Showing posts with label Counter Ambush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Counter Ambush. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
More training videos
Now this is what I am talking about! This is the kind of training we all should be doing, along with other forms also. This is a really good example of some seriously effective training.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Tactical Training
Here are some more videos for you guys to check out. These are pretty good examples of how you could be performing training. I know it is hard to catch training like this on a video and still get an sense of what is actually going on, but check them out, there is some good stuff here. I am trying to get you guys thinking about how to improve your training, so this is an ongoing topic that I am adding to little by little.
Please watch these videos and think about how training like that could help you and your group, and or how you can incorporate some of the concepts and ideas into your training. These videos show some different patrolling, reaction to contact, and hasty attack. These are some of the basic concepts that we need to be working on and mastering as well as some of the more advanced things that I have been talking about.
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Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store
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Please watch these videos and think about how training like that could help you and your group, and or how you can incorporate some of the concepts and ideas into your training. These videos show some different patrolling, reaction to contact, and hasty attack. These are some of the basic concepts that we need to be working on and mastering as well as some of the more advanced things that I have been talking about.
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Monday, February 29, 2016
Limits and how to overcome them
Know Your Limits, by Molon Labe
In these times, there are many activities that we must train to be able to do, many skills we must know, and many tasks we are forced to accomplish to sustain our lives and those who we care about. In the days ahead, there will be even greater and more difficult things that we will have to do should a collapse or failure of civility occur to any degree in our area. Many things that are abhorrent to us may become required in order to righteously protect what is ours.
Taking lives in the defense of our lives, our property, and more importantly in defense of our friends and family, may well be absolutely necessary. This is a topic which is often neglected today but clearly shown in Holy Scripture. However this is one of the only skills that you cannot afford to do without or make a mistake. Realistically, you may not have to utilize the skills of a warrior more than 1% of the time, and probably less than that. But if a mistake happens during that 1%, you, and those you care about and are standing in front of, won’t live to enjoy the other 99%.
You must realize that I am not talking about going to the rifle range on a nice sunny day and excelling at punching holes on a non-moving paper target with all the time in the world. Certainly there is a place for that, but the best shooter in the world will not survive a violent conflict or be able to protect his family when the time comes if that person has not made the conscience decision beforehand that he or she will drop the hammer on that other living, breathing human being. That they will plunge that knife into the enemy’s neck, or bring that chair over their head, and repeat with savage fury until finished. If it isn’t in you to go up to that edge and know that you will, for a certainty step off and take that reprobate’s life from him, even as he comes at the unexpected moment to take yours, then you will not survive.
This cannot be overstated: Hesitation kills. Remember that! Most gunfights are over in less than four seconds. It has been stated many times over that a failure to plan is a plan to fail, and that is true. So the question is; what have you determined to do when the time comes that those you love are in danger? Even if you never have to endure a failure of society or go through a war zone, make no mistake, this is a cruel world and scumbags are everywhere. I’ve had a friend killed by a Muslim with a pistol at point blank range. A few of my friends have encountered men with lethal intent and had to defend their lives or die trying; they have survived and their enemies are either in the ground or in prison. None of these men had gone looking for a fight or had done anything stupid which should have been avoided. I’ve survived a potential violent conflict the best way, by keeping my eyes open and with the help of the Lord, escaping the narrow confined room where I should have been killed. In that case I didn’t have to snap the enemy’s spine or use my knife, but if I had, would I have been ready? If it quickly came to a “him or me” situation, could I have fought intelligently and fiercely? I hope so. I was young at the time, but I had already crossed that line in my head a hundred times before.
On a side note, you don’t have to be in a bad spot to be targeted by bad people. Sometimes they follow you. Or like in the case of my friend, they come to your door out of nowhere with a gun and a bag full of cutting tools and implements associated with torture. Had my friend not been the man that he is, he and his wife and two children would have been a sad memory instead of a shining example in our community. The point here is that you will not be able to decide when the moment of truth is: It’s going to choose you. And statistically, that means it will be up close and personal (and probably very dark, to boot).
Know Your Limits
In your mind, you have to know your limits. You have to know how far you are willing to take it and how much you are willing to risk to protect those you love. Ask yourself, are you willing to take a bullet, stop that bat swing with your arm, or get hit by that vehicle for someone you love? For principle? For right? No matter what the cost? Run through scenarios in your head, and know personally how far you will take it, for what, and why. For me, the idea of living the rest of my life knowing that I could’ve bit the bullet and saved someone I love dearly, but didn’t, is more horrible than death itself, regardless of how frightening the circumstances may be. What if it’s a little girl, or even perhaps one day, my own little girl? My mom, dad or sister? No, the preservation of their lives and the lives of my friends is more important to me than my own. And on the day, when that dirt bag has captured them and seeks to extinguish their life by the most barbaric means possible, or when those Religion of Peace types begin gutting, crucifying, beheading, raping, (fill in the blank), to someone I care about, in that situation time-is-life. Remember this, as Douglas MacArthur stated, “In war, you win or lose. Live or die. And the difference is just an eyelash.”
So let me now ask you. How fast can you get your shot off reliably from the method you carry? If it isn’t carried on your person, are you sure you can get to it, get it out and running before the gunfight is over? Remember from the first to last shot in a gunfight on the street, it’s going to be over in 2.5 to 4 seconds. When you’re slipping backwards in the dark and rain, that isn’t very long. If you intend on using an edged weapon or blunt instrument, how fast can you cover distance and disable your opponent, and how sure are you that you will be able to take down that threat? What if you are caught without a weapon? Do you have to resort to picking something up or can you kill with your bare hands? At what point in the fight will you draw your knife or gun, and why? If you take a single hit from a pistol caliber, you have perhaps as much as 95% chance of walking out of there alive; not so if you are stabbed in the neck. And never discount the method of making distance via your feet, sometimes referred to as the Nike Jitsu technique, if it is an option to you. If you are fired at while running away from an urban gang member with a pistol, statistics show you have a very good chance of not getting hit. Obviously, that isn’t always an option, from either a moral or strategic standpoint.
This is what you must know: You will probably not die from a single gunshot wound or knife slash. People survive them every day. If you are dealing with an opponent with a gun, the gun is probably going to go off; you may get hit. Knife, yes, you’re going to get cut, it’s not the end of the world. Pipe-bat-chain, yes, you’re going to get smacked and yes, it’s going to hurt, but that’s why we have casts and splints. The point is to keep fighting. It’s not over until you are dead, have given up, or have won. If you die, your worries are over. If you give up, you’re as good as dead, or you may have to endure a fate worse than death. But if you resign to fight until you can’t fight any more, or until you’ve no one left to fight, you’ve already won. Because if you do all you can and fail, it’s not truly failure. Failure is refusing to try.
Now if you know you’re going to fight and fight until you can’t fight any more, then what are some things that can help prepare you for that day and stack the odds in your favor? You must know your limits. That is, your current limits. Let us remember what Bruce Lee said once, “There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
I know that I can draw my pistol and get a center mass hit reliably in under one second with movement in my open carry rig. Add 2/10ths of a second from concealment. I know that my carbine speed reload is on average 2/10ths of a second slower than drawing my pistol, but that if I have more ammo in my Redi-Mag, then I’ll take that extra time to get 30 rounds of .223 in the fight, versus 11 rounds of .45 ACP. I know that I can speed reload in pitch dark as fast as I can in the light, maybe faster. Sound impossible? The truth is that if you can perform an action without using conscious thought, if it can be controlled, regulated and maneuvered by using subconscious thought, it will be faster, smoother and more efficient. And this brings us to the next point.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Whatever action you may be called on to do when time is life, you’ll want to practice it until it can be done without conscious thought. The simple truth is that the better you become at subconsciously running your gun, then the better you’ll be able to use your conscious thought for solving problems. In conflicts there will always be problems that must be solved, obstacles to be overcome. One thing about guns is that sooner or later, (and probably sooner rather than later in battlefield conditions,) your gun will have a malfunction. So, can you clear your weapon’s malfunction quickly, no matter what kind it may be? How quickly? Can you do it without thinking about it, and keep your head in the game, thinking about the next move while you’re doing it? Make no mistake, this will take time and practice. A few inert rounds and some time spent with your weapons systems, off and on the range, dealing with malfunctions could very well save your life when it fails to go bang on the day. If you are carrying more than one weapon into the field or on the street, you need to know how quickly you can solve the problem, and at which point you swap to your alternate weapon or method. There will be no time on the day to stop and think, “Oh, yeah, NOW would be a good time to go to my back up!” It must be done via muscle memory or you’ll skip a beat, miss a step and be even further behind the power curve.
Don’t forget that your mind is your greatest and first weapon. It is the thing that drives all else and we want to keep it clear and have as few problems as possible to solve. So work with your gear and decide what your standard operating procedure is before it comes to it, and then practice it until it becomes instinct. When deciding your method in handling different situations or weapon systems, try to never go with a particular technique just because someone else said to, no matter how good or knowledgeable that person is, because people don’t always have the same body mechanics or application for any given situation. No, you’ll want to develop your own method based on good reasoning. If there’s a good reason behind why you’re doing what you’re doing, then at least you’re doing something right. But don’t stop there; look to see if you can find a better reason to do it any other way. Follow the 80% rule. You want to practice what is going to work for you 80% of the time or better. Ask yourself when you are doing your next dry fire practice or shooting at the range, or anything that may need to be accomplished during critical moments, “Is this going to work for me when it’s wet, when I’m tired, when I can’t think, when my lungs are working overtime to suck in some vital air, when I’m scared out of my wits?” And train to reality. Reality isn’t sunny and 75 on level ground with no pressure. Reality is dark-cold-scared with everything on the line and no do-overs.
How well do you perform when your heart is pounding at 145+ beats per minute, your legs and arms are smoked and your mind is struggling to find the answer to the current problem? Test yourself and know that at that point, the head shot at 25 yards is stupid with that pocket pistol, or manageable with that shotgun. Know that your speed reload falls to pieces if you go too fast, so you can slow it down, take a breath and think through the problem. If you train through enough stressful situations, running as fast as you can, then you’ll find where you melt down and where you need to be to keep things running quickly but smoothly. One important point to remember is that “You can’t hit by missing.” This means that if you’re going to miss, slow it down, correct it, move up, slow your heart and breathing or just man up and dig deep and do whatever needs to happen to get the job done right.
But don’t go faster than you can. I learned this lesson crystal clear when I was about 15 years old. I remember expending an entire 20 round magazine at a full-size steel through my rifle at 200 yards and never once hitting it because I was frustrated and was shooting way too fast; a shot that I should have hit the first time if I had slowed myself down a couple seconds. This was a stupid mistake that could have meant taking an innocent life through negligence down range on the day, because every missed round is a liability. But the point here is that if you shoot, move or operate too fast for your level, you’re doing no one any good. So if you find yourself missing, slow it down and get your hits. Again, this comes back to knowing your limits. Don’t go faster than you can on the street, means that you hit that failure point on the range, in training, so you won’t make that mistake on The Day. So where are your limits? Do you know them? Do you know if you can hit that half a head hiding behind your best friend when he/she becomes a hostage? It’s all on you.
Train hard. Fight harder. Live for God and do your best; leave the results to Him because they are His anyway. Love those you should and be ready to kill those who need to die. And always know your limits.
https://survivalblog.com/know-your-limits-by-molon-labe/
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Equip yourself for the troubled times ahead: The Tactical Patriot Store
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In these times, there are many activities that we must train to be able to do, many skills we must know, and many tasks we are forced to accomplish to sustain our lives and those who we care about. In the days ahead, there will be even greater and more difficult things that we will have to do should a collapse or failure of civility occur to any degree in our area. Many things that are abhorrent to us may become required in order to righteously protect what is ours.
Taking lives in the defense of our lives, our property, and more importantly in defense of our friends and family, may well be absolutely necessary. This is a topic which is often neglected today but clearly shown in Holy Scripture. However this is one of the only skills that you cannot afford to do without or make a mistake. Realistically, you may not have to utilize the skills of a warrior more than 1% of the time, and probably less than that. But if a mistake happens during that 1%, you, and those you care about and are standing in front of, won’t live to enjoy the other 99%.
You must realize that I am not talking about going to the rifle range on a nice sunny day and excelling at punching holes on a non-moving paper target with all the time in the world. Certainly there is a place for that, but the best shooter in the world will not survive a violent conflict or be able to protect his family when the time comes if that person has not made the conscience decision beforehand that he or she will drop the hammer on that other living, breathing human being. That they will plunge that knife into the enemy’s neck, or bring that chair over their head, and repeat with savage fury until finished. If it isn’t in you to go up to that edge and know that you will, for a certainty step off and take that reprobate’s life from him, even as he comes at the unexpected moment to take yours, then you will not survive.
This cannot be overstated: Hesitation kills. Remember that! Most gunfights are over in less than four seconds. It has been stated many times over that a failure to plan is a plan to fail, and that is true. So the question is; what have you determined to do when the time comes that those you love are in danger? Even if you never have to endure a failure of society or go through a war zone, make no mistake, this is a cruel world and scumbags are everywhere. I’ve had a friend killed by a Muslim with a pistol at point blank range. A few of my friends have encountered men with lethal intent and had to defend their lives or die trying; they have survived and their enemies are either in the ground or in prison. None of these men had gone looking for a fight or had done anything stupid which should have been avoided. I’ve survived a potential violent conflict the best way, by keeping my eyes open and with the help of the Lord, escaping the narrow confined room where I should have been killed. In that case I didn’t have to snap the enemy’s spine or use my knife, but if I had, would I have been ready? If it quickly came to a “him or me” situation, could I have fought intelligently and fiercely? I hope so. I was young at the time, but I had already crossed that line in my head a hundred times before.
