Physical-Security.pdf

This field manual (FM) sets forth guidance for all personnel responsible for physical security. It is
the basic reference for training security personnel. It is intended to be a “one-stop” physicalsecurity source for the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of the Army (DA), and
other proponents and agencies of physical security.
Prevention and protection are the two primary concerns of physical security. Both serve the
security interests of people, equipment, and property. These interests must be supported at all
staff and command levels; and this support must be unified in joint, multinational, and
interagency operations.
Support to joint, multinational, and interagency operations relies on the fact that the Army will
not conduct operations alone. Additionally, force-projection operations conducted by the military
will involve the integration of war-fighting capabilities with stability and support operations.
This manual’s primary focus is the articulation of a balanced understanding of physical security
for joint, multinational, and interagency operations throughout the environments of peacetime,
conflict, and war (whether in the continental United States [CONUS] or outside the continental
United States [OCONUS]).
Physical security must integrate the various capabilities of joint, multinational, and interagency
operations in pursuit of a seamless connection between the strategic, operational, and tactical
levels of war. Physical security must also address an expanded range of threats that embraces not
only traditional threat components of war, but also nontraditional threats generated by
guerrillas, terrorists, criminals, and natural or man-made disasters. In addition, physical
security must address the concept of Homeland Defense due to the aforementioned threats.