Facility directly owned and operated by or for the military
A
military base
is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the
military
or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and
operations
.
[1]
A military base always provides accommodations for one or more
units
, but it may also be used as a
command center
,
training ground
or
proving ground
. In most cases, military bases rely on outside help to operate. However, certain complex bases are able to endure on their own for long periods because they are able to provide
food
,
water
, and other necessities for their inhabitants while under siege. Bases for
military aviation
are called
military air bases
, or simply "air bases". Bases for
military ships
are called
naval bases
.
Jurisdictional definition
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Military bases within the United States are considered
federal property
and are subject to
federal law
. Civilians (such as family members of
military officers
) living on military bases are generally subject to the
civil
and
criminal laws
of the states where the bases are located.
[2]
Military bases can range from small outposts to military cities containing up to 100,000 people. A military base may belong to a different nation or state than the territory surrounding it.
Naming
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A sign at the Raakunamaki Military Area in
Lappeenranta
,
Finland
The name used generally refers to the type of military activity that takes place at the base, as well as the traditional nomenclature used by a branch of service.
A military base may go by any of a number of names, such as the following:
Types of establishment
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Different kinds of Military installations of Iran ? 2002
Depending on the context, the term "military base" may refer to any establishment (usually permanent) that houses a nation's
armed forces
, or even organized
paramilitary
forces such as the
police
,
constabulary
,
militia
, or
national guards
. Alternatively, the term may refer solely to an establishment which is used only by an
army
(or possibly other land fighting related forces, such as
marines
) to the exclusion of a base used by either an
air force
or a
navy
. This is consistent with the different meanings of the word '
military
'.
Some examples of permanent military bases used by the
navies
and
air forces
of the world are the
HMNB Portsmouth
in Portsmouth, UK, the
Naval Air Station Whidbey Island
, Washington State, US, or
Ramstein Air Base
, Germany (the last two are each designated as a
Main Operating Base
). Other examples of non- or semi-permanent military bases include a
Forward Operating Base
(FOB), a
Logistics
Base (Log base) and a
Fire Base
(FB).
A military base may also contain large concentrations of military supplies in order to support
military logistics
. Most military bases are restricted to the public and usually only authorized personnel may enter them (be it military personnel or their relatives and authorized civilian personnel).
In addition to the main military facilities on a certain installation, military bases usually (but not always) have various different facilities for military personnel. These facilities vary from country to country. Military bases can provide housing for military personnel, a post office and dining facilities (
restaurants
). They may also provide support facilities such as fast food restaurants, gas stations, chapels,
schools
,
banks
,
thrift stores
, a
hospital
or clinic (dental or health clinics, as well as veterinarian clinics),
lodging
, movie theaters, and, in some countries, retail stores (usually a supermarket such as
Commissary
and a
Department Store
, such as
AAFES
). On American military installations, Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation (FMWR) provides facilities such as fitness centers, libraries, golf courses, travel centers, community service centers, campgrounds, child development centers, youth centers, automotive workshops, hobby/arts and crafts centers, bowling centers, and community centers.
Part of USAF
Spangdahlem Air Base
in 1990
Bases used by the
United States Air Force Reserve
tend to be active USAF bases. However, there are a few
Air Reserve Bases
, such as
Dobbins ARB
, Georgia, and
Grissom ARB
, Indiana, both of which are former active-duty USAF bases. Facilities of the
Air National Guard
are often located on civil airports in a secure
cantonment
area not accessible to the general public, though some units are based on USAF bases, and a few ANG-operated bases, such as
Selfridge ANGB
, Michigan. Support facilities on Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve installations tend to not be as extensive as active bases (i.e., they usually do not have on-base lodging (though
Kingsley Field ANGB
, Oregon, is an exception), clinics (except for drill days), or retail stores (although some have small convenience stores)).
In Russian usage "military base" or "naval base" is not limited to denoting a specific fence described facility and usually encompasses a broad territory within which a number of discrete facilities may be located. As examples, 1) the Russian Sevastopol Naval Base comprises individual facilities located within the city of Sevastopol proper (waterfront moorings, weapons stores, a headquarters compound, and a naval infantry base) as well as an airfield at Kacha north of the city; 2) the Leningrad Naval Base comprises all naval facilities in the greater St. Petersburg area including training schools, commissioning institutes, the naval academy, and the Kronshtadt base on Kotlin island.
Overseas military base
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Civilian services offered to soldiers outside a military base
An overseas military base is a military base that is geographically located outside of the territory of the country whose
armed forces
are the principal occupants of the base.
Such bases may be established by treaties between the governing power in the host country and another country which needs to establish the military base in the host country for various reasons, usually strategic and logistic.
Furthermore, overseas military bases often serve as the source of the
military brat
subculture due to the children of the bases' occupant military being born or raised in the host country but raised with a remote parental knowledge of the occupant military's home country.
British military bases
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]
In the 18th and 19th centuries the
Royal Engineers
were largely responsible for erecting military bases in the British Isles and the British Empire. In 1792 the Chief Engineer was instructed to prepare the Barrack Construction estimates for Parliament and at the same time the Department of the Barrackmaster-General was established.
During the period from the 1840s through the 1860s barracks were constructed under supervision of the
Royal Engineers
in:
The
Cardwell Reforms
(1872) ushered in another period of intensive Barrack building at
Aldershot
,
Portsmouth
,
Plymouth
,
London
,
Woking
,
Woolwich
,
Dublin
,
Belfast
,
Malta
,
Gibraltar
and the
Cape of Good Hope
.
In 1959 the Corps' Work Services was transferred to the civilian War Department Works Organization (later renamed Property Services Agency (PSA)) and by 1965 the (Specialist Teams Royal Engineers (STRE)) were formed to plan and execute Works projects worldwide.
Some British and Commonwealth naval bases are traditionally named, commissioned, and administered as though they were naval ships. For this reason they are sometimes called
stone frigates
.
Related term
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See also
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]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
Look up
base
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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