Tactical Tuesday Episode Twenty-Six - Dynamic Room Entry: Surprise, Speed and Violence of Action - Part One

In this episode of Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim, we begin our discussion regarding  Dynamic Room Entry Method.  Specifically, we discuss:

• Least Resistance/Crossover Technique (1:40)
• Buttonhook Technique (3:09)
• Step Center Technique (4:23)
• Criss-Cross Technique (6:47)
• Principles of Dynamic Room Entry (7:25)
• Entry Team Member Movement  (9:20)
• No Read Method (10:15)
• Read Method (10:40)
• Free Flow Method (11:25)
• Basic Dynamic Entry Principles (13:04)
• Individual Entry Team Member Sectors/Areas of Responsibility (17:39)
• and more.

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To find “From Insertion to Extraction:  Advanced MILSIM CQB Tactics, Techniques and Procedures” :  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07THX1CFT/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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Transcript

TACTICAL TUESDAY WITH MODERN MILSIM – EPISODE 26 TRANSCRIPT 

Welcome to another episode of Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim. Through this podcast, we will bring you real world tactics, techniques, and procedures that will enable you to succeed on the Milsim battlefield. It's time to make ready.

Hello, and welcome to episode 26 of Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim. I am your host, Craig White. As always, thank you for being here. Now today we are going to discuss Dynamic Room Entry and related tactics, techniques, and procedures. 

Now I'm going to be straight with you. There is a lot to talk about regarding Dynamic Room Entry that will not fit into one reasonable length episode.  So, I'm going to break things down into two or more episodes. Be aware that this series is intended to provide a more basic understanding of CQB TTPs. For a more detailed explanation for these tactics, techniques, and procedures, check out From Insertion to Extraction, Advanced MilSim CQB Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures, now available at Amazon.com. 

So, with that in mind, let's get to it. 

So central to dynamic room entry are two basic room clearing movement techniques. They're the least resistance, also known as the crossover technique, and the buttonhook technique. With the least resistance, a/k/a crossover technique, the entry team member moves diagonally through the entry point at a shallow angle and along the inside of the opposite near wall.  This is why it is called the least resistance technique. You are taking the shortest and simplest route into the room and along the inside of the near wall. It is also called the crossover technique because you are crossing over to the opposite wall through the entry point. This movement technique allows the point man to more quickly engage targets in the target room's opposite near corner.

This movement technique is often used where the entranceway contains a door that opens into a corner fed room. When the door is opened, it can provide the point man with cover as he clears his sector and before the second man can move into position to engage targets in and around the opposite corner along the same wall. Think of the technique this way. You are the point man. You and your team are stacked up on the right side of a closed door that opens into a center fed room. We call that a push door. As the point man, you decide to breach using a least resistance or crossover technique. Once the breacher opens the door, you immediately move up to then pass through the doorway before moving along the near wall inside the room.  An example of the least resistance crossover technique is attached to the post for this episode on the Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim Facebook page. 

Now with the buttonhook technique, the entry team member steps into the entry point. While pivoting in a J or U-shaped manner to move down the other side of the near wall in the opposite direction from when he approached the door from the outside of the room.

Think about it this way. Again, you are the point man of a stack on the right side of the closed door with exposed hinges on the opposite side of the doorway, and which opens out into the hall or room where the team is stacked. We call that a pull door. In order to give the second man the quickest entry into the room to cover your back and nearly the same time as you enter the room, you decide to use a buttonhook technique while the second man will cross over into the other side of the room to clear the hard corner behind you.

Once the breacher opens the door, you move forward and essentially pivot in order to reverse your movement in the opposite direction from where you were stacked opposite the target room. You essentially do a U turn once you enter the room to clear the right side near corner. An example of the buttonhook technique is attached to the post for this episode on the tactical Tuesday with modern Milsom Facebook page.

Now, there are a few variations of these basic techniques. The first one is the step center. Although the step center is a variation of both the least resistance and button hook techniques, it is more often used as a part of the button hook room entry method. With the basic button hook technique, the entry team member moves directly from a position against the near wall on the outside of the room to a position along the same near wall on the inside of the room.  The entry team member is essentially blind to who or what is in the room until he crosses the line of departure and activates every angle in the room at the same time. 

