability designs, envelope protection, and carefree handling. Standard on all modern fighters.
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- FM — Field Manual
- An Army publication providing detailed doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures for operations.
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- FM 7-0 — Field Manual 7-0 — Training
- US Army doctrinal publication on unit training. Establishes the Army training management cycle, the eight-step training model, and the role of leaders in planning, executing, and assessing collective training.
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- FMC — Flight Management Computer
- The central computer of a flight management system that computes navigation and performance for the flight route.
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- FMCW — Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave
- A radar waveform whose frequency is swept over time, enabling simultaneous range and velocity measurement from a low-power continuous signal.
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- FMEA — Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
- A systematic method for identifying potential failure modes, assessing their severity, occurrence likelihood, and detectability, and prioritising corrective actions. RPN = S × O × D.
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- FMECA — Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis
- An extension of FMEA that adds quantitative criticality ranking based on severity and occurrence. Standardised in MIL-STD-1629A and used for safety-critical design reviews in aerospace and defence.
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- FMOP — Frequency Modulation on Pulse
- Intentional or unintentional frequency modulation within a radar pulse, used to characterize emitters.
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- FMS — Foreign Military Sales
- The US government program through which defense articles, services, and training are sold to foreign governments. Managed by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). The primary mechanism for Government-to-Government defense procurement.
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- FMV — Full-Motion Video
- Streaming video from an ISR sensor.
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- FOB — Forward Operating Base
- A secured forward military position supporting tactical operations with logistics, medical, C2, and force protection capabilities closer to the area of operations.
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- FOC — Full Operational Capability
- The point at which a system is fully fielded and all planned units can employ it as intended.
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- FOCDPIG
- Obstacle Employment Principles mnemonic — Fire (covered by fire), Observed, Concealed, Depth, Protected (early warning, anti-handling), Integrated (with other obstacles), Geometric (non-) — obstacles laid out non-geometrically. The seven tests every obstacle plan must pass.
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- Diagram
- FOD — Foreign Object Debris
- Any object on an airport surface or in an aircraft that could cause damage or safety hazards.
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- FOM — Figure of Merit
- A scalar quantity that summarizes overall performance of a sensor or system for comparison.
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- FONOP — Freedom of Navigation Operation
- An operation asserting navigational rights against excessive maritime claims by other states.
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- FONOPS — Freedom of Navigation Operations
- Naval operations asserting rights under UNCLOS to transit through waters where excessive maritime claims have been made. The US conducts FONOPS globally to uphold international law governing freedom of navigation.
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- FOR — Field of Regard
- Total angular volume a sensor can access by steering.
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- Force Protection
- Actions taken to prevent or mitigate hostile actions against personnel, resources, facilities, and critical information. Encompasses physical security, OPSEC, antiterrorism, CBRN defence, and CIP.
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- Force Ratio
- The numerical (or weighted-effectiveness) ratio of attacker to defender combat power. Classical military thumb-rule: 3:1 attacker advantage required for prepared defence. Modern combat models use Lanchester-derived effectiveness scores.
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- Force Structure
- The number, type, and composition of units and their equipment within a military organisation. Distinct from force posture (positioning) and force employment (how forces are used). Shaped by strategy, threat, technology, and budget.
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- Foster's Method
- Standard approach for computing collision probability from a CDM — projects relative motion onto the encounter plane and integrates a Gaussian over the combined hard-body sphere. Used by NASA CARA and most operators.
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- Diagram
- FOV — Field of View
- The angular extent of the observable area seen by a sensor at any given moment. Wider FOV provides more coverage but typically at lower resolution.
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- FPA — Focal Plane Array
- A two-dimensional array of detector elements placed at a sensor’s focal plane to capture an image.
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- FPF — Final Protective Fire
- Pre-planned, on-call barrier of mortar / artillery / direct fires laid immediately in front of a defensive position to repel a close assault. Triggered by codeword; highest priority of fires.
