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This article is about a military term. For the game see Half-Life: Opposing Force.:The term 'opposing force' is occasionally used to refer to a genuine military foe; this article is concerned only with its use in simulated conflict. An Opposing Force is a military unit tasked with representing an enemy, usually for training purposes in war game scenarios. For training aircrews, aggressor squadrons are used by some militaries. In some nations the term is abbreviated to 'OPFOR'. At a basic level, a unit might serve as an opposing force for a single scenario, differing from its 'opponents' only in the objectives it is given. However, major armies commonly maintain specialized groups trained to accurately emulate real-life enemies, in order to provide a more realistic experience for their training opponents. Opposing forces can also coincide with Red Teaming activities. Once the Analytic Red Team develops adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) it will be the opposing force that makes use of those TTPs in wargames and exercises.
Training To increase the realism of training exercises, military units often use blank ammunition, and possibly a simulation system such as the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES) that attaches to real weaponry (whether a rifle, machine gun, tank, etc.) in order to simulate a real combat environment. Sometimes the military unit may use paintball weapons during their training, and sometimes they may use "sim" rounds, a type of Plastic bullet. The MILES system has a first generation (lasers mounted on the barrels of weaponss systems which fire an infrared laser when a blank round is fired) with a vest and halo unit (that mounts on the helment) which can detect when a laser hits the system, scoring kills and near misses. When a MILES system is killed, it emits a loud tone indicating that the person has been 'killed'. Each weapon mounted laser has a yellow key that can be removed to deactivate the loud tone (by inserting the key into the sensor vest). MILES 2 was released in 1994 and includes a GPS system so that vehicles can be killed from a central location due to artillery strikes. MILES can be mounted on virtually any piece of equipment, including all personal weapons (except pistols) including tank main guns, AT missiles, 30mm chain guns from helicopters, etc. To simulate the firing signature, various systems are in use. For Tanks, Hoffman charges are used (basicaly a quarter-stick of dynamite in a tube over the barrel of the tank), blank ammunition and ATWES (Anti-Tank Weapons Effects Simulators) which ignite a few ounces of flash power and send a (very dangerous) fireball out the rear of simulated AT weapons. Examples One of the best-known examples of a specialist opposing force is the United States's OPFOR. During the Cold War, opposing force units employed Soviet military doctrine and simulated Soviet equipment; since the fall of the USSR, US opposing force units have become more flexible to represent a wider range of opponents. There are three Major Training Centers for the US Army. The National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California: OPFOR is the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (BLACKHORSE) The Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana: OPFOR is the 1st Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment (GERONIMOS) The Combat Maneuver Training Center (now called the Joint Multinational Readiness Center) at Hohenfels, Germany: OPFOR is the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment (Separate) (WARRIORS) The Units at NTC and CMTC replicated a Soviet Motorized Rifle Regiment or Division. At NTC, M551 Sheridans are used to replicate Soviet T-80 tanks, and Visually Modified (VISMOD) HMMWVs are used to replicate BMPs. At CMTC, M113A2s are used to replicate Soviet BMP-2s and M-60A3 tanks are used to replicate Soviet T-80s. During the mid-1990s, CMTC was used to train peacekeeping forces for the former Yugoslavia under Low-Intensity Conflict missions, these have since been modified for Counter-Insurgency training for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Various US military installations and/or major units have their own local versions of opposing force used for training exercises. The joint Australian/US military exercise "Crocodile '03" featured an Australian-led opposing force in which soldiers from a range of Australian units worked together with a US Marine Corps contingent.* | ||||||||
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