If the room is fortified or if it contains a submachine gunner or support weapon gunner that is allowed to utilize automatic fire, depending on event organizer rules, he or she is going to have a bad day.  He or she will be in the fatal funnel and will have activated all angles in the room. This is the problem that the step center technique is designed to address. Instead of immediately entering the target room using a standard buttonhook technique, the point man first steps sideways in front of the entry point in an effort to clear the immediate area just inside the target room, as well as much of the interior of the room as he can see before committing to crossing the line of departure.

While doing so, Point Man rocks back on his outside foot before pushing through the entry point. As he crosses the line of departure, Point Man performs a button hook maneuver to allow the second man to enter the target room using a crossover or least resistance technique. Using this technique should allow the second man to reach the inside of the opposite near wall from the point man at nearly the same time. This facilitates point and second man's ability to cover the rear of the other from threats in the opposite near corner. It also gives the point man an opportunity to size up resistance inside the room before he commits to entering it. 

Like we discussed in our last episode, this helps prevent the point man from entering a black room.  He can bail out back behind cover if the room is heavily defended, and the team can transition to limited penetration room clearing techniques or to nuke the room with grenades to clear it. An example of this technique is also attached as a comment to this episode's post on the Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim Facebook page.

Another variation of basic room entry techniques is the crisscross. It is performed like this. Point and second men stack on opposite sides of the room entry point. Both men crisscross through the doorway and along the inside of the opposite near wall. This technique requires good timing and coordination to prevent both men from running into each other as they breach the door.  Typically, this is accomplished by the point or second man raising or lowering his weapon. This acts as a nonverbal signal for the other entry team member to pass through the entry point first. 

So now let's start our discussion of dynamic room entry. Dynamic room entry relies on three basic principles.  Speed, surprise, and violence of action. Dynamic entry requires speed to achieve its goals. The entry team must maintain initiative as it clears the room. You want to keep the enemy reacting to your actions instead of you reacting to theirs. That being said, smoothness of movement is more important to dynamic room entry than speed for its own sake.

Remember, smooth is fast. The momentum of the entry team keeps the enemy unbalanced and helps to prevent it from adapting to the attack. Speed helps the entry team achieve and maintain initiative by outpacing the enemy. The objective of dynamic room entry is to complete all offensive actions and to clear the room before the enemy can react.

As a corollary to this principle, stealthy approach to the entry point assists in gaining the initiative and maintaining surprise once breach of the target room begins. Surprise can be achieved through rapid execution, shock, and deception. Surprise is especially critical during the initial stages of dynamic room entry, because it helps the entry team gain the initiative during their first few seconds of the breach.

Remember that combining speed and momentum, along with violence of action, can often result in a surprised enemy. Surprise will help establish relative superiority over the enemy in the target room. An unexpected and overwhelming attack into the target room can prevent the enemy from adjusting to the attack and or implementing an effective defense.  Gaining and maintaining physical and psychological momentum in dynamic room entry is essential to its success.

Quick, decisive action, including the use of accurate fire, target discrimination, and grenades overwhelm the enemy and maintains the momentum of clearing rooms. This is what is meant by violence of action. 

So how does each entry team member determine where he is to move within a target room? This is largely determined based on whether the point man decides to move left or right as he enters a center fed room, or along the near side wall or perpendicular wall in a corner fed room.

The basic rule is that the second man moves in the opposite direction, left or right, or near or perpendicular wall, from that taken by the point man. The third man moves in the opposite direction from the second man, and the fourth man moves in the opposite direction of the third man. If you are following another team member once you've entered the room, you have screwed up.  If the man ahead of you goes right, you go left. If he goes left, you go right. 

So, this brings me to the read/no read methods of room entry. As part of developing its TTPs, each entry team must decide whether to utilize a read or no read communication technique. With a no read method, each entry team member, starting with the point man, always turns in the same direction when entering the target room.

