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Perimeter security glossary - C

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C

C²

Command and Control. The procedures used in effectively organizing and directing armed forces to accomplish a mission.

C4

Stands for Compound 4. A military plastic/moldable high explosive. A military grade plastic explosive equivalent to 118% of TNT. A rubbery, fully plasticised mass, which can be kneaded and formed into any shape. It is insensitive to impact and friction and was often burned to heat food and water. It has a detonation rate of 26,400 fps and requires detonation cord (Det Cord), primers or blasting caps to set it off. See Plastic Explosive.

Caliber

The diameter of a projectile or the diameter of the bore of a gun or launching tube. Caliber is usually expressed in millimeters or inches. In some instances (primarily with naval ordnance), caliber is also used as a measure of the length of a weapon's barrel. For example, the term "5 inch 38 caliber" describes a munition used in a 5-inch gun with a barrel length that is 38 times the diameter of the bore. See Projectile.

Camouflage

The disguising of military equipment or installations with paint, nets, or foliage.

Capping

Putting a top over an exposed revetment construction. This action eliminates erosion, mitigates any potential fog problems, and keeps water from seeping through the revetment. Several materials can be used to cap a revetment including soil cement, concrete, steel sheets, plastic and canvas. See A-1 Revetment, B-1 Revetment, Revetments.

Car Bomb

An automobile used as a weapon by detonation of bombs. See Anti-Ram Vehicle Barrier, Blast, Blast Mitigation, Bomb, Revetment.

Card Reader

An electronic device used to read information encoded on various types of media represented by badge technologies (magnetic stripe, capacitance, proximity, Wiegand-effect, etc.) See Access Control.

Casing

The fabricated outer part of a munition designed to hold an explosive charge and the mechanism required to fire this charge.

Casualty

Any person suffering physical and/or psychological damage that leads to death, injury, or material loss. See Casualty Clearing Station.

Casualty Clearing Station

A collecting point for victims that is located in the immediate vicinity of a disaster site where triage and medical treatment can be provided. See Casualty.

CBIED

Abbreviation for Chemical Biological Improvised Explosive Device.

Cell

The smallest unit within a guerrilla or terrorist group. A cell generally consists of two to five people dedicated to a terrorist cause. The formation of cells is born of the concept that an apparent "leaderless resistance" makes it hard for counterterrorists to penetrate. See Terrorist Group.

Central Holding Area

A location where ambulances leave to pick patients up from the casualty clearing station, or deliver patients to neighboring hospitals according to a victim distribution plan. See Casualty, Casualty Clearing Station.

Central Station

Facility or area usually manned by security personnel and designed to accept all signals from the organization's intrusion detection systems, access control, assessment (CCTV) and security forces to determine threat and issue an appropriate response. See Access Control.

Chain of Command

A series of management positions in order of authority.

Challenge

To engage or contest the presence of an individual and demand proper identification or authorization.

Charge Weight

The amount of explosive charge in kilograms.

Checkpoint (CP) or (CHP)

A "checkpoint" can be 3 things:   (1) predetermined point along a route of march where troops or convoys on the move 'check in' in person at a manned 'control post' and are given further instructions on the route ahead (synonym of "control post" or "control point"). (2) Predetermined position along a route where foot, vehicle (or sometimes air) patrols call in their coordinates to headquarters on the radio net, and report on their progress and fulfillment of their mission (synonym of "report point" or "report line"); (3) (the most frequent in a PKO context) a permanent or temporary, self contained, post, e.g. at an entry point to a BZ, where troops or MPs stop vehicular and pedestrian traffic (including civilian) to check documents, frisk passengers, search cars etc., in order to stop the smuggling of arms, ammunition and explosives; checkpoints can be static ('fixes') or mobile ('mobiles'); if they are 'closed checkpoints, they are called road blocks.

Claymore Mine

Antipersonnel mine used for area protection: e.g. used by foot patrols as perimeter defense overnight. See Mine.

Clear Zone

An area that is clear of visual obstructions and landscape materials that could conceal a threat or perpetrator. The area surrounding a potential explosion site which is determined by the required inhabited building separation. The inhabited building separation will be based on the sited, waivered, exempted, or actual explosives limits of the potential explosion site, whichever is greatest.

Close Quarters Battle (CQB)

The general term to describe any firearms combat in physically restrictive surroundings, such as inside buildings. Typically CQB engagements will happen at less than fifteen yards, usually much less. See FAST Company.

