Opposing force
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- This article is about a military term. For the game see [[Half-Life: Opposing Force]].
An opposing force (OPFOR) is a military unit tasked with representing an enemy, usually for training purposes in war game scenarios. The military unit typically uses a 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. For training aircrews, aggressor squadrons are used by some militaries.
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 specialised OPFOR groups trained to accurately emulate real-life enemies, in order to provide a more realistic experience for their training opponents. For instance, during the Cold War, US OPFOR units employed Soviet military doctrine and simulated Soviet equipment; since the fall of the USSR, US OPFOR units have become more flexible to represent a wider range of opponents, and have regular units stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana (Joint Readiness Training Center or JRTC), Fort Irwin, California (National Training Center or NTC), and Hoenfels, Germany (Joint Multinational Readiness Center or JMRC). There are also a number of various military installations and/or major units that have their own local versions of OPFOR used for training exercises.
OPFOR can also coincide with Red Teaming activities. Once the Analytic Red Team develops adversary TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) it will be the OPFOR that makes use of those TTPs in wargames and exercises.
OPFOR in computer games
OPFOR is seen in computer games, used to represent any variable enemy the US Army team must face. In America's Army, each player sees his own team as the US Army and the opposing team as the OPFOR. The OPFOR in America's Army speak an unidentifiable language that is nicknamed OPFOReign.In the Joint Operations Reality Mod, the name of the team "Rebels" has been changed to OPFOR, as the "Rebels" team only describes the Indonesian Rebels. Since new skins were added and new terrains as well, they are now termed OPFOR.
External links
- [Validating the "Enemy"] (discusses the USA's OPFOR units, and post-Cold War changes to OPFOR.)
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