 Movement of the entire entry team is essentially scripted. The team hits the room the same way every time. For example, the point man always goes right, second goes left, third man goes right, and fourth man goes left in every center fed room. 

With the read method, the point man decides whether to move left or right when breaching the target room.  The rest of the entry team reads in which direction the entry team member ahead of him is moving and moves in the opposite direction along the near wall. With both the read and no read methods, entry team members maintain their position in the stack each time a room is breached. The point man is always the point man, the second man is always the second man, etc., etc. 

In contrast to both the read and no read methods, the free flow method is largely unscripted and undetermined, including the roles of each entry team member. With the free flow method, each team member follows the principles of moving the opposite direction of the person in front of you. With the free flow method, the first entry team member to stack up at the door or entry point becomes the point man.  Should the point man choose to go left along the near wall, the second man would go right. In turn, the third man would proceed left, and then the fourth man would go right. 

When the entry team stacks to hit the next room, whichever team member is at the front of the stack becomes the point man. Each entry team member flows into the room in the opposite direction from the team member in front of him.

The same free flow concept applies to all aspects of CQB. If one team member picks up coverage on an open door, the next team member moves past him to cover a different danger area. If the first team member moves past a danger area, the next team member will pick up coverage on it. The free flow method relies on minimal communication to perform.  Entry team members simply react to each other's actions and keep moving. Even when team members make mistakes, which will happen, they keep moving in order to maintain initiative and tempo. The free flow technique relies heavily on non-verbal signals between entry team members. 

Entry teams will use the shoulder squeeze or a similar signal based on entry team TTPs to notify another team member to move to and clear a danger area. Other nonverbal signals, such as a brush, are used to notify the entry team member that another entry team member is covering his flank. There are a multitude of variations of non-verbal signals.  Entry teams will need to formulate and decide which non-verbal signals to use as part of their TTPs. 

So, this brings us to some basic dynamic room entry principles. The first is to make and execute decisions quickly. Once you make a decision, don't second guess it. If you make a mistake, roll with it.  There will be time later to discuss mistakes and make improvements. Right now, finish the fight. 

The second one is that each entry team member must immediately move behind the team member ahead of him and proceed into the room without stopping in the entry point, a/k/a the fatal funnel. Once the line of departure is crossed, entry team members must commit to entering the room even while taking fire.  The initiative and likely the success of clearing the room depends on the commitment, speed, and violence of action of team members entering the room. 

The third one is that each entry team member needs to be proficient in point slash reactionary shooting. CQB is a very dynamic and fluid environment where team members may not have time to take measured shots.  While breaching the room, each team member's eyes need to be positioned just above his or her weapon's gun sights so that he can better scan the room and conduct target discrimination. This provides for better situational awareness because it opens the team member's observational field of view and prevents team members from fixating on their sights.  Team members must also become proficient with providing accurate fire on the enemy while on the move. 

The fourth one is that each team member needs to communicate with the others regarding what he or she is doing. Once the initial breach is completed, indicate your intention to move to a different location by stating moving.  The other team members respond with move. With this procedure, team members are aware of when a team member is in motion. See our last episode for more in depth discussion regarding CQB communications. 

The fifth principle is to only move as fast as you can accurately engage targets. Remember, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.  Moving too fast can result in the point man moving too far ahead of the rest of the entry team, also known as rabbiting. CQB requires fast eyes and fast hands, but slow feet. You cannot move faster than you can accurately shoot. And you cannot accurately shoot faster than you can positively identify targets.  In other words, target discrimination. That being said, it should take no more than five or six seconds to clear a medium sized room using the dynamic room clearing method. 

Then there is number six. As entry team members move to their final points of domination, they should engage hostile targets within their sector or area of responsibility.  Shooting is done on the move without stopping and while using reflexive or point shooting techniques. When the breach occurs, it is likely that enemy in the room will attempt to engage entry team members from a stationary position. Firing on the move should hamper the enemy's ability to calculate an accurate firing solution to hit you.  Domination of the room means that it is covered by overlapping fields of fire. If a member of the entry team becomes endangered by or is eliminated by the enemy, other entry team members are positioned to eliminate the threat. It also creates a dilemma for enemy in their target room because they often hesitate while trying to decide which target to engage.

