So the following post comes from two different posts, the first one from the MVT Forums, and the second, or main post is from the MVT Blog, see link in the body.
In comments on the forum version of ‘Tactical Notes: Force on Force Team Tactics‘ Diz and Robert make some pertinent comments.
Diz: You know, this is the irony of the internet. This is probably one of the most important posts on this subject ever to be published on line. Yet I would wager that the vast majority of guys in the co-called tactical community, or even the patriot movement if you want to go there, are off in the weeds arguing over stupid things, or discussing the latest spring fashions.
I don’t know how you could get closer to an actual firefight than this. Theory and opinion are one thing. What actually works in realistic training is another. Regardless of all the pet theories on-line, or what your buddy told you, etc, it either works, or it doesn’t.
Kudos to Max for doing this. And to all the lab rats who went through the first class. You guys (and gals) all rock.
Robert: Can I get an amen!
I wrote that fiction story that comprised our first engagement Sunday at the class, with some embellishments added in (retreat, drone, FLIR) to make the material applicable to SHTF stuff. I posted it far and wide on the internet and got a lot of Monday morning QB’ing from people not there (of course) but my FAVORITE was one guy on a survival forum telling me that
“almost nobody has that level of training…”
Really? Well damn who knew???
I can hear the discussion in the PAW, “Frank, Ted, Bill, Ed, Jones and Smith got whacked out.” “Who killed them?”
“Almost nobody got them…”
These things illustrate the entrenchment of the patriot and survival community behind their walls of self delusion, bitterly defending their (false) pride and ego.
But alas, there is always a remnant!!! :good: And it’s those 5% or less that will learn the lessons ahead of time, that will keep their mouths shut and LEARN, that will be willing to risk their vanity and false pride to put their skills in the crucible.
THOSE are the ones we need to focus on, let the talkers keep talking- that’s all they ever do. Blah blah blah “I would have done this…” blah blah blah “almost nobody has that level of training…” blah blah blah “why do I need to know that…” blah blah blah. They will realize one day no one is both listening or caring a rip….
The ones that truly want to make it, WILL put in the work, will make the sacrifices necessary, those are the ones that attend training, that are constantly trying to better themselves, to prepare, etc.
So I ask you, please help to spread the word. Best to use the blog version of the post, which can be found HERE. Link: http://www.maxvelocitytactical.com/2016/03/tactical-notes-force-on-force-team-tactics/
You will also note that I have social media buttons at the bottom of the blog posts, which you are able to use.
There is something very relevant in those comments. Here at MVT we are running a unique thing, real combat proven well thought out tactical training. We have invested heavily in training equipment such as the electronic pop-up targets, the training facility, the steel target shields to take the show on the road, the UTM bolts. The real deal. The problem is getting the word out, and weaning people off of the ‘tacticool’ BS.
If you find this website/blog/forum/training helpful, then please help to spread the word. Put it out there on other sites.
We know that there is whole lot of ignorance out there, and worse than that, there is the deliberate desire by those we may call ‘mainstream’ ‘tacticool’ trainers to prevent the emergence of training such as MVT. I know, I have experienced it. These are the same law enforcement focused trainers who do not believe that civilians should be taught small unit tactics, or anything above buddy pairs. These are the same clowns who only allow ‘vetted’ civilians to join them to run through SWAT fantasy camp, where BS dangerous ‘tactics’ are taught.
I am absolutely convinced that MVT has it right, and is offering unique and real combat proven training, and the word needs to be spread, and the ignorance needs to be pushed back.
Thank you.
Max
Team Coyote
Max Velocity Tactical
Tactical Notes: Force on Force Team Tactics
Posted by Max in Small Unit Tactics, Tactical Comment, Training, Uncategorized on March 29, 2016
Combat Team Tactics (CTT) can be viewed as the MVT ‘basic training’ class, which acts as a gateway to the more advanced classes. CTT puts everyone on the same page with a solid view of ‘what right looks like’ and ensures that everyone has a good grasp of safety and TTPs moving forward. CTT is a prerequisite for both Combat Patrol (CP) and Force on Force Team Tactics (FoF). Both CP and FoF complement each other, with CP teaching TTPs that will help during FoF, and FoF giving immediate feedback on whether or not you are doing things right or not.