On a side note, you don’t have to be in a bad spot to be targeted by bad people. Sometimes they follow you. Or like in the case of my friend, they come to your door out of nowhere with a gun and a bag full of cutting tools and implements associated with torture. Had my friend not been the man that he is, he and his wife and two children would have been a sad memory instead of a shining example in our community. The point here is that you will not be able to decide when the moment of truth is: It’s going to choose you. And statistically, that means it will be up close and personal (and probably very dark, to boot).
Know Your Limits
In your mind, you have to know your limits. You have to know how far you are willing to take it and how much you are willing to risk to protect those you love. Ask yourself, are you willing to take a bullet, stop that bat swing with your arm, or get hit by that vehicle for someone you love? For principle? For right? No matter what the cost? Run through scenarios in your head, and know personally how far you will take it, for what, and why. For me, the idea of living the rest of my life knowing that I could’ve bit the bullet and saved someone I love dearly, but didn’t, is more horrible than death itself, regardless of how frightening the circumstances may be. What if it’s a little girl, or even perhaps one day, my own little girl? My mom, dad or sister? No, the preservation of their lives and the lives of my friends is more important to me than my own. And on the day, when that dirt bag has captured them and seeks to extinguish their life by the most barbaric means possible, or when those Religion of Peace types begin gutting, crucifying, beheading, raping, (fill in the blank), to someone I care about, in that situation time-is-life. Remember this, as Douglas MacArthur stated, “In war, you win or lose. Live or die. And the difference is just an eyelash.”
So let me now ask you. How fast can you get your shot off reliably from the method you carry? If it isn’t carried on your person, are you sure you can get to it, get it out and running before the gunfight is over? Remember from the first to last shot in a gunfight on the street, it’s going to be over in 2.5 to 4 seconds. When you’re slipping backwards in the dark and rain, that isn’t very long. If you intend on using an edged weapon or blunt instrument, how fast can you cover distance and disable your opponent, and how sure are you that you will be able to take down that threat? What if you are caught without a weapon? Do you have to resort to picking something up or can you kill with your bare hands? At what point in the fight will you draw your knife or gun, and why? If you take a single hit from a pistol caliber, you have perhaps as much as 95% chance of walking out of there alive; not so if you are stabbed in the neck. And never discount the method of making distance via your feet, sometimes referred to as the Nike Jitsu technique, if it is an option to you. If you are fired at while running away from an urban gang member with a pistol, statistics show you have a very good chance of not getting hit. Obviously, that isn’t always an option, from either a moral or strategic standpoint.
This is what you must know: You will probably not die from a single gunshot wound or knife slash. People survive them every day. If you are dealing with an opponent with a gun, the gun is probably going to go off; you may get hit. Knife, yes, you’re going to get cut, it’s not the end of the world. Pipe-bat-chain, yes, you’re going to get smacked and yes, it’s going to hurt, but that’s why we have casts and splints. The point is to keep fighting. It’s not over until you are dead, have given up, or have won. If you die, your worries are over. If you give up, you’re as good as dead, or you may have to endure a fate worse than death. But if you resign to fight until you can’t fight any more, or until you’ve no one left to fight, you’ve already won. Because if you do all you can and fail, it’s not truly failure. Failure is refusing to try.
Now if you know you’re going to fight and fight until you can’t fight any more, then what are some things that can help prepare you for that day and stack the odds in your favor? You must know your limits. That is, your current limits. Let us remember what Bruce Lee said once, “There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
I know that I can draw my pistol and get a center mass hit reliably in under one second with movement in my open carry rig. Add 2/10ths of a second from concealment. I know that my carbine speed reload is on average 2/10ths of a second slower than drawing my pistol, but that if I have more ammo in my Redi-Mag, then I’ll take that extra time to get 30 rounds of .223 in the fight, versus 11 rounds of .45 ACP. I know that I can speed reload in pitch dark as fast as I can in the light, maybe faster. Sound impossible? The truth is that if you can perform an action without using conscious thought, if it can be controlled, regulated and maneuvered by using subconscious thought, it will be faster, smoother and more efficient. And this brings us to the next point.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Whatever action you may be called on to do when time is life, you’ll want to practice it until it can be done without conscious thought. The simple truth is that the better you become at subconsciously running your gun, then the better you’ll be able to use your conscious thought for solving problems. In conflicts there will always be problems that must be solved, obstacles to be overcome. One thing about guns is that sooner or later, (and probably sooner rather than later in battlefield conditions,) your gun will have a malfunction. So, can you clear your weapon’s malfunction quickly, no matter what kind it may be? How quickly? Can you do it without thinking about it, and keep your head in the game, thinking about the next move while you’re doing it? Make no mistake, this will take time and practice. A few inert rounds and some time spent with your weapons systems, off and on the range, dealing with malfunctions could very well save your life when it fails to go bang on the day. If you are carrying more than one weapon into the field or on the street, you need to know how quickly you can solve the problem, and at which point you swap to your alternate weapon or method. There will be no time on the day to stop and think, “Oh, yeah, NOW would be a good time to go to my back up!” It must be done via muscle memory or you’ll skip a beat, miss a step and be even further behind the power curve.
Don’t forget that your mind is your greatest and first weapon. It is the thing that drives all else and we want to keep it clear and have as few problems as possible to solve. So work with your gear and decide what your standard operating procedure is before it comes to it, and then practice it until it becomes instinct. When deciding your method in handling different situations or weapon systems, try to never go with a particular technique just because someone else said to, no matter how good or knowledgeable that person is, because people don’t always have the same body mechanics or application for any given situation. No, you’ll want to develop your own method based on good reasoning. If there’s a good reason behind why you’re doing what you’re doing, then at least you’re doing something right. But don’t stop there; look to see if you can find a better reason to do it any other way. Follow the 80% rule. You want to practice what is going to work for you 80% of the time or better. Ask yourself when you are doing your next dry fire practice or shooting at the range, or anything that may need to be accomplished during critical moments, “Is this going to work for me when it’s wet, when I’m tired, when I can’t think, when my lungs are working overtime to suck in some vital air, when I’m scared out of my wits?” And train to reality. Reality isn’t sunny and 75 on level ground with no pressure. Reality is dark-cold-scared with everything on the line and no do-overs.
How well do you perform when your heart is pounding at 145+ beats per minute, your legs and arms are smoked and your mind is struggling to find the answer to the current problem? Test yourself and know that at that point, the head shot at 25 yards is stupid with that pocket pistol, or manageable with that shotgun. Know that your speed reload falls to pieces if you go too fast, so you can slow it down, take a breath and think through the problem. If you train through enough stressful situations, running as fast as you can, then you’ll find where you melt down and where you need to be to keep things running quickly but smoothly. One important point to remember is that “You can’t hit by missing.” This means that if you’re going to miss, slow it down, correct it, move up, slow your heart and breathing or just man up and dig deep and do whatever needs to happen to get the job done right.
But don’t go faster than you can. I learned this lesson crystal clear when I was about 15 years old. I remember expending an entire 20 round magazine at a full-size steel through my rifle at 200 yards and never once hitting it because I was frustrated and was shooting way too fast; a shot that I should have hit the first time if I had slowed myself down a couple seconds. This was a stupid mistake that could have meant taking an innocent life through negligence down range on the day, because every missed round is a liability. But the point here is that if you shoot, move or operate too fast for your level, you’re doing no one any good. So if you find yourself missing, slow it down and get your hits. Again, this comes back to knowing your limits. Don’t go faster than you can on the street, means that you hit that failure point on the range, in training, so you won’t make that mistake on The Day. So where are your limits? Do you know them? Do you know if you can hit that half a head hiding behind your best friend when he/she becomes a hostage? It’s all on you.
Train hard. Fight harder. Live for God and do your best; leave the results to Him because they are His anyway. Love those you should and be ready to kill those who need to die. And always know your limits.
https://survivalblog.com/know-your-limits-by-molon-labe/
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Saturday, February 20, 2016
How to survive a roadblock ambush
Surviving an Expedient Ambush Roadblock While Traveling by Vehicle, by M.W.
In the days following a societal collapse, there will be some people who will be on the move from where the problems exist to where they hope safety lies. There can be many reasons why people are on the move, and an equal number of reasons why someone else may wish to stop your progress. Getting on the move and out of a hostile area as early as possible in the wake of a collapse is a significant key to one’s survival, as well has having buddies to cover you during your travel.
The sooner you get on the road, the less your chances of encountering problems. A few people will recognize the early signs of collapse and get moving out of town long before traffic becomes a problem. Others will recognize the issue within twenty-four hours after the event takes place, and will be on the leading edge of the traffic during the exodus. The majority will not realize the seriousness until it is too late. These people will get caught-up in the traffic jam that will rival the exodus of Houston during Hurricane Rita, where I-45 and I-10 were packed full of cars stopped on the highway for 100 miles. Many people ran out of gas on the side of the road and found themselves without food or water since they had only moved a few miles in four hours.
You may be a well prepared family, but for one reason or another are caught on your heals when a collapse occurs. This leads you to stay put longer than you would have liked, but you have no better tactical choices but to lay low at home or work for a few days before bugging out. You do not want to get caught in a highway traffic jam following a collapse. If you get stuck, you will have to leave most of what you packed into your vehicle(s) and move out on foot amongst the thousands of ill-prepared people on the roads doing things they would never have considered during normal times.
Those who are forced to wait out the initial exodus and are moving out of urban areas several days or weeks after the collapse will have a higher probability of coming in contact with an expedient ambush roadblock, both in the city and on rural roads outside of small towns. An expedient ambush roadblock is one set-up in haste with readily available materials and personnel. There will be plenty of desperate people who were caught unprepared for such an event; their lack of morals and innate nature to survive will drive them to take from others, with deadly force if necessary. It is your job to protect your family and yourself from these threats, especially when on the move.
While traveling in a vehicle on the roads, you may encounter various types of roadblocks or ambush points. Some may be fairly elaborate, while others may be quite simple. All are equally deadly. The primary tactic you will need to thread your way safely through one of these expedient ambush roadblocks is what I call R.O.C.S.: Recognition, Observation, Covering Fire, and Speed.
Recognition:
Recognizing that something you see ahead is a potential ambush site is the first key to success. An ambush site can appear as a traffic accident (as illustrated in Patriots), a fallen tree near or on the road, abandoned/broken down vehicles, anything blocking all or part of the road, detours, refugees, high ground on one or both sides of the road, bridges, and anything that looks like it does not belong on, or near, a road. These are the types of expedient ambush sites that someone may quickly create in the days following a societal collapse. It is up to whomever is leading, to recognize that a potential exists and to move into the observation phase.
Observation:
Once you recognize a likely ambush point (LAP), you have two choices: divert your course and completely avoid the circumstance, or observe and evaluate the site. You can either stop well short of the potential ambush point and observe through a scope or binoculars, or have a passenger continue to observe while on the move. Observation is a form of Intel. Look for signs of movement, or things that seem out of place. Reverse what you see and put yourself in the place of the ambusher. Where would you hide? How would you set it up? How many people would you need to pull off an ambush? What weapons would you use? What tactics would you employ? What is your end game?
At this point, you need to determine if what you see is worth the risk of approach or if you need to turn around and find a different route (if possible). Anyone traveling with you should also evaluate the situation and help with risk assessment. Once a decision is made to approach and pass the observed site, cover[ing fire] is needed.
Covering Fire:
This is a two or more person/vehicle job. This means that if it is just you, your wife and the kids, that you need to move out of town in two vehicles. Hopefully you have friends traveling with you to a new location who also have a vehicle and weapons. For [over watching] cover[ing fire] during the operation, the lead vehicle stops at a distance from the LAP that is within the range of the weapon being employed. For most weapon platforms a good distance is 100-300 yards. This ensures accurate shots and plenty of ballistic energy. The lead vehicle should place their vehicle at a 45-degree angle to the direction of travel and the weapon system should then be employed across the hood so that the engine block provides a [limited] ballistic shield for those person(s) providing cover[ing fire].
The trailing vehicles should move past the lead vehicle with Speed. Once beyond the LAP, those vehicles stop and provide cover for the other vehicle(s) yet to pass through the site. Again, the vehicles that have already passed the LAP should stop within range of the weapon(s) being employed and turn their vehicles 45-degrees to the road and take personal cover behind the engine, covering the passage of the trailing vehicles.
[JWR Adds: The concept of covering fire is actually better termed suppressive fire. The term “cover”, properly, only applies to barriers that provide ballistic protection to those behind them. So “covering fire” does not provide cover, nor concealment, only suppression!]
Speed:
Passing through the LAP with adequate speed, and setting up a covering position on the far side for the trailing vehicles as fast as possible is key to minimizing exposure for all concerned. You do not want to drive so fast that you could lose control of your vehicle if you suddenly had to swerve or take significant evasive action.
Having short-range communications for these types of situations is also a smart idea. This can be done with CB radios, or inexpensive GMRS/eXRS two-way radios. Radios will be especially helpful during nighttime operations of this type. When the lead vehicle can communicate to trailing vehicle(s) that there is a LAP ahead, this can start a desired chain reaction that can significantly increase the odds of surviving one of these situations. Communications can also be an aid when the lead vehicle passes an unseen ambush point and can radio a warning to following vehicles, which can immediately render covering fire and/or take evasive actions.
