Tactical Tuesday Episode Twenty - Force Multipliers: Being Able to Achieve More with Less Manpower

In this episode of Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim, we discuss the use of force multipliers on the MILSIM battlefield.  Specifically, we discuss:

• Definition of Force Multipliers (1:42)
• Making Yourself a Force Multiplier (2:13)
• Vehicles/Technicals (4:01)
• Fires (7:45)
• Close Air Support (CAS)  (12:45)
• and more.

A new episode of Tactical Tuesdays is typically uploaded on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.
  
SHOW LINKS/RESOURCES

To learn more about Craig White click HERE.

To find “From Alpha to Omega, A Milsim Tactical Primer and Training Manual” :  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FZ57B23/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ModernMilsim
If you have a topic you would like to see in an episode of Tactical Tuesdays, please suggest it in the comments of the post containing the posted episode.  We do read them.

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You can also find “From Alpha to Omega, A Milsim Tactical Primer and Training Manual” and “From Insertion to Extraction:  Advanced MILSIM CQB Tactics, Techniques and Procedures”  at Amazon.com.  

Chapters

• 1:42 Definition of Force Multipliers
• 2:13 Making Yourself into a Force Multiplier
• 4:01 Vehicular Support/Technicals
• 7:45 Fires
• 12:45 Close Air Support/CAS

Transcript

 TACTICAL TUESDAY WITH MODERN MILSIM – EPISODE 20 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 Twenty of Tactical Tuesday with Modern MilSim. As always, I am your host, Craig White, thank you for being here. As many of you have probably noticed, there has been a pause in new episodes in this podcast. Well, since the courts have now opened back up following the COVID 19 pandemic, I have suddenly become much busier at work, and as a result, that has cut into my episode prep time.

Fortunately, things have now slowed down a bit and I'm back to creating more content. I don't know about you, but it's hard to believe that we are reaching the end of season one of this podcast. I'm planning to finish up this season with an episode on combat in Urban Terrain before moving on to Season Two.

Season Two is going to be primarily focused on Close Quarters Battle, or CQB, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures. Be that as it may, I am still looking for interesting topics to discuss with you. If you have an idea, send me a private message or make a comment on the Modern MilSim Facebook page. 

Today we're going to talk about MilSim Force Multipliers.  A force multiplier is defined as a capability that when added to and employed by a combat force significantly increases the combat potential of that force and thus enhances the probability of accomplishing its mission. Essentially, a force multiplier increases a given unit's combat effectiveness. Some examples of force multipliers are communications, effective leadership, force cohesion and morale, night vision, technicals or gun trucks, close air support, and artillery fire.  Now the definition of force multiplication applies not only to formations and units, but also to individuals as well. 

So let's talk multipliers. At this level, we are talking about what actions and concepts can make you, or any other individual player, more effective on the Milsim battlefield.  Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is individual fieldcraft, especially the use of cover.  Good fieldcraft keeps you alive and in the fight for a longer period of time. If you can stay in the fight longer than the enemy, you are turning yourself into a force multiplier for your fireteam or squad. Similarly, if you developed yourself to a better leader, and are willing to direct troops in a manner that will enhance both their simulated lethality and survivability, you have turned yourself into a force multiplier for your unit.

As we have discussed since the first episode of this podcast, the effects of fieldcraft and the resulting tactics can be scaled up from individual players to fireteams and squads, from squads to platoons, from platoons to companies, and from companies to battalions. When numbers of players seek to improve their skills and work as a team to secure objectives, they greatly improve the combat effectiveness of their unit.  They themselves become force multipliers. 

So let's turn our attention to larger unit force multipliers. When we talk about force multipliers for larger units, such as platoons, companies, and battalions, I generally think of three things, artillery fire missions, close air support and vehicular support in the form of gun trucks or technicals.

Now in MILSIM operations, it is unlikely you will encounter tracked armored vehicles besides the obvious legal liabilities of operating armored track vehicles in close proximity to people. Lawyers, right? Tracked armored vehicles are generally prohibitively expensive to operate. As a result, you are more often to encounter wheeled vehicles or tentacles.

Such vehicles, or VICs, usually come in two flavors, gun trucks or transports. Gun trucks are usually armed with one or more crew served weapons, including machine guns mounted on top, or in the case of a pickup truck or technical, in the bed of the truck. On the offensive, these gun trucks support infantry operations by suppressing enemy positions, to allow friendly troops to move up and assault objectives, to use accurate fire to destroy dug in enemy positions, and to use anti-tank weapons to destroy the enemy vehicles.

Although, vehicle support on the offensive acts as a force multiplier for the attacker, vehicles are very vulnerable to attack in urban environments. As such the effectiveness of gun trucks rise dramatically when they effectively use the standoff range of their weapons to stay out of the effective range of enemy anti-tank weapons, while also acting in conjunction with friendly infantry to destroy anti-tank teams before they can engage the gun truck.  Remember that each gun truck is a force multiplier that is best used in support of disembarked infantry. The gun truck should use its main gun at standoff range to provide suppressive fire in support of troops in contact. Gun truck drivers can lay down the hate on enemy positions to keep their heads down while infantry move to flank and destroy them.