Once the rest of the room is cleared, entry team members can then focus their fields of fire on other threat areas, such as entrances to adjoining rooms and uncleared/dead space located behind furniture, closets, half walls and the like. Be aware of false points of domination in the room. Depending on the shape and size of the room, your actual point of domination may be different from that originally anticipated.

And now there is number seven. Before the breach is commenced each entry team member needs to determine whether to shoulder his or her primary weapon on the left or right shoulder. Once the breach commences, entry team members should avoid switching the positioning of their primary weapon. Doing so can prevent the entry team members from having a stable firing platform as they are engaged while changing weapon positions.

The eighth one is that all entry team members need to be proactive to maintain initiative. If you see an uncovered danger area, cover it. If you see a threat, identify it for other team members while you put rounds into it. Always be looking for work. 

And for our last topic in the episode, I want to cover individual entry team member sectors and areas of responsibility.  Understanding each team member's sectors and areas of responsibility are critical to understanding team member movement into the room. 

So, let's start with point and second men. With a center fed room, the point man and the second man are responsible for initially breaching into the room along the near, in other words, strong wall, and to clear the near corners.  Their primary areas of responsibility are 1). the areas immediately in front of them as they enter the target room. 2).  the near corner on their respective sides of the target room entry point, and 3). the interior of the target room after clearing the corners and while moving to their point of room domination.

With a corner fed room, the point and second men are responsible for initially breaching into the room along the near and perpendicular walls of the room. As you recall, the perpendicular wall is the wall extending from the corner entry point that extends away from the door and perpendicular to the near wall.  Their primary areas of responsibility are 1).  the areas immediately in front of them as they enter the target room.  2). the near corner on their respective sides of the target room entry point, and 3). the interior of the target room after clearing the corners and while moving to their points of room domination.

The third man enters the target room behind the point man to a point halfway toward the near corner on that side of the room. His primary sector or area of responsibility is to clear and cover the center of the room. His primary areas of responsibility are one, the areas immediately in front of him, as he enters the target room and to the interior of the target room.

The fourth man is responsible for providing rear security for the rest of the entry team, entering the target room and throwing grenades into the room at the request of the point man. The fourth man is also often tasked with opening closed doors to allow the entry team to breach the room cleanly. His primary areas of responsibility are 1). the areas immediately in front of him as he enters the target room, 2). the interior of the target room, and 3).  clearing behind the entry point door, if applicable, and to provide rear security.

I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Tactical Tuesday. Tune in for our next episode when we're going to continue our discussion of dynamic room entry, including the eight essential steps of dynamic room entry, individual entry team member movement, common mistakes while implementing dynamic room entry and other related tactics, techniques, and procedures. If you have any topics you would like to see covered in future episodes of Tactical Tuesday, please let us know by posting it on the Modern Milsim Facebook page. If it's not one of the topics that we have already planned to cover, we will likely add it to our ever-growing topic list.

If you like this podcast, please subscribe to it on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, as well as on many other podcast directories. As always, thank you for your support, and I'll see you at our next episode. See you then.

To our listeners out there, thank you for tuning in and I look forward to providing you with new episodes every two weeks. If you like what you're hearing on this podcast, please subscribe and provide us with a review. We want to know what you like and how we can improve. You can also contact us on our Facebook page at facebook.com/modern milsim with any suggestions you may have. In our next episode of Tactical Tuesday, we will continue our discussion of dynamic room entry including the eight essential steps of dynamic room clearing individual entry team movement, common mistakes while implementing dynamic room entry and related tactics, techniques, and procedures.

If you want to know more about application of real world tactics, techniques, and procedures to MilSim, check out from Alpha to Omega, a MilSim Tactical Primer and Training Manual, as well as from Insertion to Extraction, Advanced MILSIM CQB Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures. Both books are available at amazon.com.  As always, thank you for your support.   I'll see you at our next installment of tactical Tuesday.

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