The following is a fictitious scenario using all of the aforementioned, with three families in three vehicles approaching a potential ambush site seen from one mile away. The cars are traveling 200 yards apart. (After the SHTF, when traveling by foot or vehicle, travel should always be conducted in tactical columns, where a specified distance is maintained between people or vehicles. Staying too close together and/or tailgating are unacceptable risks after SHTF, when traveling.)
Lead vehicle (vehicle 1): “LAP ahead, one mile”
Trailing vehicles stop in place, while vehicle 1 moves forward another 1/2-mile and evaluates the LAP. The lead vehicle stops and uses 10×50 binoculars to scan the area. No movement is noticed, but it looks like a large tree was dropped across one lane of the highway. The base is obviously recently cut, and there are no other dead trees nearby. The leaves still have a greenish tint and have not yet browned, but are wilted.
Lead vehicle radios the trailing vehicles: “No movement seen, there is a way past the LAP on the opposite shoulder and grass. Watch the tree line on the right side of the road. Lots of dense cover there. We will move ahead to 200 yards and set-up.”
The lead vehicle approaches slowly to within 200 yards while the trailing vehicles move to within ½ mile away. The lead vehicle stops in the road and turns to 45-degrees to the direction of travel and both occupants exit the drivers side and set up across the hood with their AR-10 rifles with ACOG scopes.
Lead vehicle radios the trailing vehicles: “Go!”
The first trailing vehicle (vehicle 2) gets up to speed and approaches the LAP while the lead vehicle continues to scan the LAP through their scopes, ready to fire upon any threat. The vehicle passes the LAP with no problems and goes 200 yards beyond and sets up an over watch position on the other side, careful to orient themselves so as not to fire upon the vehicles on the other side. They are covering with scoped AR-10s scanning the LAP.
Vehicle 2 radios: “We are through and set up. Go!”
While vehicles 1 and 2 maintain covering positions, the last vehicle (vehicle 3) gets up to speed and starts to pass the LAP. As they do so, gunfire erupts from the tree line (in this instance, the ambushers were caught unaware by the first vehicle and were alert when the next one came through.) Vehicles 1 and 2 open fire on the tree line, while the passenger in vehicle 3 opens fire while passing the ambush. Once beyond the ambush point, vehicle 3 sets up 220 yards on the other side of the ambush to the rear and right of vehicle 2, and provides covering fire along with vehicle 2.
Vehicle 3 radios: “We’re set. Covering. No fire from the trees. Go!”
Vehicle 1 remounts and charges through the ambush point with no gunfire coming from the tree line. They drive beyond the other two vehicles and all personnel remount their vehicles and resume their travels.
At this point, it would be wise to find a secure place to stop and evaluate your persons and vehicles. You don’t need to stop all jumbled together, especially if there is more than one person per vehicle and everyone has a radio. Each vehicle stops a couple hundred yards apart and while one person provides cover, the other goes over the vehicle and passengers, looking for trouble.
You would want to check the tires, engine soft points (hoses, belts, etc.) and look for leaks (anti-freeze, fuel, oil, hydraulic fluid, etc.) Be sure to check each other carefully as adrenaline will be high and a person who has been shot or injured may not feel a wound at this point. Address any issues as quickly as possible and continue moving.
Other Considerations
Stopping to evaluate and/or cover a position may not be advisable in some circumstances. You do the best you can at evaluating while on the move, radioing your findings to your travel companions, and then pushing through. This is where speed comes in to play. The faster you can get through the LAP the better your chances of survival. Your passenger (if you have one) helps with navigation, assessing threats, and provides cover during the encounter.
Choosing weapons is always a difficult decision, especially if you are going to be defending your life with them. For situations such as the one presented above, the longer the effective range of the weapon, the further away you can stay from the LAP, increasing your chances of survival. You must also consider that just because you can easily shoot a M1A or even a .50 Barrett, your wife or teenager may not be able to adequately handle such a weapon in a life-or-death cover fire situation. [So a .223, 5.45×39, or 7.62x39mm rifle may be more apropos.]
Having a scope on your weapon will also increase your shot accuracy and your ability to observe the area for movement while your weapon system is employed. We all want to be accurate with open sights at long ranges, but if you are trying to hit the small exposed body part of a person behind cover at 250 meters, it is easier to find the body part to shoot at with a scope. People do not always present themselves as a nice squared-up silhouette like at a shooting range. When your target has taken cover, you may only get to see the top of a head, or part of an arm or leg. Putting a bullet in an extremity might not kill them, but it may take them out of the fight.
For night operations, having some form of night vision technology could become critical. These systems allow you to see through the darkness and into the darkest of shadows. Generation I systems are only adequate to about 50 meters and cost under $200. Generation I+ systems have a little more clarity and cost $300-500. Generation II and II+ systems can now be had for less than $1,000 new, and can be found cheaper from time to time in the used marketplace. These go up to $3,500 depending on features and manufacturer, and have a range from 100 to 200 meters with quite clear optics for the price. Generation III night vision has come down quite a bit and can be had for $3,500-$5,500. Personally, I cannot see enough difference between quality (with the exception of extended recognition range) of the Gen II and Gen III night vision to compel me to spend the extra $2,500+. There is also “Generation IV” night vision, which I know very little about. Prices seem to be in the $4,500-5,500 range. A Gen II, III, or IV night vision monocular could be a life saver, especially if you can get one that comes with an optional weapons mount.
https://survivalblog.com/surviving_an_expedient_ambush/
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Equip yourself for the troubled times ahead: The Tactical Patriot Store
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In the days following a societal collapse, there will be some people who will be on the move from where the problems exist to where they hope safety lies. There can be many reasons why people are on the move, and an equal number of reasons why someone else may wish to stop your progress. Getting on the move and out of a hostile area as early as possible in the wake of a collapse is a significant key to one’s survival, as well has having buddies to cover you during your travel.
The sooner you get on the road, the less your chances of encountering problems. A few people will recognize the early signs of collapse and get moving out of town long before traffic becomes a problem. Others will recognize the issue within twenty-four hours after the event takes place, and will be on the leading edge of the traffic during the exodus. The majority will not realize the seriousness until it is too late. These people will get caught-up in the traffic jam that will rival the exodus of Houston during Hurricane Rita, where I-45 and I-10 were packed full of cars stopped on the highway for 100 miles. Many people ran out of gas on the side of the road and found themselves without food or water since they had only moved a few miles in four hours.
You may be a well prepared family, but for one reason or another are caught on your heals when a collapse occurs. This leads you to stay put longer than you would have liked, but you have no better tactical choices but to lay low at home or work for a few days before bugging out. You do not want to get caught in a highway traffic jam following a collapse. If you get stuck, you will have to leave most of what you packed into your vehicle(s) and move out on foot amongst the thousands of ill-prepared people on the roads doing things they would never have considered during normal times.
Those who are forced to wait out the initial exodus and are moving out of urban areas several days or weeks after the collapse will have a higher probability of coming in contact with an expedient ambush roadblock, both in the city and on rural roads outside of small towns. An expedient ambush roadblock is one set-up in haste with readily available materials and personnel. There will be plenty of desperate people who were caught unprepared for such an event; their lack of morals and innate nature to survive will drive them to take from others, with deadly force if necessary. It is your job to protect your family and yourself from these threats, especially when on the move.
While traveling in a vehicle on the roads, you may encounter various types of roadblocks or ambush points. Some may be fairly elaborate, while others may be quite simple. All are equally deadly. The primary tactic you will need to thread your way safely through one of these expedient ambush roadblocks is what I call R.O.C.S.: Recognition, Observation, Covering Fire, and Speed.
Recognition:
Recognizing that something you see ahead is a potential ambush site is the first key to success. An ambush site can appear as a traffic accident (as illustrated in Patriots), a fallen tree near or on the road, abandoned/broken down vehicles, anything blocking all or part of the road, detours, refugees, high ground on one or both sides of the road, bridges, and anything that looks like it does not belong on, or near, a road. These are the types of expedient ambush sites that someone may quickly create in the days following a societal collapse. It is up to whomever is leading, to recognize that a potential exists and to move into the observation phase.
Observation:
Once you recognize a likely ambush point (LAP), you have two choices: divert your course and completely avoid the circumstance, or observe and evaluate the site. You can either stop well short of the potential ambush point and observe through a scope or binoculars, or have a passenger continue to observe while on the move. Observation is a form of Intel. Look for signs of movement, or things that seem out of place. Reverse what you see and put yourself in the place of the ambusher. Where would you hide? How would you set it up? How many people would you need to pull off an ambush? What weapons would you use? What tactics would you employ? What is your end game?
At this point, you need to determine if what you see is worth the risk of approach or if you need to turn around and find a different route (if possible). Anyone traveling with you should also evaluate the situation and help with risk assessment. Once a decision is made to approach and pass the observed site, cover[ing fire] is needed.
Covering Fire:
This is a two or more person/vehicle job. This means that if it is just you, your wife and the kids, that you need to move out of town in two vehicles. Hopefully you have friends traveling with you to a new location who also have a vehicle and weapons. For [over watching] cover[ing fire] during the operation, the lead vehicle stops at a distance from the LAP that is within the range of the weapon being employed. For most weapon platforms a good distance is 100-300 yards. This ensures accurate shots and plenty of ballistic energy. The lead vehicle should place their vehicle at a 45-degree angle to the direction of travel and the weapon system should then be employed across the hood so that the engine block provides a [limited] ballistic shield for those person(s) providing cover[ing fire].
The trailing vehicles should move past the lead vehicle with Speed. Once beyond the LAP, those vehicles stop and provide cover for the other vehicle(s) yet to pass through the site. Again, the vehicles that have already passed the LAP should stop within range of the weapon(s) being employed and turn their vehicles 45-degrees to the road and take personal cover behind the engine, covering the passage of the trailing vehicles.
[JWR Adds: The concept of covering fire is actually better termed suppressive fire. The term “cover”, properly, only applies to barriers that provide ballistic protection to those behind them. So “covering fire” does not provide cover, nor concealment, only suppression!]
Speed:
Passing through the LAP with adequate speed, and setting up a covering position on the far side for the trailing vehicles as fast as possible is key to minimizing exposure for all concerned. You do not want to drive so fast that you could lose control of your vehicle if you suddenly had to swerve or take significant evasive action.
Having short-range communications for these types of situations is also a smart idea. This can be done with CB radios, or inexpensive GMRS/eXRS two-way radios. Radios will be especially helpful during nighttime operations of this type. When the lead vehicle can communicate to trailing vehicle(s) that there is a LAP ahead, this can start a desired chain reaction that can significantly increase the odds of surviving one of these situations. Communications can also be an aid when the lead vehicle passes an unseen ambush point and can radio a warning to following vehicles, which can immediately render covering fire and/or take evasive actions.
The following is a fictitious scenario using all of the aforementioned, with three families in three vehicles approaching a potential ambush site seen from one mile away. The cars are traveling 200 yards apart. (After the SHTF, when traveling by foot or vehicle, travel should always be conducted in tactical columns, where a specified distance is maintained between people or vehicles. Staying too close together and/or tailgating are unacceptable risks after SHTF, when traveling.)
Lead vehicle (vehicle 1): “LAP ahead, one mile”
Trailing vehicles stop in place, while vehicle 1 moves forward another 1/2-mile and evaluates the LAP. The lead vehicle stops and uses 10×50 binoculars to scan the area. No movement is noticed, but it looks like a large tree was dropped across one lane of the highway. The base is obviously recently cut, and there are no other dead trees nearby. The leaves still have a greenish tint and have not yet browned, but are wilted.
Lead vehicle radios the trailing vehicles: “No movement seen, there is a way past the LAP on the opposite shoulder and grass. Watch the tree line on the right side of the road. Lots of dense cover there. We will move ahead to 200 yards and set-up.”
The lead vehicle approaches slowly to within 200 yards while the trailing vehicles move to within ½ mile away. The lead vehicle stops in the road and turns to 45-degrees to the direction of travel and both occupants exit the drivers side and set up across the hood with their AR-10 rifles with ACOG scopes.
Lead vehicle radios the trailing vehicles: “Go!”
The first trailing vehicle (vehicle 2) gets up to speed and approaches the LAP while the lead vehicle continues to scan the LAP through their scopes, ready to fire upon any threat. The vehicle passes the LAP with no problems and goes 200 yards beyond and sets up an over watch position on the other side, careful to orient themselves so as not to fire upon the vehicles on the other side. They are covering with scoped AR-10s scanning the LAP.
Vehicle 2 radios: “We are through and set up. Go!”
While vehicles 1 and 2 maintain covering positions, the last vehicle (vehicle 3) gets up to speed and starts to pass the LAP. As they do so, gunfire erupts from the tree line (in this instance, the ambushers were caught unaware by the first vehicle and were alert when the next one came through.) Vehicles 1 and 2 open fire on the tree line, while the passenger in vehicle 3 opens fire while passing the ambush. Once beyond the ambush point, vehicle 3 sets up 220 yards on the other side of the ambush to the rear and right of vehicle 2, and provides covering fire along with vehicle 2.
Vehicle 3 radios: “We’re set. Covering. No fire from the trees. Go!”
Vehicle 1 remounts and charges through the ambush point with no gunfire coming from the tree line. They drive beyond the other two vehicles and all personnel remount their vehicles and resume their travels.
