James Rawles - Expatriates

5.56 NATO: The current standard rifle cartridge for NATO countries. Dimensionally, it is nearly identical to the .223 Remington but not completely interchangeable.

7.62 NATO: The former standard rifle cartridge for NATO countries. Still used in many NATO machine guns. Dimensionally, it is nearly identical to the .308 Winchester but not completely interchangeable.

9/11: The terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, which took three thousand American lives.

A572: A common structural steel.

AAA: American Automobile Association.

ABC: Depending on context: Australian Broadcasting Corporation or American Broadcasting Corporation.

Abu Sayyaf: One of several militant Islamist separatist groups in the Philippines. Also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya . See also ASG and ILF.

AC: Alternating Current.

A/C: Air-Conditioning.

ACP: Automatic Colt Pistol.

ACU: Army Combat Uniform. The U.S. Army’s “digital” pattern camouflage uniform that replaced the BDU.

ADF: Australian Defence Force.

AFB: Air Force Base.

AHRC: U.S. Army Human Resources Command. The current personnel management command for the entire U.S. Army, both Regular Army and U.S. Army Reserve. Formerly PERSCOM (U.S. Total Army Personnel Command) and AR-PERSCOM (U.S. Army Reserve Personnel Command). Decades of incompetence and mismanagement at U.S. Army Reserve HRC at St. Louis, MO, were finally addressed during the early years of the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations, thereby creating a consolidated management system, based at Ft. Knox, KY.

AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Aircon: Slang for air-conditioning.

AK: Avtomat Kalashnikova. The gas-operated weapons family invented by Mikhail Timofeyevitch Kalashnikov, a Red Army sergeant. AKs are known for their robustness and were made in huge numbers, so they are ubiquitous in much of Asia and the Third World. The best of the Kalashnikov variants are the Valmets that were made in Finland, the Galils that were made in Israel, and the R4s that are made in South Africa.

AK-47: The early generation AK carbine with a milled receiver that shoots the intermediate 7.62 x 39 mm cartridge. See also AKM.

AK-74: The later generation AK-family carbine that shoots the 5.45 x 39 mm cartridge.

AKM: The later generation 7.62 x 39 mm AK with a stamped receiver (Avtomat Kalashnikova Modernizirovanniy).

AKO: Army Knowledge Online.

ALICE: All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment.

Alpenflage: A defunct Swiss military camouflage pattern with a significant percentage of red.

AM: Amplitude Modulation.

AMEX: A brand of commercial explosives, primarily used in the mining industry.

AMX: Atelier de Construction d’Issy-les-Moulineaux. A French armored vehicle manufacturer.

Angkatan Laut: Indonesian Navy. See also TNI-AL.

AO: Area of Operations.

AOGC: Australian Oil & Gas Corporation.

AP: Armor Piercing.

APC: Armored Personnel Carrier.

APEC: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

AR: Automatic Rifle. This is the generic term for semiauto variants of the Armalite family of rifles designed by Eugene Stoner (AR-10, AR-15, AR-180, et cetera).

AR-7: The .22 LR semiautomatic survival rifle designed by Eugene Stoner. It weighs just two pounds when disassembled.

AR-10: The 7.62 mm NATO predecessor of the M16 rifle, designed by Eugene Stoner. Early AR-10s (mainly Portuguese, Sudanese, and Cuban contract, from the late 1950s and early 1960s) are not to be confused with the present-day semiauto-only AR-10 rifles that are more closely interchangeable with parts from the smaller-caliber AR-15. See also AR, AR-15, and LAR-8.

AR-15: The semiauto civilian variants of the U.S. Army M16 rifle.

ARM: Australian Republican Movement.

ARRL: American Radio Relay League. National association for amateur radio.

ASAP: As Soon As Possible.

ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

ASG: Abu Sayyaf Group (Grupong Abu Sayyaf). See also Abu Sayyaf and ILF.

ASIO: Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. The Australian equivalent of the U.S. CIA. See also CIA.

ASP: Ammunition Supply Point.

ATC: Air Traffic Control.

ATF: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (a U.S. federal government taxing agency).

AUD: Australian Dollars.

AUG: See Steyr AUG.

Aussie: Slang for Australian.

Austeyr: See Steyr AUG.

AVGAS: Aviation Gasoline. The most commonly used aviation gasoline is 100 octane, low lead (100LL).

Ball: Ammunition made with a nonexpanding full metal jacket.

BATFE: See ATF.

BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation.

BDR: Short for Bandolier.

BDU: Battle Dress Uniform. Also called camouflage utilities by the USMC. Most BDUs were made in the Woodland camouflage pattern.

BIN: Badan Intelijen Negara . The Indonesian State Intelligence Agency.

Bitzer: Australian slang for a mixed breed dog. (“Bits of this and bits of that.”)

Black Rifle/Black Gun: Generic terms for a modern battle rifle—typically equipped with a black plastic stock and forend, giving these guns an all-black appearance. Functionally, however, they are little different from earlier semiauto designs.

BLM: Bureau of Land Management (a U.S. federal government agency that administers public lands).

BMA: Brigade Maintenance Area.

BMG: Browning Machine Gun. Usually refers to the .50 BMG, the U.S. military’s standard heavy machine-gun cartridge since the early twentieth century. This cartridge is also now often used for long-range precision countersniper rifles. See also M2 Browning.

Bogan: Australian slang, usually pejorative, for an individual who is from an unsophisticated background. See also CUBs.

BP: Depending on context, British Petroleum or Blood Pressure.

BPS: Australian Customs and Border Protection Service.

Bravo Sierra: Military slang for lies or lying.

BSA: Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited, a British company that originally made guns but later became best known for making bicycles, motorcycles, and taxicabs bodies.

B.U.L.L.: Basic Utility Locking Liner. A folding pocketknife made by CRKT that was designed by Aaron Frederick. See also CRKT.

C-4: Composition 4, a stable plastic explosive. It is ninety-one percent RDX.

CAAAF: Civilian Auxiliary Australian Air Force.

Camo: Slang for camouflage.

CAR-15: See M4.

CAS: Close Air Support.

CASA: Depending on context, either Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (a Spanish aircraft manufacturer) or Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Australian government agency).