Contingency operation

A contingency operation is a military operation involving United States Armed Forces, conducted in response to natural disasters, terrorists, subversives, or as otherwise directed by appropriate authority to protect national interests. The designation is made by a finding by the discretion of the Secretary of Defense, and triggers the implementation of a variety of wartime plans and preparations throughout the federal government, and within each of the military branches. Contingency operations are often referred to more specifically as overseas contingency operations (OCO), a term which is often substituted because there has not been a recent war on United States soil. The term's best known use is in the United States Congress' Overseas Contingency Operations funding, a discretionary budget appropriation sometimes described as a slush fund used originally for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but now used more broadly for other expenditures associated primarily with the War on Terror.