You may have noticed that I have reduced prices on the 3 day CTT class (from $600 to $500), and made an effort to promote the Rifle Skills (RS) day along with CTT as a 4 day training event, total price $600, which is the same as the previous 3 day CTT price. This is an effort to not only promote the idea of more and better training, but to get students in through the gateway of CTT in order to allow them to progress to the more advanced classes, such as CP and FoF. CP is a 4 day class at $650 and FoF is a 2 day class at $350 (plus the UTM ammo purchase).
Thus, I want students to see the RS/CTT class not as something that must be crammed in at the weekend, in order to ‘tick the box’ but as a significant training event that requires investment of time. With tactical training, you cannot simply ‘tick the box’ by showing up once. I suggest a professional class such as CTT, CP or FoF at least annually, with your own regular training thrown in. Otherwise, these skills will perish. Many students who return to CTT time after time will attest to how perishable these skills are, and how much more you understand and retain if you return. A single attendance equals a superficial grasp of the concepts, that will soon degrade if it is not reinforced by both home and return training classes. It is possible to reach a very high skill level at small unit tactics, but you have to put the time in on the ground to do so.
This leads me on to FoF Team Tactics. I am enthused by the class not only because of the value of the class itself to the training and readiness levels of the students, but also because of how well it progresses the student from CTT/CP, and illustrates many areas in which lip service can be paid during the live fire training. The live training such as CTT/CP has such value in terms of the basic understanding of TTP’s, of safety, of battle inoculation and operating in an immersive small unit tactics (SUT) environment. However, for the very reason that the CTT/CP class may be only the first, perhaps second exposure of a student to such things, it means that some of it escapes them, or lip service is paid, which is where FoF comes in and delivers the hammer blow, and really nails this down. In effect, there is so much going on in CTT/CP that is new to the student, that some of it will escape him; FoF illustrates the basics, and the importance of them.
Tactical Notes from FoF Team Tactics:
I found myself going over many of the same basic points again and again at FoF Team Tactics, which are the same points that I hammer at CTT and CP classes, and it took a lot of ‘dying’ on behalf of the students to really hoist these things in. At CTT, a mix of poor physical preparation on behalf of the student, plus the ‘firehose’ information dump of the class, often result in poor attention to some of the basic areas that will keep them alive in combat, such as taking effective cover, and moving rapidly from cover to cover, or no movement without effective suppressing fire. Ivan does not shoot back, but in FoF when the live enemy is putting UTM rounds at you, and they are striking you in the face, or zipping past your head, it really makes the point. Here are some notes:
Rehearsal of team SOPs is vital.
Make a plan, and have a leader. Follow the leader, and allow him to direct you to achieve the mission, which means paying attention.
Effective scanning is essential. Head out of your weapon! Situational awareness, which includes scanning to the flanks, or you will be rolled up. How many times do cadre tell the students “get your head out of your weapon” and “scan means scan” on a CTT class? Tunnel vision and staring at where Ivan last was seems to be the trend!
Ensure you look in often for hand signals, otherwise you will be in your own zone, and have no clue what is going on.
Hand signals are essential during silent patrolling. The leader needs to be able to signal intent. Some of the things that you will need to consider hand signals for, that you may not have considered before, are as follows (examples will be given at FoF classes):
•Axis of advance / on line.
•Enemy direction
•Hasty ambush
•Bounding overwatch – forwards and backwards
•Peeling
•Flanking
•Move up / get on line / change axis
None of these hand signals will work if team members are not paying attention, by regular scanning of their sectors and to their buddies. If you get a hand signal, react to it and make it happen.
When it goes noisy, you need to be able to yell. Team members must listen, and every man is a link man and must pass the direction on. You may still have use for hand signals at this time, particularly if units become separated on something like a flanking move. Ensure that if you see something, you also communicate it effectively to other team members and the team leader. No secrets!
