text: Appendix E
  Base Camp and Base Cluster Security and Defense
  Support areas are subject to both conventional and unconventional threats. These
  threats will attempt to disrupt support area operations by attacking sustainment
  operations and command and control nodes, disabling AMD systems, and seizing key
  terrain. Every unit in the support area is responsible for its own defense. The
  establishment of base camps and base clusters throughout the support area builds on
  the concept of integrating mutual support into a viable defense.
  BASE CAMP AND BASE CLUSTER OVERVIEW
  E-1. A base camp is an evolving military facility that supports the military operations of a deployed unit
  and provides the necessary support and services for sustained operations (ATP 3-37.10). Establishing base
  camps is a complex task that balances mission, protection, sustainment, and construction requirements. This
  task is further complicated by changes in missions; fluctuating troop levels; threat factors; and the
  complexity, lethality, and speed of military operations. Added to this are time and resource constraints,
  theater entry conditions, mission duration, access to resources, competing requirements, and environmental
  considerations.
  E-2. The use of base camps for sustainment and related activities are unavoidable during the conduct of
  large-scale combat operations. Commanders must be able to establish base camps and enable access for
  onward movement and sustainment of forces. Base camps, due to their size and immobility, are difficult to
  conceal and are generally considered high-value targets for enemy attacks due to the concentration of friendly
  forces and materiel. Securing and protecting base camps and infrastructure is essential to the force ability to
  compete and win. Base camps are highly contested and difficult to sustain forward on the battlefield. All
  activities forward on the battlefield, including LOCs, critical infrastructure, and hasty base camps or AAs,
  must be resilient and mobile.
  E-3. The base camp is the focal point for base defense planning and is responsible for defending itself
  against Level I threats. The base camp engages Level II and Level III threats and delays them until reinforcing
  military police or a TCF arrives to assist in defeating the threat. Each base establishes a BDOC to plan,
  coordinate, and supervise base camp defense operations.
  E-4. Base camps are nonpermanent by design and are geographically small, defendable areas with defined
  perimeters and established access controls. Base camps should be situated and designed to take advantage of
  natural and man-made terrain features. The area may vary from high ground with good observation and fields
  of fire to highly congested areas, obscuring observation and limiting fields of fire.
  E-5. Lethality and the speed of operations may require the establishment of AAs, hasty base camps, and
  base clusters using physical terrain features and dispersion to support the protection of forces. The designated
  base camp commander assigns areas to tenant units and requires them to tie in fires and observation with
  adjacent units. The BDOC is normally located near the center of the base camp. Unit locations in the base
  camp are assigned areas based on their future mission, their combat power, and the presence of enemy
  avenues of approach within their AO. The base camp commander ensures that observation posts are
  established at key points around the entire perimeter along the most likely enemy avenues of approach. When
  possible, hasty base camps should provide—
  * Concealment from air and ground observation.
  * Adequate entrances, exits, and internal routes.