At this point, it would be wise to find a secure place to stop and evaluate your persons and vehicles. You don’t need to stop all jumbled together, especially if there is more than one person per vehicle and everyone has a radio. Each vehicle stops a couple hundred yards apart and while one person provides cover, the other goes over the vehicle and passengers, looking for trouble.
You would want to check the tires, engine soft points (hoses, belts, etc.) and look for leaks (anti-freeze, fuel, oil, hydraulic fluid, etc.) Be sure to check each other carefully as adrenaline will be high and a person who has been shot or injured may not feel a wound at this point. Address any issues as quickly as possible and continue moving.
Other Considerations
Stopping to evaluate and/or cover a position may not be advisable in some circumstances. You do the best you can at evaluating while on the move, radioing your findings to your travel companions, and then pushing through. This is where speed comes in to play. The faster you can get through the LAP the better your chances of survival. Your passenger (if you have one) helps with navigation, assessing threats, and provides cover during the encounter.
Choosing weapons is always a difficult decision, especially if you are going to be defending your life with them. For situations such as the one presented above, the longer the effective range of the weapon, the further away you can stay from the LAP, increasing your chances of survival. You must also consider that just because you can easily shoot a M1A or even a .50 Barrett, your wife or teenager may not be able to adequately handle such a weapon in a life-or-death cover fire situation. [So a .223, 5.45×39, or 7.62x39mm rifle may be more apropos.]
Having a scope on your weapon will also increase your shot accuracy and your ability to observe the area for movement while your weapon system is employed. We all want to be accurate with open sights at long ranges, but if you are trying to hit the small exposed body part of a person behind cover at 250 meters, it is easier to find the body part to shoot at with a scope. People do not always present themselves as a nice squared-up silhouette like at a shooting range. When your target has taken cover, you may only get to see the top of a head, or part of an arm or leg. Putting a bullet in an extremity might not kill them, but it may take them out of the fight.
For night operations, having some form of night vision technology could become critical. These systems allow you to see through the darkness and into the darkest of shadows. Generation I systems are only adequate to about 50 meters and cost under $200. Generation I+ systems have a little more clarity and cost $300-500. Generation II and II+ systems can now be had for less than $1,000 new, and can be found cheaper from time to time in the used marketplace. These go up to $3,500 depending on features and manufacturer, and have a range from 100 to 200 meters with quite clear optics for the price. Generation III night vision has come down quite a bit and can be had for $3,500-$5,500. Personally, I cannot see enough difference between quality (with the exception of extended recognition range) of the Gen II and Gen III night vision to compel me to spend the extra $2,500+. There is also “Generation IV” night vision, which I know very little about. Prices seem to be in the $4,500-5,500 range. A Gen II, III, or IV night vision monocular could be a life saver, especially if you can get one that comes with an optional weapons mount.
https://survivalblog.com/surviving_an_expedient_ambush/
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Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Counter Ambush Tactics
Counter Ambush Tactics thanks to The Bunker
Are you an accident just waiting to happen by blindly walking into an ambush, or do you take the tactical “high ground” to avoid such an event?
Rarely do the “bad guys” announce their intended attack upon you. Rather, they lie in wait to seize the element of surprise. They pounce when you are least aware. A burglar creeping through your house won’'t turn on the lights or make unnecessary noise to give you a chance to arm yourself. A mugger won'’t stand in the middle of the sidewalk and risk you taking a detour away from the “fatal funnel.” And, you won'’t find a person about to carjack you leaning up against your car as you approach. Although many violent attacks occur as a result of an ambush, does your training include counter-ambush tactics?
It should. Most martial arts training start with two opponents facing each other and giving the proper salutations. Western boxers come up to each other before a bout and knock gloves together as a sign of good sportsmanship before the first round. Asian based fighters sharply bow or bring their hands together in a Yin Yang fashion then slip into a combative stance. European Fencers salute one another with their naked blades, as do Filipino Kali practitioners. Although this practice is very colorful and rich in tradition it can negatively condition fighters who are in it for purely survival reasons. Subconsciously this practice sends a message to the fighter that there is a preparatory period just prior to combat. To many my statement may sound ludicrous, but ANYTHING we do in training can carry over into actual combat. Let me give you a startling example.
In law enforcement training many Defensive Tactics (hand-to-hand combat) programs use a hard plastic red colored handgun when practicing gun retention techniques, car stops or subject stops (police contact with a person or arrests). The “red guns” are used in place of real firearms to avoid a possible Negligent Discharge (ND). They are red so that at first glance everyone involved in the training knows that they are a training tool and not the real thing. Using real firearms is also a common practice, but it requires weapon safety checks, and marking the barrel with colored tape. The colored guns makes for an overall safer training environment. However, after repeated use of these colored replicas many officers became so conditioned to the red color that on occasion, actors who played the role of the contactee (the person being stopped by the police) pulled out a red wallet or other red object and suddenly found themselves being “shot.” Why? because, the officers associated the color red with a threat. It'’s for this very reason that many agencies paint their training guns black or silver, or buy products that are already colored similar to that of actual firearms.
Rituals in training, salutations before combative encounters, are very much like the conditioning of the red guns. Although innocent at first, they can lock a person into a potentially dangerous behavioral pattern. In this article we will examine training methods that will prepare you for sudden violent ambushes. Before the ambush Throughout my law enforcement career, and even today in my current duties, one of my biggest concerns is walking into an ambush. Just last year an officer in my department was killed in an ambush. A man armed with an AK47 assault rifle waited at a mini market frequented by police officers. When the officer drove up to get a cup of coffee the suspect came out of the store and sprayed the patrol car with bullets. The officer never had a chance to exit his vehicle. He was cut down before he knew what hit him. However, you don'’t have to be wearing a uniform to walk into the center of an ambush. If you'’re not paying attention you can end up walking into a store or a bank and find yourself right in the middle of a robbery as you are doing your errands; many people have.
Whenever you are going up to an ATM machine, inside a bank, airport, or other potential “targets” you should always observe the surroundings as you make your approach. For example, as you walk up to a liquor store you should scan the immediate area for suspicious vehicles. If somebody is in a vehicle nearby the exit with the engine running it could possible be a “getaway car”. Another telltale sign of a crime in progress, or about to occur, is someone “posted” on the inside who is nervously watching the door and parking lot. This person could be a “lookout” for the accomplices inside.
A few years ago, while off duty, my wife and I were about to enter a drug store for some eye infection medication. As we were about to enter through the double doors I noticed a young woman holding the electronic doors open by standing still in the sensor area. At first I thought she was just being polite and holding the doors open for us, but it soon was apparent that she was looking past us and nervously scanning the parking lot. I sensed that something was wrong and grabbed my wife'’s arm to pull her back. Just then two men jumped the store guardrails and were about to run right over the top of us. They had just committed a commercial burglary and were making their escape. Without thinking I pushed my wife aside, sidestepped, and purposely tripped the first suspect with a sweep. The case of beers that the suspect was clutching onto tumbled in front end over end of him on the sidewalk as he skidded to a stop on his palms. The second suspect in hot pursuit leaped over his fallen partner in crime like a clumsy hurdle runner, then turned around to “take care” of me. I pulled my concealed pistol from my pancake holster and ordered him to stop. The surprised attacker, dressed in gang attire, decided that dying for a few beers was not worth it, turned and fled, leaving his accomplices. In the commotion the other two scurried off. I wasn’'t about to stop them without a radio, vest, or back up. Plus, a violent encounter was not worth it for some stolen bottles, and my wife standing next to me. I decided to be a good witness instead. When approaching, or walking through a potential ambush area, always follow the first tactical rule – Stop, Look, Listen. In my example of the drug store incident, the moment I sensed something “unusual” or “out of place” I stopped, I looked, and I only had a split second to decide what I was going to do when the two men came running at me. Had I not been paying attention as I was walking to the entrance of the store the thieves would have plowed me and my wife over.
Whether you’'re in a military unit walking through hostile territory or you are walking through a dark city alley, you should stop, look and listen every few minutes, even if there is no apparent danger. If is quiet, move on. If you hear or see something, prepare yourself. Stop, Look, Listen exercises In the Australian military manual, Patrolling and Tracking, Section 5 No. 74 it reads, “Patrol leaders must try to anticipate where contact with the enemy (ambush) is probable. Action to be taken must be planned and rehearsed before the patrol moves out.” In a martial arts training environment you can do a simple exercise that will help you learn to “anticipate” contact with the “enemy.”
I call this exercise Walking the Gauntlet. It will develop alertness, mobility, and attack. Have several participants line up, spread out evenly, on each side of the room facing inward. Place a student (the trainee) in the middle of the two lines and have him or her walk down the center through the two lines. Prior to conducting the exercise the trainee faces the wall as the instructor selects a couple of attackers on each side of the line. Each trainee that will walk through the Gauntlet will receive a different configuration of attackers. The trainee is then told to turn around and walk through the midst of the participants. The trainee, unaware of who was selected for the attack, cautiously moves through the “crowd” until a noise or aggressive movement from one of the selected attackers catches his or her attention. The trainee quickly defends against the sudden attack. After the appropriate action has been taken against the attacker (be it knife defense training, hand-to-hand, etc.), the trainee returns to the place where the attacked had just occurred, and picks up where they left off to walk the rest of the Gauntlet.
I do this exercise often to prepare police officers for walking through agitated crowds, such as parties, labor strikes, bars, etc. Not everyone in a crowd is going to jump you, but you have to be prepared for those few who might. It makes for a very nervous trainee, but it helps them get use to possible ambushes. Attack the attacker In an ambush the ambusher has the tactical advantage. Whether it’s a military operation or a crook waiting to jump you, the ambusher will have done their homework prior to the attack; they will have studied the terrain in which you will pass, note the fields of fire and observation, cover, concealment, obstacles, and avenues of approach and withdrawal. Then, when you come walking into the “killing zone” the attack is launched. In the case of an attempted rape, robbery, or other criminal assault the ambush will be what we call a “near ambush.” In other words, the attack is right on top of you, as opposed to a “far ambush” such as a sniper attack. In a near assault the US military teaches its personnel to attack the enemy if caught in an ambush. By doing an immediate action drill, suddenly counterattacking the enemy even under concentrated close-range fire, moves you out of the killing zone, and prevents other ambushers from closing in on you.
Although each incident must be weighed separately, most criminals expect their victims to comply when faced with the threat of violence or with violence itself. Whenever you submit to a criminal you can never know the outcome. You are at the mercy of the criminal. Although fighting back can get you hurt, a sudden violent counterattack may catch the attacker off guard affording you the opportunity to move out of the “killing zone.” In any ambush the natural instinct is to take cover and save your skin. However, that’'s exactly what the enemy is hoping for and picks you off as you cower in a defensive position. For survival, sometimes you must go opposite your instincts and meet the danger head on.
As the famous Chinese guerilla fighter, Mao Tse-tung, once said, “In every apparent disadvantage, some advantage is to be found.” When I am training correctional personnel how to survive a jail or prison riot, I purposely put them at a disadvantage in order for them to find some advantage. I have an exercise where I simulate a worst-case scenario – a group of hostile inmates have blocked the escape route for the correction staff. The natural tendency is for officers to separate from one another and push directly to the exit or to huddle in a corner and fight defensively. However, these methods are almost always doomed to failure. The proper tactic is to stick together and follow a wall so the inmates cannot come up from behind. In order to have a chance of getting out they have to move together as a group and violently push through. To do the exercise I usually put five officers on one side of a room (fitted with protective gear) and seven “inmates” (also geared up) on the other side of the room blocking the exit. The goal of the exercise is to move as a team and get all five officers past the inmates and out the door. Students learn very quickly that if they do not push for the door and attack the inmates with what the Marines call “violence of action,” they never make it to safety. Of course this exercise can carry over into civilian applications, such as training your family to stick together and push through as a unit. Think like the crook Of course, to outsmart an ambusher you have to think like one. When you walk anywhere, especially high-risk areas, you should always ask yourself these questions:
1. Where would someone most likely be hiding?
2. Should an attack occur where are my avenues of escape?
3. What would the best tactics be – counterattack, submit, run?
A good exercise to run, in order to sharpen your reaction skills in sudden ambush situations, is an exercise I named Door number 1, 2 or 3. Stack cardboard boxes up vertically to create a few “walls” the attacker can hide behind, or hang a few sheets of black painters plastic from the ceiling to the floor. As the trainee makes their way from one end of the room to the other, the attacker lies in wait behind one of the walls. When the trainee comes within range, the attacker, or attackers (it’'s good to sometimes have multiple attackers) launch an attack; be it a hold-up, knife attack, a fist fight, or whatever other realistic simulation you can come up with.
The trainee will soon learn some valuable lessons in avoiding, or reducing the consequences of an ambush:
1. When turning corners, make wide turns to give more reaction time.
2. Use “noise discipline” (don'’t make noise) as you approach a hostile area, so the bad guy can’'t hear you coming.
3. Anticipate likely hiding areas that an attacker may take.
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Are you an accident just waiting to happen by blindly walking into an ambush, or do you take the tactical “high ground” to avoid such an event?
Rarely do the “bad guys” announce their intended attack upon you. Rather, they lie in wait to seize the element of surprise. They pounce when you are least aware. A burglar creeping through your house won’'t turn on the lights or make unnecessary noise to give you a chance to arm yourself. A mugger won'’t stand in the middle of the sidewalk and risk you taking a detour away from the “fatal funnel.” And, you won'’t find a person about to carjack you leaning up against your car as you approach. Although many violent attacks occur as a result of an ambush, does your training include counter-ambush tactics?
