# Military mail (APO, FPO, DPO, BFPO)

Military mail is post routed through a forces or diplomatic postal service — the US APO, FPO and DPO, Britain's BFPO, Canada's CFPO — so its address is a routing code rather than a place.

Date: 2026-09-22

Updated: 2026-09-23

Military mail is post addressed through a forces or diplomatic postal service rather than to a place: in the United States an APO (Army or Air Force Post Office), FPO (Fleet Post Office) or DPO (Diplomatic Post Office), written with a unit, PSC or CMR number and the codes AA, AE or AP where a state would go; for the British forces a BFPO number; for the Canadian forces a CFPO number.

## What Spaw answers

`address_type` reads `military` in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, the three countries whose address rules carry these words. APO, FPO, DPO, BFPO and CFPO are read anywhere in a line; PSC and CMR only at the start of one and followed by a number. The Armed Forces codes AA, AE and AP are read as the state, like any other US state code.

It carries no risk weight, and it is not a box. The routing line stands in for the street, so [`missing_street`](/docs/reasons/missing_street) does not fire, and the unit or PSC line stays in `street`. The British postcode pattern accepts a BFPO number where the postcode goes. Great Britain's postcode directory lists neither BFPO numbers nor the BF1 codes, so it is not asked about them: a BFPO number is accepted and answers `postcode_status` null — not evaluated — and never [`postcode_not_found`](/docs/reasons/postcode_not_found). `exists` stays null: none of the three countries has a complete register of buildings, and none of their registers lists a forces post office.

## What it is not

It is not a place. The address tells the forces' own postal service where to route the post, and nothing in it says where anybody is — or who they are.

Reference: https://spaw.co/glossary/military-mail