Cluster Bomb or Cluster Bomb Unit (CBU)

An aircraft store (a thin-walled canister) containing and dispersing submunitions, which can be (anti-personnel or anti-tank) mines, penetration (runway cratering) bomblets, fragmentation bomblets etc.; a burster charge splits open the canister after release to disperse the bomblets over a wide area; some submunitions are fitted with delay or pressure fuzes, to act as mines (called "minelets"); the CBU itself however should not be confused with a fragmentation bomb see also: munition dispenser. See Bomb, Fragmentation.

Collapse Time

The time between the impact of a blast wave or explosion and the time until the structure, barrier, wall, etc. takes to fall to the ground.

Collateral Damage

Injury to personnel or damage to building that are not the primary target of attack. Unintended damages, beyond the destruction of the enemy forces or installations specifically targeted, to surrounding human and non human resources, either military or nonmilitary, caused by the spillover of weapons effect (as opposed to the damage caused by aiming errors).

Combat Vehicle

Armored or unarmored vehicles designed to perform a specific role or variety of roles within combat, such as a main battle tank or infantry fighting vehicles. See Armored Fighting Vehicle, Infantry Fighting Vehicle, Tank.

Combustible

A term used to classify certain liquids that will burn on the basis of flash points. Both the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) define "combustible liquids" as having a flash point of 100°F (37.8°C) or higher. Importance - Combustible liquid vapors do not ignite as easily as flammable liquids; however, combustible vapors can be ignited when heated and must be handled with caution. Class II liquids have flash points at or above 100°F, but below 140°F. Class III liquids are subdivided into two subclasses. Class IIIA - Those having flash points at or above 140°F but below 200°F. Class IIIB - Those having flash points at or above 200°F.

Command

The act of directing and/or controlling resources by virtue of explicit legal, agency, or delegated authority. May also refer to the Incident Commander.

Command Post (CP)

A unit's, or subunit's, headquarters where the commander and his staff operate. A Command Post consists of those coordinating and special staff activities and representatives from supporting Army elements and other services that may be necessary to carry out operations.

Commercial Explosives

Explosives designed, produced, and used for commercial or industrial applications, rather than for military purposes. See Explosives.

Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS)

Commercial-Off-The-Shelf products primarily used for blast mitigation. COTS equipment is available direct from the manufacturer and requires no further development prior to introduction into service apart from minor modifications. See Blast Mitigation Action Group, TSWG.

Communications Equipment

Equipment used by forces to communicate among themselves, with external agencies, and to pass data among elements of electronic security systems. See Agency.

Complex 21

Designation for the Nuclear Weapon Complex when current plans for reorganization are realized, expected to occur around the turn of the century.

Compromise

A security violation resulting in confirmed or suspected exposure of classified information or material to an unauthorized person.

CONEX Containers

Containers designed to withstand structural loadings associated with shipping, including Container Express.

CONPLAN (U. S. Government Interagency Domestic Terrorism Concept of Operations Plan)

CONPLAN is designed to provide overall guidance to Federal, State and local agencies concerning how the Federal government would respond to a potential or actual terrorist threat or incident that occurs in the United States, particularly one involving WMD. The CONPLAN outlines an organized and unified capability for a timely, coordinated response by Federal agencies to a terrorist threat or act. It establishes conceptual guidance for assessing and monitoring a developing threat, notifying appropriate Federal, State, and local agencies of the nature of the threat, and deploying the requisite advisory and technical resources to assist the Lead Federal Agency (LFA) in facilitating interagency/interdepartmental coordination of a crisis and consequence management response. Lastly, it defines the relationships between structures under which the Federal government will marshal crisis and consequence management resources to respond to a threatened or actual terrorist incident. See FEMA, Terrorist, WMD.

Consequence Management

An emergency management function that includes measures to protect public health and safety, restore essential government services, and provide emergency relief to governments in the event of terrorism. Consequence management responses are managed by FEMA and use protocols established under the Federal Response Plan (FRP). Consequence management efforts can also include support missions as described in other Federal operations plans, such as predictive modeling, protective action recommendations, and mass decontamination. See FEMA.

Contact Charge

An explosive charge placed in direct contact with the material to be destroyed. Contact charges require much heavier charges than shaped charges or fracturing charges and the explosive performance can be increased and charge weight reduced by a number of techniques including more careful charge placement, confinement, and tamping. See Shaped Charge, Tamped Charge.

Container Accommodation (module)

A hard-walled prefabricated building, modular and based on 20' ISO container configuration. The base and roof of these units are completely pre-built, and walls are knocked-down and are packed between the roof and floors of each unit; several such modules can be interconnected.

Container Structures

Structures built using shipping containers that are designed to withstand structural loadings associated with shipping, including Container Express (CONEX) and International Organization or Standardization (ISO) containers. Testing has shown that these structures behave similarly to building for the purpose of these standards.