It should. Most martial arts training start with two opponents facing each other and giving the proper salutations. Western boxers come up to each other before a bout and knock gloves together as a sign of good sportsmanship before the first round. Asian based fighters sharply bow or bring their hands together in a Yin Yang fashion then slip into a combative stance. European Fencers salute one another with their naked blades, as do Filipino Kali practitioners. Although this practice is very colorful and rich in tradition it can negatively condition fighters who are in it for purely survival reasons. Subconsciously this practice sends a message to the fighter that there is a preparatory period just prior to combat. To many my statement may sound ludicrous, but ANYTHING we do in training can carry over into actual combat. Let me give you a startling example.
In law enforcement training many Defensive Tactics (hand-to-hand combat) programs use a hard plastic red colored handgun when practicing gun retention techniques, car stops or subject stops (police contact with a person or arrests). The “red guns” are used in place of real firearms to avoid a possible Negligent Discharge (ND). They are red so that at first glance everyone involved in the training knows that they are a training tool and not the real thing. Using real firearms is also a common practice, but it requires weapon safety checks, and marking the barrel with colored tape. The colored guns makes for an overall safer training environment. However, after repeated use of these colored replicas many officers became so conditioned to the red color that on occasion, actors who played the role of the contactee (the person being stopped by the police) pulled out a red wallet or other red object and suddenly found themselves being “shot.” Why? because, the officers associated the color red with a threat. It'’s for this very reason that many agencies paint their training guns black or silver, or buy products that are already colored similar to that of actual firearms.
Rituals in training, salutations before combative encounters, are very much like the conditioning of the red guns. Although innocent at first, they can lock a person into a potentially dangerous behavioral pattern. In this article we will examine training methods that will prepare you for sudden violent ambushes. Before the ambush Throughout my law enforcement career, and even today in my current duties, one of my biggest concerns is walking into an ambush. Just last year an officer in my department was killed in an ambush. A man armed with an AK47 assault rifle waited at a mini market frequented by police officers. When the officer drove up to get a cup of coffee the suspect came out of the store and sprayed the patrol car with bullets. The officer never had a chance to exit his vehicle. He was cut down before he knew what hit him. However, you don'’t have to be wearing a uniform to walk into the center of an ambush. If you'’re not paying attention you can end up walking into a store or a bank and find yourself right in the middle of a robbery as you are doing your errands; many people have.
Whenever you are going up to an ATM machine, inside a bank, airport, or other potential “targets” you should always observe the surroundings as you make your approach. For example, as you walk up to a liquor store you should scan the immediate area for suspicious vehicles. If somebody is in a vehicle nearby the exit with the engine running it could possible be a “getaway car”. Another telltale sign of a crime in progress, or about to occur, is someone “posted” on the inside who is nervously watching the door and parking lot. This person could be a “lookout” for the accomplices inside.
A few years ago, while off duty, my wife and I were about to enter a drug store for some eye infection medication. As we were about to enter through the double doors I noticed a young woman holding the electronic doors open by standing still in the sensor area. At first I thought she was just being polite and holding the doors open for us, but it soon was apparent that she was looking past us and nervously scanning the parking lot. I sensed that something was wrong and grabbed my wife'’s arm to pull her back. Just then two men jumped the store guardrails and were about to run right over the top of us. They had just committed a commercial burglary and were making their escape. Without thinking I pushed my wife aside, sidestepped, and purposely tripped the first suspect with a sweep. The case of beers that the suspect was clutching onto tumbled in front end over end of him on the sidewalk as he skidded to a stop on his palms. The second suspect in hot pursuit leaped over his fallen partner in crime like a clumsy hurdle runner, then turned around to “take care” of me. I pulled my concealed pistol from my pancake holster and ordered him to stop. The surprised attacker, dressed in gang attire, decided that dying for a few beers was not worth it, turned and fled, leaving his accomplices. In the commotion the other two scurried off. I wasn’'t about to stop them without a radio, vest, or back up. Plus, a violent encounter was not worth it for some stolen bottles, and my wife standing next to me. I decided to be a good witness instead. When approaching, or walking through a potential ambush area, always follow the first tactical rule – Stop, Look, Listen. In my example of the drug store incident, the moment I sensed something “unusual” or “out of place” I stopped, I looked, and I only had a split second to decide what I was going to do when the two men came running at me. Had I not been paying attention as I was walking to the entrance of the store the thieves would have plowed me and my wife over.
Whether you’'re in a military unit walking through hostile territory or you are walking through a dark city alley, you should stop, look and listen every few minutes, even if there is no apparent danger. If is quiet, move on. If you hear or see something, prepare yourself. Stop, Look, Listen exercises In the Australian military manual, Patrolling and Tracking, Section 5 No. 74 it reads, “Patrol leaders must try to anticipate where contact with the enemy (ambush) is probable. Action to be taken must be planned and rehearsed before the patrol moves out.” In a martial arts training environment you can do a simple exercise that will help you learn to “anticipate” contact with the “enemy.”
I call this exercise Walking the Gauntlet. It will develop alertness, mobility, and attack. Have several participants line up, spread out evenly, on each side of the room facing inward. Place a student (the trainee) in the middle of the two lines and have him or her walk down the center through the two lines. Prior to conducting the exercise the trainee faces the wall as the instructor selects a couple of attackers on each side of the line. Each trainee that will walk through the Gauntlet will receive a different configuration of attackers. The trainee is then told to turn around and walk through the midst of the participants. The trainee, unaware of who was selected for the attack, cautiously moves through the “crowd” until a noise or aggressive movement from one of the selected attackers catches his or her attention. The trainee quickly defends against the sudden attack. After the appropriate action has been taken against the attacker (be it knife defense training, hand-to-hand, etc.), the trainee returns to the place where the attacked had just occurred, and picks up where they left off to walk the rest of the Gauntlet.
I do this exercise often to prepare police officers for walking through agitated crowds, such as parties, labor strikes, bars, etc. Not everyone in a crowd is going to jump you, but you have to be prepared for those few who might. It makes for a very nervous trainee, but it helps them get use to possible ambushes. Attack the attacker In an ambush the ambusher has the tactical advantage. Whether it’s a military operation or a crook waiting to jump you, the ambusher will have done their homework prior to the attack; they will have studied the terrain in which you will pass, note the fields of fire and observation, cover, concealment, obstacles, and avenues of approach and withdrawal. Then, when you come walking into the “killing zone” the attack is launched. In the case of an attempted rape, robbery, or other criminal assault the ambush will be what we call a “near ambush.” In other words, the attack is right on top of you, as opposed to a “far ambush” such as a sniper attack. In a near assault the US military teaches its personnel to attack the enemy if caught in an ambush. By doing an immediate action drill, suddenly counterattacking the enemy even under concentrated close-range fire, moves you out of the killing zone, and prevents other ambushers from closing in on you.
Although each incident must be weighed separately, most criminals expect their victims to comply when faced with the threat of violence or with violence itself. Whenever you submit to a criminal you can never know the outcome. You are at the mercy of the criminal. Although fighting back can get you hurt, a sudden violent counterattack may catch the attacker off guard affording you the opportunity to move out of the “killing zone.” In any ambush the natural instinct is to take cover and save your skin. However, that’'s exactly what the enemy is hoping for and picks you off as you cower in a defensive position. For survival, sometimes you must go opposite your instincts and meet the danger head on.
As the famous Chinese guerilla fighter, Mao Tse-tung, once said, “In every apparent disadvantage, some advantage is to be found.” When I am training correctional personnel how to survive a jail or prison riot, I purposely put them at a disadvantage in order for them to find some advantage. I have an exercise where I simulate a worst-case scenario – a group of hostile inmates have blocked the escape route for the correction staff. The natural tendency is for officers to separate from one another and push directly to the exit or to huddle in a corner and fight defensively. However, these methods are almost always doomed to failure. The proper tactic is to stick together and follow a wall so the inmates cannot come up from behind. In order to have a chance of getting out they have to move together as a group and violently push through. To do the exercise I usually put five officers on one side of a room (fitted with protective gear) and seven “inmates” (also geared up) on the other side of the room blocking the exit. The goal of the exercise is to move as a team and get all five officers past the inmates and out the door. Students learn very quickly that if they do not push for the door and attack the inmates with what the Marines call “violence of action,” they never make it to safety. Of course this exercise can carry over into civilian applications, such as training your family to stick together and push through as a unit. Think like the crook Of course, to outsmart an ambusher you have to think like one. When you walk anywhere, especially high-risk areas, you should always ask yourself these questions:
1. Where would someone most likely be hiding?
2. Should an attack occur where are my avenues of escape?
3. What would the best tactics be – counterattack, submit, run?
A good exercise to run, in order to sharpen your reaction skills in sudden ambush situations, is an exercise I named Door number 1, 2 or 3. Stack cardboard boxes up vertically to create a few “walls” the attacker can hide behind, or hang a few sheets of black painters plastic from the ceiling to the floor. As the trainee makes their way from one end of the room to the other, the attacker lies in wait behind one of the walls. When the trainee comes within range, the attacker, or attackers (it’'s good to sometimes have multiple attackers) launch an attack; be it a hold-up, knife attack, a fist fight, or whatever other realistic simulation you can come up with.
The trainee will soon learn some valuable lessons in avoiding, or reducing the consequences of an ambush:
1. When turning corners, make wide turns to give more reaction time.
2. Use “noise discipline” (don'’t make noise) as you approach a hostile area, so the bad guy can’'t hear you coming.
3. Anticipate likely hiding areas that an attacker may take.
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Monday, December 21, 2015
Contact from Multiple Firing Points
I noticed this article by Max and thought it would be really good information to pass on to the people that read this blog. I hope you do not mind, but this is an article and video from Max Velocity.
Contact from Multiple Firing Points
Posted by Max Velocity in Tactical Comment, Uncategorized on December 16 2015
I sometimes get questions about Break Contact Drills, and what to do if the contact is from multiple directions. We do practice some scenarios like this on the Combat Patrol (CP) class, which take the drills beyond what we do on the Combat Team Tactics (CTT) Class. There are really two types of break contact drills:
1) Patrol immediate action drills, that happen automatically to the call of contact (direction). These drills are briefed /rehearsed as SOP prior to departing on the patrol.
2) Squad/platoon leader decision to break contact depending on the situation.
In the case of (1), the implementation of the immediate break contact drill does not preclude the leader stepping in and changing the plan once the drill has begun to flow, and in the light of a developing situation. In the case of (2) the drill does not occur until decided upon by the leader, in line with a plan developed as a result of a combat estimate (on the fly). An example would be an attempted hasty attack that becomes bogged due to an incorrect assessment of enemy strength, when a break contact may be called.
Given ‘a video paints a thousand words’ I am posting the video below, which illustrates a number of these points, and shows how a section commander (squad leader) will react to the developing situation. This is not a ‘break contact drill’ per se, it is in fact an attempt to reduce the enemy within the framework of a developing contact. However, you can see illustrated some of the techniques of maneuver and break contact, such as the peel, being put to use to maneuver on the battlefield.
You can see the contact develop from multiple directions and how the section commander (great job by the young leader) maneuvers his section (squad) as the situation develops. This relies on the training of his men so they all know what he means when he wants them to maneuver. In this way, basic fire and movement drills, such as bounding and peeling, are used to maneuver the squad to various parts of the battlefield both into and out of contact.
The video also gives a general impression of the range, pace and feeling of these types of situations. It is not all 100mph with massive amounts of enemy fire coming at you. There is time to think. The importance is in maintaining momentum by continuing suppressive fire as you maneuver. I often stress one of the hardest things to do is locate the enemy. You see this in the video, in particular where new firing points open up. You cannot suppress until you can locate, and then put accurate fire down onto the enemy to change his behavior (suppress him).
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Contact from Multiple Firing Points
Posted by Max Velocity in Tactical Comment, Uncategorized on December 16 2015
I sometimes get questions about Break Contact Drills, and what to do if the contact is from multiple directions. We do practice some scenarios like this on the Combat Patrol (CP) class, which take the drills beyond what we do on the Combat Team Tactics (CTT) Class. There are really two types of break contact drills:
1) Patrol immediate action drills, that happen automatically to the call of contact (direction). These drills are briefed /rehearsed as SOP prior to departing on the patrol.
2) Squad/platoon leader decision to break contact depending on the situation.
In the case of (1), the implementation of the immediate break contact drill does not preclude the leader stepping in and changing the plan once the drill has begun to flow, and in the light of a developing situation. In the case of (2) the drill does not occur until decided upon by the leader, in line with a plan developed as a result of a combat estimate (on the fly). An example would be an attempted hasty attack that becomes bogged due to an incorrect assessment of enemy strength, when a break contact may be called.
Given ‘a video paints a thousand words’ I am posting the video below, which illustrates a number of these points, and shows how a section commander (squad leader) will react to the developing situation. This is not a ‘break contact drill’ per se, it is in fact an attempt to reduce the enemy within the framework of a developing contact. However, you can see illustrated some of the techniques of maneuver and break contact, such as the peel, being put to use to maneuver on the battlefield.
You can see the contact develop from multiple directions and how the section commander (great job by the young leader) maneuvers his section (squad) as the situation develops. This relies on the training of his men so they all know what he means when he wants them to maneuver. In this way, basic fire and movement drills, such as bounding and peeling, are used to maneuver the squad to various parts of the battlefield both into and out of contact.
