SOCCENT Forward Operations Base

Where young Arab boys may walk around unescorted.

SOCCENT Forward Operations Base is a United States Military base located in Qatar, under the command of Colonel Sharp and subordinate of the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM). As part of the Special Operations Command Central, it is home to the soldiers belonged to various special ops branches, such as the U.S. Army Rangers, Green Berets, Delta Force, Marine Corps, Navy Seals and the Air Force pilots. The base is equipped with a variety of hardware including tanks, armored vehicles, helicopters, fighters, transport planes and inflatable toys.

More accurately, it was these things until an unfortunate encounter with a hostile alien being.

Fiction

Transformers film

Scorponok, scratch my back. Yes, that's better.

On the same evening that Captain William Lennox and his team of Rangers returned from a mission behind enemy lines when a mysterious MH-53 Pave Low helicopter flew into the SOCCENT Qatar's airspace. Colonel Sharp ordered the helicopter to identify itself and leave this airspace. When the helicopter did not respond nor comply with the orders to turn back, Sharp dispatched two F-22 Raptors to intercept and escort the helicopter to the base, ordering the helicopter to follow under threat of deadly force.

When they got within range, one of the pilots identified the helicopter as designation 4500X, a confirmed casualty in Afghanistan three months prior. The Raptors escorted the Pave Low, allowing the bogey to land on deck at the base as soldiers immediately formed a security perimeter around it. When radar crew in the operations center reported that the helicopter was jamming their radar, the power suddenly blinked out and back in. Colonel Sharp attempted to radio again, ordering the Pave Low to power down and have his crew step out or be killed.

The Pave Low stopped its main rotor, but what followed was not quite what Sharp had in mind.

The "helicopter" killed the soldiers attempting to flee before unleashing a powerful shock wave that severely damaged the air control tower. Shrugging off weapons fire directed at it, the robot tossed aside tanks and aircraft with ease while destroying whatever was in its way. It was a real dickhead. Locating the main computer server, it began hacking the U.S. military network, achieving record download speeds as it assimilated terabytes of classified information before Colonel Sharp physically severed the core's network hard lines with a fire axe.

With its primarily objective a failure, the giant robot proceeded to destroy what remained of the base as well as nearly everyone in it.

The next day, in an emergency session at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense John Keller personally headed the investigation into the base attack, initially announcing that there did not appear to be any survivors.

The helicopter dispatched its scorpion partner to deal with the survivors of the base, Captain Lennox and his team, but was driven off by an air strike sent in from a nearby air base and called on a cell phone. Transformers (film)

Notes

• Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico served as the primary filming location for the SOCCENT Qatar. However, the scenes with the F-22 Raptors and C-17 Globemaster IIIs were shot at Edwards Air Force Base since Holloman didn't operate the F-22 Raptor at the time and doesn't operate the C-17 Globemaster III.

• The survivors of the base later had their revenge: Blackout was killed in the Battle of Mission City by Captain Lennox (leader of the base's survivors) and Scorponok was killed two years later in the battle of Egypt by Jetfire.

External links

• Official US Air Force news article on Holloman AFB's role in the movie.