Do not be too hasty to rush to your death – do not attempt fire and movement if the enemy is not effectively suppressed. Rounds whacking into your team members every time they get up to run forward means the enemy is not suppressed, and in fact you are under effective enemy fire.
Ensure you identify cover before you move to it – and do not be hasty to rush to your death.
Ensure that if you have any type of stoppage, you improve your position of cover. Kneeling in the open to take care of a malfunction is not the recipe for a long life. This is taught all the way from the square range.
Suppressing the enemy means exactly that – effective accurate fire that will change the behavior of the enemy to where he can no longer suppress you.
To suppress the enemy you have to ensure team members have located him/them – use target indication ( 3 D’s) and ensure the information is communicated along the line. If team members are having their own individual fights with ‘their’ enemy, it means as one group gets up to bound forwards, ‘their’ enemy is not suppressed, and will kill them. SCAN! Do not get tunnel vision.
You must suppress the entirety of the enemy facing your team if you are to move without casualties. Due to inherent safety angles of moving groups (target obscuration), this will entail breaking the F&M down into smaller groups along the line as you get closer (i.e. breaking down from pairs to buddy fire and movement as the team gets closer – now taught on both the CTT and FoF classes).
Ensure that you are actually doing ‘short bounds’ and not ‘hero bounds.’ Move fast and low from cover to cover. ‘Keep low, move fast.’
Never underestimate the actual and psychological effect of a flanking move. BUT: ensure you are watching your flank so it does not happen to you, and ensure that separating groups does not lead to blue on blue situations.
Positively Identify (PID) your target before you engage. Not everything out there is the enemy, and just because it is moving, it may well be an injured team member that you just lit up.
Untrained armed teams will be responsible for a large amount of fracticide, both due to incompetence when first encountering the enemy and attempting to effectively return fire, and also due to indiscriminate target engagement. A large focus of MVT training is on buddy awareness, and breaking the tunnel vision of your ‘relationship’ with ‘Ivan’ so that you do not kill your buddies. This is something that is not understood in the ‘tacticool’ world of the square range, and is applicable to real combat.
Training, or ‘operant conditioning’ will reduce freezing, something that was also apparent on the FoF class. Yes, you should not be too hasty to rush to your death and you should suppress the enemy as best you can before you move, and you should identify your next piece of cover before you move to it, but at the same time, if you are doing a maneuver, such as a peel, then do it, don’t freeze and become unresponsive to the team. That will likely lead to the team’s death in place.
If you have a competent leader with a plan, then you as a team member should allow him to ‘use you’ as a ‘tool’ to accomplish that plan. If you are a follower, be a follower. That still allows you, as a ‘battlefield sensor’ to input information on newly located enemy, or flanking moves, or whatever, but you should do that and remain as a responsive weapon that the team leader can use to accomplish the mission. In team tactics, the leaders are using the ‘resources’ to put effective fire on the enemy and maneuver to accomplish the mission. Team members must be an active and useful part of that scheme, or the maneuver will stall, and you will start to die.
You can only develop the competence stated in the paragraph above, where everyone is a useful and active/attentive member of a team, alert to the situation, if you have trained and moved past the tendency to be an unresponsive blob, locked in tunnel vision.
That’s all that comes to mind right now, but I will update as appropriate if/when I realize that I have missed something.
You may note that most of what I have mentioned here is to do with the actual practical application of fire and movement, and SUT. This is not the sort of thing that will be grasped by reading manuals or watching videos. It needs to be trained, and it needs to be trained enough, through a mixture of live firing and FoF training, so that students will grasp this at a deep and unconscious level, thus significantly enhancing their chances of survival in a combat situation.
I cannot stress enough how I urge you, if you are a one-time or some-time-ago alumni or simply a blog or forum reader, to invest the time to get to a training class. It should be at least an annual event, with home based training for the rest of the year. If you can get CTT, CP and FoF done in the first year, you are hitting the jackpot and will be making significant advances not only towards the survivability of your tribe, but also in becoming dangerous to your enemies.
‘Team Coyote’
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