The video also gives a general impression of the range, pace and feeling of these types of situations. It is not all 100mph with massive amounts of enemy fire coming at you. There is time to think. The importance is in maintaining momentum by continuing suppressive fire as you maneuver. I often stress one of the hardest things to do is locate the enemy. You see this in the video, in particular where new firing points open up. You cannot suppress until you can locate, and then put accurate fire down onto the enemy to change his behavior (suppress him).
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Thursday, June 20, 2013
Tactical Use of Terrain/Ground
By: Max Velocity
I am going to concentrate on the offense. Mainly because I have covered defense, types of terrain and the principles of defense in detail in 'Contact' and although I have covered offense, there is more detail that can be gone into about use of ground in the assault, rather than just the mechanics of an assault. I have also covered use of terrain for navigation and movement, which is itself a separate topic. So for now, I will hone in on offense and use as a vehicle for the discussion either hasty or deliberate attacks (or raids) to go through a terrain analysis process.
Straight up I am going to launch into one of the old faithful U.S. Army mnemonics. These are all well and good as an aide memoir but must be understood rather than trotted out as a standard answer (METT-TC anyone?) A standard approach that you may find useful is to use the mnemonic OCOKA:
O – Observation and Fields of Fire
C – Cover and Concealment
O - Obstacles
K – Key Terrain
A – Avenues of Approach
If you are attacking, you will need to consider these from the point of view of the enemy position you are attacking i.e. what are the enemy's observation and fields of fire from their position....? How will I apply that to a covered approach?
OK, after my foray into standard U.S. Army doctrine, moving swiftly on:
When considering terrain, or as I prefer to say, ground, you must consider it in conjunction with the enemy. Thus you do not think about ground as its own thing, but as enemy/ground (enemy & ground). You will then relate that to your position. It is a spacial relation and application of fire problem that is up to you to solve. The position of the enemy on the ground, related to the position of friendly forces and how the lay of the land falls between the two will inform your decision making.
I have put in a chapter on the 'Combat Estimate' in 'Contact': this is a planning tool that also acts as a 'mental trainer' for real situation when you don't have time to actually conduct a written estimate. It follows the process of going though factors such as enemy/ground and making decisions that will lead to potential 'courses of action' and finally a plan. Such a tool can be used in slower time when planning a deliberate attack/raid or off the cuff if engaged in a reaction to contact and hasty attack.
(I do cover MDMP, mainly as an explanation of what it is, and then I largely steer clear of it. My advice: once you get a basic understanding, stay largely away from set military doctrine i.e. trotting out the old faithful key words and mnemonics, it will bog you down. Free your mind!)
Dead Ground: this is a positional concept that applies to ground that cannot be seen from a position i.e. it is not covered by observation or direct fire from the enemy position. In a macro sense, I can't see the valley behind the ridge, so that is 'dead ground' to me. This dead ground concept is really important and goes to cover and concealment. You must try to develop a 'soldier’s eye for the ground' which basically means that when you view terrain, it’s not pretty, it's a relationship of slopes and angles that will either provide cover or it will not. In the micro sense, you can apply the concept of dead ground as related to the enemy position and your position. A simple angled slope may therefore provide you cover, and thus be dead ground from the enemy perspective. Even if it is only useful if you are in a low crawl, it may be the difference between life and death.
Cover & Concealment: Cover will protect you from enemy fire and observation (i.e. in a ditch) while concealment will only protect you from enemy observation, (i.e. behind a bush) and if the enemy fires through the concealment they may well hit you. Clearly cover is preferable to concealment but you may have to use a mixture of both.
Smoke: you can use smoke as a form of concealment. The enemy can fire through it. It may also be used as a form of deception. You can buy very effective smoke grenades for the air soft market. If you have the reach it is always better to smoke off the enemy position, rather than your position. With a handheld smoke grenade you are limited in range. Remember also that smoke can interfere with your accurate suppression fire. With a civilian smoke grenade, the smoke generation is not instant and thus you will have to wait for the smoke to 'build' before you can use its concealment; smoke also has to be thrown to take account of wind direction. You could perhaps use the smoke grenade to conceal the movement of your flanking assault element, while not screening off your fire support element.
Smoke can therefore be used to help when natural cover and concealment is lacking, perhaps when you have to move off 'the X', which is the enemy killing area, or to conceal movement across an area of open ground. Remember though, it is a double edged weapon - once you pop smoke, you will indicate what you are doing - thus consider it also as a form of deception, and have someone pop it on the right flank, for example, when you went left.
Thermal Smoke: used as a form of concealment from aerial thermal surveillance, or ground thermal surveillance. Burning suitable materials, such as oil drums, tires, brush, grassland or whatever, can create a thermal smokescreen that will drift across the area of operations, wind dependent, to screen off your operation and even your approach to an attack. This will work against visual and thermal observation. You may even just burn the enemy out of their positions.
Darkness: like smoke, darkness can be used as a form of concealment. However, consider the night vision capabilities of the enemy balanced against your own before making decisions on night attacks. You may also employ judicious use of white light, such as parachute illumination flares, either the handheld rocket type or fired from mortars if you have it. But also remember that darkness may have other advantages, such as surprise and the enemy having perhaps let their guard down/asleep, depending who they are. As usual, balance the factors and make a decision. If using white light, you can employ it as you wish, lighting up and then going dark to cover movement etc. The murky light and moving shadows will always add to the confusion and terror of a night attack.
Key Terrain: this is ground or position that provides a marked advantage to whichever side holds it. For example, if the enemy is defending a small farm complex, and there is a little knoll behind it, perhaps upon which they have an observation post (OP) then taking this key terrain (the knoll) may afford you a distinct advantage in assaulting the enemy complex. Not only because you destroy their OP/fire support position/sharpshooter hide, but you may also be able to position your own fire support elements there to support your assault onto the complex. Conversely, if the enemy continues to hold the knoll, they can not only observe and call fire onto your assault elements as they maneuver onto the farm complex, but they can also disrupt your attack from the knoll itself, with support fire. A preliminary surprise attack on the knoll would allow you to position a support by fire element there and consequently assault onto the farm complex.
There is a difference between a deliberate attack/raid and a hasty attack. The main difference is that with a deliberate attack you retain the initiative because you plan it, move to the enemy position and initiate the attack from a position and at a time of your own choosing. So long as you can approach the enemy position undetected you will have a choice of where to position your fire support element and where to move your assault elements, where to concentrate force to achieve the break-in and your sequence of assault. Remember that 'no plan survives contact with the enemy' and there will always be a need to maintain flexibility and adapt to changing circumstance. That is why it is best to adopt a 'mission command' mindset where it is the achievement of a mission/task and the 'reason why' behind it that is important, rather than just simply doing exactly as you were told in orders.
A brief explanation on mission command (also covered in 'Contact'): although missions/tasks should be given in the form of a task(s) followed by a unifying purpose (reason why) this is not to let your guys go and do whatever they want to do on the objective. There needs to be a plan and a sequence, and that will be tied in with control measures to allow best utilization of support by fire, sequencing, and to prevent fratricide. So stick to the plan as much as possible and improvise in accordance with the 'reason why' if things start to go wrong.
For example, 2nd squad was supposed to echelon (i.e. move in sequence) through 1st Squad to move on and assault objective 2. However, an unseen/unknown mutually supporting enemy position has opened fire. 2nd Squad has taken casualties and is now totally involved in a firefight tying to suppress this new enemy position, which is to a flank. The platoon leader now makes a decision out of the original plan to move a machine gun team from the fire support element out to a flank to a position where it can suppress this new enemy position. While he is engaged with giving orders for that, 3rd squad did not wait for orders. They were in reserve (part of the assault cycle) and took the opportunity to push through 1st squad, past 2nd squad, and seize 2nd squads initial objective, thus getting the plan back on track but with different elements doing the planned tasks. Now that we are at this point, and the new enemy position is being successfully suppressed, the platoon leader can now view the assault on this new position as an unplanned hasty attack and give quick battle orders (QBOs) for a squad to assault, now that the enemy are suppressed.
With a deliberate attack, you are looking for various key positions. These should be found in your recce of the enemy position, before you give orders and conduct the mission. You need an ORP (objective rally point) which is where you will patrol to before dispersing to the various assault positions. This should be on a covered approach to the enemy position. Your fire support position will be covered and allow a sufficient range for your weapon systems to engage and suppress the enemy. Don't be too close; if you have the range and accuracy - use it. If you can get an elevated position overlooking the enemy objective, with decent fields of fire not obscured by too much vegetation, then you are getting a good fire support location. Your weapon systems, and also the ground, will decide ranges. If you have tripod mounted machine guns, you could be pushing back out to as far as maybe 800 meters, but balance this against the ability to accurately observe and 'fire in' the assaulting elements. For standard small arms, given suitable ground, you may be 100 meters away in fire support; you don't ideally want to be more than 300 meters away.
Your fire support element will need to be able to switch fire ahead of the assaulting elements and engage depth and mutually supporting positions as the assault elements work through the enemy position. Because of this, and because of ballistics, you ideally want to have an angle of 90 degrees between your fire support and your assaulting elements. So your assaulting elements will come in from either the left or the right of the fire support elements, which will be firing across their front and then switching away from them onto enemy depth as the assault progresses. Don't have an angle beyond 90 degrees where your assault elements are heading towards your fire support. If the angle is less than 90 degrees then your assault elements will obscure the enemy position sooner as they advance. Real life is never ideal.
So when planning for your deliberate attack you need to have a covered approach for the assault elements to move to a forming up position (FUP) which is where they will shake out into assault formation before crossing the line of departure (LD) into the assault. They will approach, assault and fight through the enemy positions in sequence and each element will be controlled by a limit of exploitation (LOE). This applies to any type of objective, such as trenches, bunkers, buildings, small complexes, compounds or a camp attack. The difference is the specifics of the assault techniques (don't get me started on 'CQB'!)
Once you spatially assess the enemy position you will be able to position your locations for the approaches, FUP, LD, fire support etc. and sequence how your elements will assault onto and through the enemy objective. Remember that although you will have a fire support element, each assault element will be providing its own integral fire support and fire and movement as it moves through the objective, and each assault element will be supporting the others as they cycle through the various enemy positions.
When considering the assault, think about distances that your guys will have to cross from the LD to the first objective, how the objectives (buildings/trenches etc) lay related to each other, how you will move from one to another and where will you position integral fire support elements. Are you able to assault downhill, or will it have to be uphill? If you come from a certain direction, are there any good options for fire support locations? Once you understand the spatial relations of ballistics, how an element covers another element and the characteristics of obscuring and unsafe fire support, you will be able to spatially plan such an assault.
The best use of ground comes into this when you are looking for covered approaches to move between one location and another and to close distances and open ground that you have to cross. Any movement in the open risks enemy fire. Of course, when in contact there is never movement without supporting fire. The more open the ground is the more supporting fire you will need to be able to survive across that open area. The more cover you can utilize the less fire you will need. Moving on a football field is totally reliant on the effectiveness of your accurate suppression fire. Movement in a ditch can be done if your suppression fire is not totally effective.
How does this apply to a hasty attack? A hasty attack will usually take place after a surprise contact when your element has been 'advancing to contact'. It may also take place when you are hit on a patrol. Depending on your patrol orders/SOPs you will either conduct immediate action break contact drills or you will be in an offensive mission mode. Even if you are in an offensive mode you will still go through immediate action contact/battle drills to take cover and return fire, locate the enemy and begin to suppress. The difference here between a deliberate and hasty attack is that with the latter the enemy has the initiative and has opened fire on you at a point of their choosing. You are therefore in their killing area (the X) and you must seize back the initiative and prosecute an assault with speed, aggression and surprise.
(I am not going to bog down in the difference in U.S. Army doctrine between 'near' and 'far' ambush. In simple terms, a near ambush is within grenade range (30 yards) and the suggested reaction for a near ambush is a standard immediate action drill for the closest team to assault onto the enemy. The far ambush should be taken care of as I describe below. I disagree in general terms about this immediate reaction to a near ambush simply determined based on distance. If the team leader under contact decides to assault immediately, then so be it and he must be supported as much as possible. However 30 yards is a long way under fire and still depends a lot on the ground. The contacted team may well be pinned down with casualties. If possible always try and bring an element, the rear team, to a flank to either assault or at least support by fire).
This means that after initial contact and everyone having done their individual react to contact drills, the squad leader for the element that comes under contact will most likely maneuver his element off the immediate X into a better position to begin to win the firefight with the enemy. This will be done by basic fire and movement, either forwards, to the flank, or rearward, into better position of cover and concealment. This could be a single squad/element or it could be one element of a larger force, such as a platoon. The squad leader that came under contact, if part of a larger force, will make a decision, based on his assessment of enemy location and strength, to either put in a hasty squad attack or defer to the platoon leader if the enemy is too strong. If he hands it over to the platoon leader, he may well become the fire support squad, or the platoon leader may move elements around into better positions, supporting each by fire to do so. It's another spatial/mechanical action.
If you are a squad leader who has come under fire and moved off the X or at least into better cover, and you are contemplating a hasty attack, you will hand over the control of the firefight to your second in command and conduct a quick combat estimate. This is where you are looking at the spatial combination of enemy/ground. as it relates to the enemy position, your position and the ground in between. It is vital at this point to observe as best as you can and identify enemy positions, numbers and firepower.
