Small War Tactics: Downed Vehicle Drills
Small War Tactics: Professional Handbook is available now on Amazon. We hope it becomes a valuable addition to your tactical library. Click below to order it today. For more information feel free to email us at staff@specialtactics.me.
Special Tactics is excited to announce the release of our new book Small War Tactics: Professional Handbook. This is the first installment in the new “Professional Handbook” series. Professional handbooks will cover a number of specialized topics relating to the military, law enforcement and security professions and will go into greater depth and detail, assuming the reader already has a background in the subject matter.
Small War Tactics covers lessons learned from the past 20 years of fighting counterinsurgency battles and low-intensity conflicts around the world. Some specific topics include direct action targeting (F3EAD - unclassified), counter-IED operations, psychological operations, force protection and base defense operations, traffic control point setup and employment, tactical questioning and sensitive site exploitation (SSE). The book will be available on Amazon Kindle in the coming weeks. Below is an excerpt from the book, showing a technique for extracting a downed vehicle from an ambush killzone under fire and other counter-IED tactics.
React to Downed Vehicle Battle Drills
When reacting to a downed vehicle following an IED blast, the first priority is to establish security and check for secondaries. You may find it very difficult to resist rushing directly to the damaged vehicle to render aid. However, the enemy knows our tendency to rush to help our friends and could use that to cause even more casualties. Therefore, you must do your best to hastily clear the area before rendering aid. There are several techniques for doing this.
Alternate Communication Systems
One TTP that will help make the whole process go more smoothly is to establish a secondary communications system for damaged vehicles. Very often, an IED blast will blow all the antennas and communications equipment off of a vehicle so that vehicle will not be able to communicate its status. An easy way to solve this problem is to store two chemlight bundles in each truck, one red and one green. If all personnel in the vehicle are ok, the TC throws out the green bundle. If the vehicle has casualties or needs immediate assistance, the TC throws out the red bundle. Obviously, friendly forces must expect the possibility that the crew will be incapacitated to the point where they will be unable to throw out either bundle. This will also serve as a sign of the urgency of the situation.
Pushing or Pulling a Downed Vehicle
In some situations, the damaged vehicle might be able to roll but cannot move under its own power. In these situations, the vehicle behind the damaged vehicle can attempt a “push out” or you can use cables to pull the damaged vehicle out of the killzone. You don’t need to move the vehicle that far, possibly 50-200m. The idea is to get the vehicle off of the “X” without stopping at any common secondary IED distances.
One effective way to rapidly pull a vehicle out of the killzone is to pre-attach tow cables to all of your vehicles. Each vehicle should have a tow cable attached to the front bumper, running to a snap-link on the driver’s side window. Another tow cable runs from the rear bumper to the TC side window. Therefore, to tow a vehicle, all you have to do is pull up on the left side, open the TC window, attach the two snap-links and drive away. You can use lightweight zip ties to secure the cable to the side of the truck. These zip ties will break away when you execute the tow drill.
“5-25 Meter” Search Procedures
The best way to conduct 5-25 searches is to have the gunner move to the defilade position and have each of the passengers clear his respective sector from 5 meters to 25 meters from inside the vehicle. Each passenger will call out when his sector is clear… “Left-front clear! Right-front clear! Left-rear clear! Right-rear clear!”
At this point the gunner will come out of defilade and conduct his own 5-25 searches scanning 360-degrees around the vehicle. Once the gunner is finished, one person will dismount, close his door, and clear the immediate area around the vehicle. Once the immediate area is clear, a second person can dismount. These two patrol members can move on opposite sides of the road and clear any other remaining areas, with the gunner providing cover.
When dismounting a vehicle in a location where you expect an IED blast, you can dismount one person at a time, with each person closing his door before the next person gets out. This can help keep the people in the vehicle as safe as possible.
Immobile Vehicle Drill
If the damaged vehicle has no wheels or is immobile, first stop the rest of the convoy and establish 360-security to identify the triggerman or a possible complex ambush. The closest vehicle to the damaged vehicle will begin to approach the damaged vehicle. If appropriate, the gunner will go into the defilade position to protect himself from secondaries.
Approach to a practical supporting distance (don’t get too close) and first execute 5-25 searches from inside the vehicle. Once those searches are complete, have the gunner come out of defilade and execute 5-25 searches. Then dismount one person and have him clear the immediate area surrounding your own vehicle. Once the immediate area around your vehicle is clear, you can either send the same dismount to clear around the destroyed vehicle, or you can have that first dismount pull security while another dismount exits to clear around the destroyed vehicle.
Once you have conducted this hastily clearance you can then dismount more personnel to rescue any casualties trapped inside the vehicle. Once the area is clear, you can also pull the supporting truck closer in order to provide cover and protection for the casualties and the aid and litter teams.
If you are taking any kind of small arms fire or if you want to provide greater protection, you can pull the supporting vehicle alongside the damaged vehicle and open the armored doors to form a “virtual foxhole.” The vehicle hulls and the open doors should provide cover in all directions, allowing you to safely transfer casualties from one vehicle to another.
If you have a medic, ensure that he is not the one who runs up to the vehicle to rescue the casualties. The medic should stay in a safe place, behind cover and wait for the casualties to come to him. You don’t want your only medic to get killed.
Small War Tactics: Professional Handbook is available now on Amazon. We hope it becomes a valuable addition to your tactical library. Click below to order it today. For more information feel free to email us at staff@specialtactics.me.
