Blue Warrior

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ABU: Airman Battle Uniform (Air Force “fatigues”)

AFRICOM: Africa Command

AFB: Air Force Base

AMF: Aviation Mission Fellowship (fictional)

Ansar Dine: “Defenders of the Faith”

ANT: Advanced Network Technology [a division of the NSA’s TAO]

AQS: al-Qaeda Sahara (fictional)

BDU: Battle Dress Uniform (Army “fatigues”)

BMI: Brain Machine Interface

BOQ: Bachelor Officer Quarters

COMPASS: Chinese version of GPS

CTD: Counterterrorism Division (FBI)

CXS: Communications Exploitation Section (FBI CTD)

DARPA: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (US)

DDoS: Denial-of-Service attacks

DNI: Director of National Intelligence

DPV: Desert Patrol Vehicle

FAE: Fuel-Air Explosive

FAV: Fast-Attack Vehicle

GAD: General Armament Department (a PRC/PLA version of DARPA)

GCHQ: Government Communications Headquarters (the British version of the NSA)

GCS: Ground Control Station (drones)

GPS: Global Positioning System

HSD: High Speed Data

HFT: High Frequency Trading

JDAM: Joint Direct Attack Munition

JTRIG: Joint Threat Research and Intelligence Group, the GCHQ’s anti-hacktivist division

LARs: Lethal Autonomous Robotics

LS³: Legged Squad Support System

MAST: Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology

MAV: Miniature Air Vehicle

MGV: Miniature Ground Vehicle

Mil-Spec: Military Specifications

MNLA: National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad

MSS: Ministry of State Security

NSA: National Security Administration

OPSEC: Operational Security

PDB: Presidential Daily Brief

PLA: People’s Liberation Army

PRC: People’s Republic of China

PROCEED: Programming Computation on Encrypted Data

REE: Rare Earth Element

RPV Remotely Piloted Vehicle

SAD/SOG: Special Activities Division/Special Operations Group [the CIA’s special forces unit]

SCADA: Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition

SPAN: Self-Powered Ad-hoc Network

sUAV: Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

STOL: Short Take Off and Landing

SVR: Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service)

TAO: Office of Tailored Operations (NSA)

TERCOM: Terrain Contour Matching

UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

UDC: Utah Data Center

UGV: Unmanned Ground Vehicle

USAFE-AFAFRICA: U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa

VPN: Virtual Private Network

VTOL: Vertical Takeoff and Landing