You are looking for:
- A fire support location. In a hasty attack that is often simply leaving a team in support where you are right now. If you have to put a team into a better location, then that will be conducted by fire and movement in a series of preliminary moves to get them where you need them.
- A covered approach to a flank. Concealed if not covered.
- A forming up position (FUP) & line of departure (LD).
- A sequence of assault onto the enemy objective. For a squad, you are only really going to be assaulting with one team and thus onto a single enemy fighting position/trench/bunker.
When assessing the ground, it is helpful to divide it into left, center and right. Center is not usually a good idea unless very close to the enemy. Best to go either left or right flanking. So you are effectively looking for a left or right flanking approach. Decide on the best one depending on your assessment of the various factors. Once you decide, go with it. There may be a couple of options to a flank, such as far left and near left. Decide on the best one as it relates to the spatial problem.
As you plan to take your assault team left or right flanking, you will also need to consider the need for further suppression of the enemy as you get closer, using one of your buddy pairs in the assault team to either be a 'point of fire' to provide closer suppression on the enemy as you approach from the flank, or to be a point of fire as outward looking flank protection, facing out to cover any depth or mutually supporting enemy positions. Remember flank protection as you move through that covered route - you may run into another enemy position, which was holding its fire in anticipation of your move or simply out of sector for your initial contact location, and in that case you may want to reconsider the odds. It may already be too late and you are committed to following the fight through to its conclusion. 'Finish the fight!'
If you are assaulting enemy in the open you will usually simply fight through in a skirmish line by fire and movement in buddy teams. If you are assaulting a fighting position such as a trench or bunker, then you may use the point of fire method to drop off one buddy pair as intimate fire support and assault with a buddy pair.
If you have to use a point of fire to screen off a depth position that you came across in the assault, then once you have taken care of the initial position, continue to suppress the depth. Then, bring in the team that you used as fire support and have them assault the depth. That is one way to skin the cat.
When you have cleared the enemy position, you will need to have your fire support team join you. Potentially you will be send them through to destroy that depth position your point of fire was suppressing, but assuming you are not they will rejoin you on the enemy objective. The way to do this has changed - it used to be that they would follow the route you took, all the way to the flank, on the basis that you just came up there and so it should be clear of booby traps and further enemy etc. Modern thinking says they can just take the shortest route. Make your own mind up what is best for you.
Obstacles are something that you must consider when planning your flanking approach - are there any and how do they affect that approach? Wire, concertina wire, walls, fences, buildings, ditches, creeks, rivers etc are all things that may make you decide against one route and for another. Punji pits - can you even identify/see them before you are on them? Maybe even other booby traps such as mines and IEDs.
Once on the enemy position, you also need to consider the ground where you are at as you conduct your reorganization post-assault. Are you best where you are or do you need to move to a better defended or covered position? Is there a danger of counter-attack or even indirect fire? If so, get into a defended covered position and even start digging. Often it is best to get off and away from the objective as soon as possible to avoid retaliation.
Another thing related to the direction of your assault and the lay of the land is what options are you giving the enemy? Will you trap them and force them to fight or do you give them a route to withdraw on? What do you intend - kill, capture, just seize the ground, or destroy them all? This also applies to a raid or deliberate attack where you may leave the enemy 'open door' opportunities to escape or you may deliberately place cut-off groups along egress routes to kill/capture any escaping enemy. If you do put such groups out, just like cut-off groups in an ambush you must use terrain to screen them from your direct fire as you conduct the assault, as they will likely be positioned 'downrange ' from your assault.
Live hard, die free.
MV
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Friday, May 31, 2013
Suppressive Fire For the Irregular War-Fighter
Well-executed suppressive fire is, arguably, THE critical task in an effective contact. The maneuver element cannot move to, or exit, their covered approach route until/unless enemy weapons can be destroyed, or effectively disabled. EFFECTIVE SUPPRESSIVE FIRE IS A PRE-REQUISITE FOR ASSAULT, OR ANY OTHER MANUEVER!!!
The reality is, conventional military forces are not historically trained in direct-fire suppression, using their personal small arms. Whether at the fire-team/stick level, or the platoon or company echelons, this is unfortunate, because well-trained riflemen, using semi-automatic, aimed fire can actually suppress the enemy more effectively than automatic weapons such as crew-served machine guns (John Poole cites a couple of different studies illustrating this in The Last 100 Yards).
In order to counter this, for the irregular war-fighter, we have to first define exactly what “suppressive fire” is. In my mind, based on my personal experiences, a belt-fed M240 hosing down the objective is decidedly NOT suppressive fire. Between the limitations of reality, with non-combatants possibly on the objective, or down-range from the objective, to the fact that, too often, the gun crew hosing down the objective is doing more property damage than personnel damage, it’s just not very effective. This becomes more important, both to the irregular war-fighter, and the conventional force small-unit leader, when you consider the political implications of blindly firing into an objective that may have significant numbers of non-combatants present. I define suppressive fire quite simply, as “suppressive fire is fire that keeps the enemy more concerned with not being shot than he is with shooting at you.” In other words, suppressive fire is protection…cover. To me, that means well-directed fire, aimed at the enemy, rather than the objective. As I like to point out during classes, “the best cover on the battlefield is accurate, outgoing fire.”
Tactically speaking, to be most effective, at a minimum, half your element should be providing accurate, precision suppressive fire. Ideally, it should be more like 2/3 to 3/4 of the element firing, as the maneuver element moves. In his classic work “Infantry Attacks,” Erwin Rommel (arguably, one of the finest tactical thinkers in the history of warfare, and certainly in the last century) describes a number of attacks he led as a young lieutenant in World War One. His assault element was always notably smaller than his suppression element, and the disparity grew as his experience increased. The key however, was that his suppressive fire elements always had their fires directed at SPECIFIC enemy positions on the target. Control and direction of organic fires is certainly one of the most critical key leader tasks, if not THE most critical. You need to know how to direct your subordinates’ fires, as well as where to direct those fires.
Because conventional doctrine focuses on the use of indirect-fire and crew-served weapons for suppression (and don’t misunderstand, I’m a BIG fan of mortars. I absolutely love wreaking havoc and discontent with a 60mm mortar in the “knee mortar” role), there is little to no doctrine defining training and application standards for direct-fire suppression with individual small-arms. The classic, British model of 30 rounds per minute is certainly a valid starting point, but is only a starting point. Suppressive fire at 400 meters, to be effectively accurate, may not be any more rapid than one round every two seconds, but at half that distance, it might be twice as rapid, or even faster. It’s METT-TC dependent (I can make solid, upper torso hits all day long at 200M at a firing rate of one round/second, without even trying, and I make no claims to being any Alvin York…any competent shooter should be able to do so). At 50M, you might need to fire 2-3 accurate rounds per second, in order to be effective in keeping their heads down.
How do we control subordinate element suppressive fires, in order to prevent fratricide, while still ensuring adequate rounds downrange?
Controlling the rate and distribution of fires involves communicating when to start firing, where (general area as well as specific targets) to fire, and at what rate to fire (It’s critical to note that, while it’s a leader task, techniques for controlling team fires depends on collective training of the entire team). There are various ways to control organic fires at the fire team/stick level. The noise and confusion inherent in a real gunfight may limit the effective use of some of these. You have to possess the ability to utilize whichever method is effective and feasible, based on the immediate situation. Don’t get tied to just one.
The first method, and most obvious, is verbal control. This is arguably, the best method, except when the leader is too far away from his men, or the roar of battle limits their ability to hear his commands (the use of electronic hearing protection, such as Peltors, and/or intra-team radios MAY mitigate these limitations to some degree).
Hand-and-Arm signals are of some value in the midst of the fight, since they are not limited by noise. There are two major drawbacks to hand-and-arm signals, in my experience. First of all, subordinates may miss seeing the signal, as they focus on the enemy and their own rifle sights. Second, too often guys try to use hand-and-arm signals because they’re trying to be stealthy and not give away information to the enemy. The reality is, once the gunfire starts, the enemy knows you’re there. Quit worrying about surprise/stealth, and focus on aggressive violence-of-action.
Leading by Example should always be the first choice of good tactical leaders. This is the most common and typically the most effective method of initiating and directing fires. It is not restricted by noise, and if the subordinate can see you, he knows where you are firing. Then they mimic him, by shooting in the same direction he is firing, at the same rate he is firing. Team Leaders should use tracers to help direct their subordinates’ fire to specific target areas (or an IR designator at night, if all team members are equipped with NODs). The target zone can quickly be marked by the TL first firing at the center of the target area, then at the left and right limits of fire. This method, accompanied by the TL then moving to individual riflemen and specifically guiding their fire, is my personal “go-to” method, and the one I generally teach. It does require moral and physical courage from the TL, because he has to get up and move, even under enemy fire. If you lack moral and physical courage however, you’re probably not team leader material anyway.
The final method of controlling fires can be a pre-arranged event. Subordinates can simply be told to start firing when the approaching enemy reaches a certain terrain feature. I personally despise this method. In my experience, it leads to a ragged initial burst as every individual has a different perspective on what constitutes “crossing the line” (wow, there could be a LOT of unintended meaning read into that. There was no political intent in that statement. I promise.).
Well dispersed, accurately distributed suppressive fires are the best way to get inside the enemy’s OODA loop and stay there, by ensuring that accurate fire covers all parts of the target area. A team SOP may call for one buddy team to cover the left side of the objective, while the other buddy team covers the right, until specifically instructed to direct their fires elsewhere by the TL.
Ultimately, the maximum effectiveness of suppressive fires can be most positively ensured by prioritizing known, suspected, or likely positions of enemy cover/concealment.
a) Engage any exposed enemy personnel (specifically targeting, in order, crew-served weapons, grenadiers, communications personnel, then key leaders. In other words…the most immediately threatening, most casualty-producing weapons, then working your way down the threat matrix.), followed by positions indicated by enemy muzzle flashes (if you can see his muzzle flashes, it’s a pretty good indication that he’s firing in your direction, and thus a pretty immediate threat…).
b) Once all KNOWN positions have been engaged effectively, work on suspected positions. These may include edges of doors and windows (why the fuck would you bother shooting into the middle of an open door…?), the top front edge of fighting positions, both sides of the bases of trees, stumps, and rocks, etc….anywhere you’d be hiding if you were in the enemy’s position.
c) Finally, target fire at any LIKELY positions of enemy cover/concealment you haven’t already engaged in your specified sector of fire. This may include the ridge of a building rooftop, next to chimneys/smokestacks, bushes that may be concealing enemy combatants, etc.
There are a couple of things to consider, from the irregular/guerrilla view, of engaging suspected and likely positions of enemy cover/concealment…first of all, if you can’t see the enemy there, you don’t have a specific target. Instead of just one round, it is more effective to fire two or three quick rounds into the space a bad guy would be in if he was there, whether you see him or not. The inherent dispersion of these rounds means you’ve got a better chance of hitting him if he IS there.
Second, and arguably more critical, is the realization that if it’s a good hiding spot, but no one is actively shooting at you from there, doesn’t mean there’s not someone there, they just may not be a bad guy. If I were stuck in the middle of a gunfight that I wasn’t part of, and didn’t have a firearm (yeah, right……), I’d damned sure find a position of cover until I could determine the safest egress route. For the irregular war-fighter, this consideration means you may have to limit your subordinates’ fires to KNOWN positions of enemy cover. If they’re not shooting at you, or your buddies, you don’t get to shoot back. Fortunately for me, that would ultimately be a local concern to deal with, so I don’t have to prescribe a set of guidance…
The rate-of-fire should be directed by the team leader and needs to be high enough to prevent the enemy from returning fire accurately. That having been said, there is one caveat. The initial rate-of-fire, in an unexpected, surprise contact, should be as fast as humanly possible, while still placing accurate, aimed fire at those known, likely, or suspected positions of enemy cover/concealment. As soon as the first magazine is expended, perform a speed reload, then resume fire at a slightly reduced rate of fire (mimicking the TL’s rate-of-fire, or following his specific instructions), in order to keep the enemy from being able to respond effectively.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Deception Operations
Each Deception operation consists of five components:
As with actual military operations, false military operations must have a clear objective. What are you trying to get the enemy to believe? What do you want him to not believe? Do you intend to draw his forces away? The more detail that goes into planning and understanding the objective, the easier the implementation will be.
Enemy Assumptions
People are hungry for information, especially war planners. Feed them a careful diet. You must be careful to understand what they already believe and feed those prejudices. If, for example, your enemy believes you will conduct a blitzkrieg assault across the narrowest part of the English Channel, create a force located in Dover and make its commander your general best known for that tactic: George S. Patton, III. For extra flair points, the Allies could have made the First US Army Group a real force with real men, instead of an entirely fictional force, and used that as the reserve force for Normandy. Let the enemy believe what they want to believe.
Method Selection and Operational Options
AmMerc does a quick job of covering the basics of this, and I won’t repeat those here. Instead I’ll make two observations. First, a deception operation is generally more successful if there is more evidence (read: more methods utilized) to convince the enemy of what you want him to believe. To that end, don’t focus on using just one method; instead use several. Second, whatever method you choose must be accessible to the enemy. The cadaver loaded with false plans would have done the allies no good if the Germans hadn’t found it. Likewise, the press reports in 1991 detailing Marine rehearsals for an amphibious landing would have done no good if Saddam Hussein had no TV tuned to CNN.