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- Diagram
- FPIF — Fixed-Price-Incentive-Firm
- A fixed-price contract with a target cost, target profit, ceiling price, and share ratio. If actual costs are below target, savings are shared between buyer and contractor. Provides incentive for cost control while capping buyer exposure.
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- FPL — Final Protective Line
- A designated grazing-fire line in front of a defensive position. Machine guns are laid to deliver grazing fire (≤ 1 m above ground) along the FPL to stop enemy at the position.
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- Diagram
- FPV Drone — First-Person View Drone
- Commercial-off-the-shelf racing quadcopter repurposed as a low-cost precision munition — operator flies via a head-mounted display using the drone's onboard camera. Unit cost US$300–2,000; effective against armour and fortifications at platoon scale.
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- FRACAS — Failure Reporting, Analysis, and Corrective Action System
- A closed-loop process for capturing failures and driving corrective action to improve reliability.
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- Fragmentation Event
- Break-up of an on-orbit object into multiple trackable fragments. Classified by cause (collision, explosion, anomalous, intentional). Catastrophic events like Cosmos 1408 (2021 Russian ASAT) create thousands of pieces and persist for decades.
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- FRAGO — Fragmentary Order
- An abbreviated order issued to change or modify an existing order without restating the entire order.
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- Frame Sync
- The receiver task of locating the start of a transmitted frame by detecting a known marker (preamble, syncword, ASM). Loss of frame sync forces re-acquisition; acquisition time bounds the worst-case latency for bursty channels.
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- Free-space path loss
- The attenuation of electromagnetic energy as it spreads over distance in vacuum, proportional to the square of distance and frequency. The dominant loss term in most satellite link budgets.
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- Frequency Allocation
- The ITU-R Radio Regulations table dividing the 8.3 kHz – 275 GHz spectrum among radio services (broadcast, fixed, mobile, satellite, radar, etc.) by geographic Region 1/2/3. Any national assignment must conform to the parent allocation.
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- DiagramTry it: Constellation GuideTry it: Space Spectrum MapTry it: Joint Ops Guide
- Frequency Hopping
- A spread-spectrum technique that rapidly switches the carrier across a wide band on a pseudo-random sequence shared between transmitter and receiver. Anti-jam, anti-intercept, and supports many co-channel users. Bluetooth, Link 16, Have Quick.
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- Frozen Orbit
- An orbit where eccentricity and argument of perigee remain nearly constant due to a balance between J2 and J3 gravitational harmonics, providing stable altitude profiles.
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- FRR — Flight Readiness Review
- A milestone review confirming that the flight article, ground systems, and operations team are ready for launch. Final review before committing to the launch count.
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- FSC — Forward Support Company
- A company that provides dedicated logistics and maintenance support to a maneuver battalion.
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- FSCL — Fire Support Coordination Line
- A permissive fire support coordination measure beyond which the fire support coordinator may attack targets without additional coordination with ground commanders.
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- FSCM — Fire Support Coordination Measure
- A measure employed by commanders to facilitate the rapid engagement of targets while protecting friendly forces.
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- FSK — Frequency-Shift Keying
- A digital modulation that encodes data by switching the carrier between discrete frequencies.
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- FSPL — Free-Space Path Loss
- The attenuation of electromagnetic energy as it propagates through free space, following the inverse square law. Calculated as FSPL = 20*log10(4*pi*R/lambda) dB. Fundamental to radar and communications link budget calculations.
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- FSS — Fine Sun Sensor
- A precision Sun-direction sensor providing accurate solar vector measurements for attitude determination.
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- FST — Forward Surgical Team
- A small mobile surgical unit providing damage-control surgery close to the point of injury.
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- FSW — Flight Software
- The embedded software running on spacecraft computers that controls all onboard functions.
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- FTS — Flight Termination System
- A range-safety system that destroys or disables a launch vehicle deviating from its safe corridor.
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- Fusion Center
- Multi-agency intelligence center integrating threat information from federal, state, local, tribal, and private sector sources. Enables comprehensive threat picture by combining national intelligence with local situational awareness.
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