Contingency Plan

An emergency plan developed in expectation of a disaster. Contingency plans are often based on risk assessments, the availability of human and material resources, community preparedness, and local and international response capabilities.

Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP)

A COOP provides guidance on the system restoration for emergencies, disasters, mobilization, and for maintaining a state of readiness to provide the necessary level of information processing support commensurate with the mission requirements/priorities identified by the respective functional proponent. This term is traditionally used by the Federal Government and its supporting agencies to describe activities otherwise known as Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, Business Resumption, or Contingency Planning.

Control Point

A position along a route of march at which men are stationed to give information and instructions for the regulation of supply or traffic.

Controlled Area

An area into which access is controlled or limited. It is that portion of a restricted area usually near or surrounding a limited or exclusion area. This is associated with the exclusion zone.

Controlled Lighting

Lighting illumination of specific areas or sections.

Controlled Perimeter

A physical boundary at which vehicle access is controlled at the perimeter of an installation, an area within an installation, or another are with restricted access. A physical boundary will be considered as a sufficient means to channel vehicles to the access control points. At a minimum, access control at a controlled perimeter requires the demonstrated capability to search for and detect explosives. Where the controlled perimeter includes a shoreline and there is not defined perimeter beyond the shoreline, the boundary will be at the mean high water mark. See Access Control, Perimeter, Perimeter Defense.

Conventional Construction

Building construction that is not specifically designed to resist weapons or explosives effects.

Cook off

Term used to describe blasting caps being detonated because of exposure to extreme heat.

Coordinate

A systematic exchange of information among principal participants in order to carry out a unified response in the event of an emergency.

Coordination Center

Any facility that is used for the coordination, agency, or jurisdictional resources in support of one or more incidents.

Corrugated Metal Revetment

A military barricade designed to provide shelter or protection for humans and critical infrastructure assets against low angle high velocity fragments, shrapnel, and improvised explosive devices while offering protection as an anti-ram vehicle barrier. A corrugated metal revetment is made from some type of roll formed metal, typically heavy-gauge steel, 14-gauge or 16-gauge. The corrugated metal revetment is also referred to as a bin revetment as is normally filled with sand or dirt. See A-1 Revetment, Anti-Ram Vehicle Barrier, ARMCO Steel Bin Revetments, B-1 Revetment, Blast Mitigation, Blast Wall, Earth-filled, Steel Bin-Type Barricades, K12, Metalith.

Corrugated Steel Panels

Steel panels, formed or ribbed into a consistent, symmetrical profile to increase that material's strength to weight ratio up to 30% over the conventional material commonly used in revetment construction. See A-1 Revetment, B-1 Revetment, Corrugated Metal Revetment, Revetments.

Counterintelligence

Information gathered and activities conducted to protect against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, or assassinations conducted for or on behalf of foreign powers, organizations, or persons; or international terrorist activities, excluding personnel, physical, document, and communications security programs.

Counterterrorism

Measures used to prevent preempt, or retaliate against terrorist attacks. See Terrorism.

Courses

Completed and assembled 2' metal sections of an A-1 or B-1 revetment. One layer of a revetment construction. Multiple courses complete a revetment wall or barrier. See A-1 Revetment, B-1 Revetment, Revetment.

Covert Entry

Attempts to enter a facility by using false credentials or stealth.

Covert Threat

A terrorist act conducted through the use of concealment, disguise or deception such as the use of false credentials or penetration of a barrier without detection or evidence of entry. See Terrorist, Terrorist Group.

Crash Gates

Steel rods, or pickets, that slide across a roadway on a track.

Cratering Charge

A charged composed of a calculated amount of explosives placed to create a crater.

Critical Assets

Those assets essential to the minimum operations of the organization, and to ensure the health and safety of the general public.

Critical Detection Point (CDP)

Any position inside a secured facility where, if an adversary is detected, there is enough time remaining for the response force to interrupt the adversary.

Critical Infrastructure

A foundation of services that citizens and businesses rely on for their social or economic well-being. Telecommunications, transportation, energy and banking services are part of the critical infrastructure, which is often privately owned but which citizens expect the government to protect. See Infrastructure.

Critical National Infrastructure

Those public, private, governmental and military assets, services or systems that support the economic, political and social life of a country whose importance is such that any loss or compromise would have life-threatening, serious economic or other grave social consequences for the community, or would be of immediate concern to a government. See Assets, Critical Infrastructure.

Critical Threat Locations

Locations or facilities thought to be critical targets such as airports, nuclear facilities, oil and gas pipelines and terminals, embassies and consulates, military facilities, non-air transportation hubs, hydroelectric and coal burning power plants, chemical plants, etc.

Criticality

Pertaining to a critical mass (the least amount) of fissionable material that can achieve self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions.

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