Execution
This is where the rubber hits the road, or the metal meets the meat. Execution of the deception operation must be believable in order to be believed. For example, suppose your enemy sees your deception force assembling to his right. If he observes that there is no logistics train supporting it, he could correctly conclude that you’re trying to deceive him. Likewise, if a deception force is too obviously exposed, with no effort at camouflage, it is not likely to be believed.
Exploitation
The primary purpose of deception operations is to get the enemy to continue believing in the deception even after you’ve launched your actual operation. This is difficult, since it requires everything to break your way, including the enemy’s stupidity. But if it can be achieved, it becomes a force multiplier for you, since you now have two things working on the enemy’s OODA loop – your actual operation and your deception operation.
Counterdeceptions
The difficult trick in running a deception operation is detecting the enemy’s own deception operations. If you can’t tell when the enemy is deceiving you, you can’t really tell if your deception operation is working or not, because you can’t tell if he sees your deception and is playing along or is actually being deceived.
Conclusions
Walter Scott was right: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive!” The right metaphor from nature for a deception operation is a web, but it is the web of a black widow – tangled, without order, confusing, with no definite center, as contrasted with the orderly spirals most people think of. You must remember that deceptions are equal parts psychology and salesmanship: know your customer and know what will make him come around to your point of view. A deception is only a supporting operation, but a critical one, for it plays to the fears the enemy manifests while the actual operation works towards his vulnerabilities. Neglect neither and you will master both.
This post is for informational and educational purposes only
- Objective
- Enemy Assumptions
- Method Selection and Operational Options
- Execution
- Exploitation
As with actual military operations, false military operations must have a clear objective. What are you trying to get the enemy to believe? What do you want him to not believe? Do you intend to draw his forces away? The more detail that goes into planning and understanding the objective, the easier the implementation will be.
Enemy Assumptions
People are hungry for information, especially war planners. Feed them a careful diet. You must be careful to understand what they already believe and feed those prejudices. If, for example, your enemy believes you will conduct a blitzkrieg assault across the narrowest part of the English Channel, create a force located in Dover and make its commander your general best known for that tactic: George S. Patton, III. For extra flair points, the Allies could have made the First US Army Group a real force with real men, instead of an entirely fictional force, and used that as the reserve force for Normandy. Let the enemy believe what they want to believe.
Method Selection and Operational Options
AmMerc does a quick job of covering the basics of this, and I won’t repeat those here. Instead I’ll make two observations. First, a deception operation is generally more successful if there is more evidence (read: more methods utilized) to convince the enemy of what you want him to believe. To that end, don’t focus on using just one method; instead use several. Second, whatever method you choose must be accessible to the enemy. The cadaver loaded with false plans would have done the allies no good if the Germans hadn’t found it. Likewise, the press reports in 1991 detailing Marine rehearsals for an amphibious landing would have done no good if Saddam Hussein had no TV tuned to CNN.
Execution
This is where the rubber hits the road, or the metal meets the meat. Execution of the deception operation must be believable in order to be believed. For example, suppose your enemy sees your deception force assembling to his right. If he observes that there is no logistics train supporting it, he could correctly conclude that you’re trying to deceive him. Likewise, if a deception force is too obviously exposed, with no effort at camouflage, it is not likely to be believed.
Exploitation
The primary purpose of deception operations is to get the enemy to continue believing in the deception even after you’ve launched your actual operation. This is difficult, since it requires everything to break your way, including the enemy’s stupidity. But if it can be achieved, it becomes a force multiplier for you, since you now have two things working on the enemy’s OODA loop – your actual operation and your deception operation.
Counterdeceptions
The difficult trick in running a deception operation is detecting the enemy’s own deception operations. If you can’t tell when the enemy is deceiving you, you can’t really tell if your deception operation is working or not, because you can’t tell if he sees your deception and is playing along or is actually being deceived.
Conclusions
Walter Scott was right: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive!” The right metaphor from nature for a deception operation is a web, but it is the web of a black widow – tangled, without order, confusing, with no definite center, as contrasted with the orderly spirals most people think of. You must remember that deceptions are equal parts psychology and salesmanship: know your customer and know what will make him come around to your point of view. A deception is only a supporting operation, but a critical one, for it plays to the fears the enemy manifests while the actual operation works towards his vulnerabilities. Neglect neither and you will master both.
This post is for informational and educational purposes only
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Combat Rifle – Basics to help keep you Alive
I have always been a little wary of the term ‘gun fighting.’ I trawled YouTube and the internet in general before my training course to get an idea of what people were up to and therefore what may be in people’s heads when they showed up to my courses. There is a lot of ‘tacticool’ and a lot of ‘Hollywood’ out there. In my opinion, there is altogether too much standing on square ranges, engaging targets from a standing position, as if they are not shooting back and as if they are not potentially in depth or cover and able to take you out as you stand there. Some of it seems very impressive but in my mind much of it is almost in the category of ‘circus trickery’ carbine mastery - showing off. Although there is a lot to be said to being awesome with your carbine, most of this lacks tactical application and if you don’t have all day every day to practice, you will be missing out on good solid basics and putting yourself at great risk.
Some of the instruction also appears to incorporate drills almost for their own sake that appear to have been invented as ‘something to do’ on what are otherwise very limited ranges.
I see a lot of this training as an equivalent to boxing training by just punching a heavy bag. It’s not punching back, and I can stand there and hit it all day, looking good. When it starts to hit back, you need to think about moving, duck and covering….
What you need to focus on are very good basics. I will attempt to explain some of this below:
Reaction to Contact: This can be covered by RTR, which stands for:
Return fire
Take Cover
Return Appropriate Fire.
What does this mean? It means that once you come under fire, or see the enemy, you immediately bring reactive fire onto the target in an attempt to kill, disable or at the very least distract the enemies aim at you (if you miss close!) You then take cover. You then adopt a fire position and bring accurate fire onto the enemy. This is the first part of your reaction to contact and will be followed up depending if you are alone, or with others, and whether you are in an offensive or break contact mode. So, basically, what you do next all follows from your initial reaction of RTR.
When you train with me, I will drill into you not only the initial ‘R’, but also the ‘Take Cover’. This can simply be in the form of reaction drills where the target comes up (front. right, left or rear), you go from a ready to a fire position and engage with a controlled pair. But MOST IMPORTANTLY you then go into cover, which can be simulated on the basic range with a step to the left or right and taking a kneeling fire position, following up with a steady aimed shot from the kneeling, or prone position, to simulate the final ‘R’.
It’s a 360 degree battlefield. In any situation you cannot afford, if you can avoid it, to be hit by a rifle round. That is penetrating trauma and particularly in a post-collapse situation your ability to either fight the resistance campaign, or protect your family/tribe, or both, will be severely curtailed or over. Done. So let’s get away from standing ‘gun fighting’, however fast you can run your gun.
However the thing to note about the RTR procedure is that the initial ‘R’, the initial return fire, is also optional. In a close quarter engagement you will need to react fast and get accurate fire onto the enemy. That works in a situation where you both see the enemy and they are close enough for you to get a quick accurate shot or two off into them before taking cover. It’s a judgment call. Many times, either in a wooded or longer range or even desert environment, you will come under contact and not initially locate where the fire is coming from. In such a situation returning initial fire from the standing position may get you killed. You could fire into likely cover, but that is best done from the last ‘R’ i.e. Return Appropriate Fire after having taken cover.
Therefore, if you come under contact from an unknown location and cannot effectively return initial fire, to try to do so will leave you standing there effectively frozen on the enemy’s ‘X’: Far better to skip the initial ‘R’ and just move straight to Take Cover. Once you have done that, either alone or with your tactical element, you can scan and attempt to locate the enemy before going into your follow on drill as appropriate.
The most effective reaction I have seen of this unseen enemy situation is exemplified by a team coming under fire from a range of 100-200 meters where the enemy was not immediately obvious, the team immediately bomb-bursting and zigzagging into cover, followed by locating the enemy, communicating this, and bringing accurate rifle fire down upon them.
If we go back to the initial ‘R’ then we will see that the reaction is a balance of speed and accuracy as ranges increase. You will train and know yourself what distance you are effective out to. At close ranges you will be best to use the point shooting method, looking over the sights, and immediately engage the guy before he hits you. As ranges increase, you will be moving to your sights with quick reactive controlled pairs, until you find that you need to hesitate and acquire the target for just that faction of a second longer. You will know where your skills are at and you can work to improve that. There will be a point, where you either don’t see the enemy after the first contact, or they are at a longer range, where you will know you are best to simply get into cover before returning fire.
So, second in importance to being a good reactive shot is the overwhelming importance of TAKING COVER. Russian conscript troops train to assault by exiting their APCs and running towards the enemy positions firing their AKs on automatic from the hip. And that is supposed to happen after a massive bombardment designed to leave no one alive to assault. I have seen pretty much that level of skill on the internet videos out there, the difference being that the standard US Civilian is firing from the shoulder as he does the Hollywood line walking towards the targets.
When you move from individual reaction drills to fire and movement, you are using a combination of cover and accurate fire to maneuver, either towards or away from the enemy. You may be crawling, moving in ‘dead ground’ out of sight of the enemy or conducting short rushes covered by your buddies. However, whenever you are not moving, you are in a fire position in cover. If you are not firing or moving, you are in cover. I always train from the very basic level that if you have any stoppage on your weapon, from an empty magazine to an actual stoppage/malfunction, you are at least getting down onto one knee to simulate taking cover. If you are on a movement lane then you will actually take cover.
If you happen upon a chance contact, let’s say it’s out there in the woods, and you deal with the first guy or two with your well drilled carbine skills, you simply don’t know where the rest of them are. Don’t stay up on your feet going all Hollywood. Take Cover. If you are with a team, at least two of you, which I hope you are, then you will go into fire and movement either to assault forward and clear, or to break contact back out of there.
This leads me onto a related topic, that of ‘bounding overwatch’. I take issue with how bounding overwatch is mistermed and also with some of the ‘tacticool’ madness that I see creeping in. Ok, so here it is:
Fire and Movement: This is the principle where movement under enemy direct fire is achieved through the combined use of suppressive fire and cover. If there is no cover (think billiard table) then you rely solely on your suppressive fire to allow maneuver. The principle of fire and movement (or maneuver) can be summarized by the words “no movement without fire.” This applies at any element from a pair up to a battalion. It’s not the size of the elements that matters, it that fact that they are fire and maneuvering.
Bounding Overwatch: This is where you are not actually firing at the enemy. There is no enemy seen but you believe the threat to be high. You are placing elements in position to provide potential fire support. So think of it like ‘dry’ fire and movement. Again, it does not matter what size elements you have, from two buddies up to two platoons. Think about having to move over some open ground and you think there may be enemy in the area: you place an element down in cover on the hill to give potential fire support. You then move an element across the open ground, they take up fire positions, and the original cover element then moves up. If at any time it goes hot due to enemy contact, you are immediately going into fire and movement. In this sense, bounds taken in bounding overwatch can be further than the usual “I’m up, he sees me, I’m down” short bounds usually done during fire and movement.
Ok, so now we have established the difference between fire and movement and bounding overwatch, we can now see the utility of being able to switch between the two and also use bounding overwatch as a way to conduct a high threat move or clearance through or towards an objective. Watching some of the prepper shows, I saw some tactical madness with buddy pairs ‘moving tactically’ in an exaggerated half crouch back to back. Front guy walking forwards, rear guy back to back walking backwards, moving slowly in the open. NO.
This is where this kind of madness creeps in. Nobody is supervising this and it just spreads because people think it is the thing to do. Let’s go back to our solid basics. If you and a buddy had to move through an area where you had to clear, or move to an objective where there was a high threat of enemy contact, what would you do? Bounding overwatch right? Yep.
But what about covering the rear, I hear you say? Well, you are moving through and over the ground so you are covering that ground and the rear is the ground you just covered. You check rear anyway as you are moving, but you don’t walk backwards. This was learned from years of experience on patrol: it used to be done, for example on endless long patrols by the British Army, but you just don’t walk backwards anymore. You will trip and fall. Turn and look, then resume. There is nothing wrong with coming together in your pair for a halt, and placing one covering front/flank, the other rear/flank. That is a basic security formation for a halt.
So in summary, what has this article been about? It’s been about the need to build a good solid foundation of basic skills. I have said this before, and I chuckle to say it again, but that's all there really is: good solid basics, practiced until they become slick second nature drills. Don’t be misled by tacticool snake oil salesmen. Learn to run your gun in the standing, kneeling and prone positions, learn to use cover with your fire positions; learn the importance of taking cover.
One final thing: PT. PT is crucial. Fire and movement under enemy direct fire is an anaerobic activity – you will not be able to suck in enough oxygen to make it comfortable. However we are all training to survive here and you may be older or in not such good physical condition. This does not disbar you from these techniques. Yes, when conducting rushes during fire and movement the faster you can cover that ground the less likely you are to be hit. But there is an important distinction between speed and momentum.
Momentum is keeping up the pressure on the enemy by the use of accurate suppressive fire that is killing the enemy or making them keep their heads down in cover, allowing you to maneuver. If you can locate the enemy and generate such suppressive fire you will allow yourself to move. You may be able to move in a steadier fashion, talking account of your slower speed and utilizing adrenalin to spur you through it. On my ranges, if you are less physically capable, I will not exhort you to efforts beyond your capability. At the very least, this would compromise safety. You will do the techniques at a steadier pace, and take away the fact that you need to work harder on your PT.
Max Velocity
Live Hard, Die Free
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