Gun truck operators also provide overwatch to units moving on objectives, suppress the enemy while other ground forces push through the objective and set security around it. With that in mind, also realize that gun trucks are a large target for enemy forces. Enemy forces will make every effort to eliminate vehicles from the equation and to prevent them from supporting friendly troops.

On top of that, urban terrain is deadly for vehicles that are unsupported by infantry. For that reason, they need to stay out of enemy grenade range and use infantry on the ground to clear buildings located on either side of them. Generally speaking, gun trucks are there to provide support for ground forces and not to be the point of the attack.  They can provide physical cover for friendly forces as necessary, but must be aware of their vulnerability to grenades and other anti-tank weapons in urban areas. The threat is actually greater from higher floors of the building than the ground floor because it is more difficult for ground troops to clear upper stories of buildings from the outside.

For that reason, vehicles escorting ground troops must give them time to clear buildings on each side of the vehicle before it moves up. On the defense, the gun truck can strengthen the position of defending units by using the longer range of their main weapons to attrit or chew up enemy units, preferably in the open as they approach defending units and before the enemy can effectively engage them.

Again, gun trucks and supported defending units should be positioned so that they can fire over defenders’ heads to engage the enemy. Having defending units between the gun truck and the attacking units will hopefully shield the truck from effective enemy and anti-tank attack. Unlike gun trucks, unarmed vehicles typically act as battle taxis to get fresh troops into the fight while also transporting wounded troops to the assembly area or casualty collection point to be revived as per the Milsim organizers rules.  Nothing helps erode enemy morale than multiple transports disembarking multiple platoons into a battle especially when they are supported by one or more gun trucks.  For vehicles with transport capability, they should use it to their advantage. Vehicles should drop troops in an arc around objectives where there is cover to protect them. Not only does this degrade the enemy's effectiveness because they're being attacked from multiple angles, but it also maximizes the effectiveness of attacking troops.  Not only are attacking troops in cover but they are far more likely to be able to put flanking or infilade fire on enemy troops. 

Now, one of the bigger force multipliers at Milsim events are artillery fires. Fires are defined as indirect fire delivered by artillery, including howitzers, mortars, and the like.  At MilSim events, call for fires are simulated by use of a call for fires procedure with one or more admins from the event organizers simulating the artillery strike and tallying casualties. When properly employed, fires are a huge force multiplier that spoil enemy attacks, weaken enemy lines, create enemy mass casualties, create obscuration through the use of smoke shells and illumination at night through flares.

Fires are best employed when they can create mass enemy casualties with one strike. As such, it is critical that players calling in a fire mission properly identify the target as enemy and timely and accurately direct the fires onto the enemy target. To achieve this goal, force commanders use a call for fires procedure as set forth in MILSIM Organizer's rules.

Most calls for fire consist of four different transmissions. The first transmission identifies the unit requesting the fire mission and the type of fire mission being requested. The second transmission consists of the MGRS grid coordinate of the target or pre plotted fire target reference point. The third transmission consists of the requesting unit giving a target description, the method of engaging the target including the number and type of rounds fired, and the method of fire including whether to use area fire, (spread) or precision/point fire, (converged, sheaf).  If the target is within 100 feet of friendly forces, the requesting unit must announce danger close. 

The fourth transmission or message to observer is made by fire control after the unit calls for fires and before the first round is actually fired. It confirms the number and type of rounds being fired.

So putting this information together, a call of fires would go something like this. First, the requesting unit will state, fire control, fire control, this is Whiskey 6, fire for effect, over. The fire control officer then respond with fire for effect, out.  

The requesting unit would then respond with a second transmission of grid 54467899, over.  Fire control responds with grid 54467899, out.

The requesting unit would then go with the next transmission, which would be five rounds HE spread, two squads of infantry in the wood line, over. 

Fire control respond by five rounds HE spread, . two squads of infantry in the wood line, out. 

Now at this point, the message to observer from fire control would follow.  It would state something like this. Five round HE spread, JTF 015, out. Now, this message to observer includes not only the rounds being fired, but also the target reference number for it, or the fire mission number rather, JTF 015. Now, right before the rounds would leave the tubes, the fire control officer would announce: Shot, over, indicating the rounds are already in the air heading toward the target.

The request unit would respond with “shot, out”, indicating he realized the rounds are inbound to the target, and he's waiting for the impact. Now, a few moments before the rounds would actually make impact in the target area, fire control officer would announce, “splash, over”, to which the responding unit would respond, “splash, out”, and immediately thereafter, the rounds should hit the target area. 

Now, in the real world, the requesting unit would have a forward observer that would report the effects of the fires on the target. However, since this is a MILSIM event and the entire fires procedure is being handled by admins for the event organizer, typically battle damage assessment would be handled by the admins themselves as the fire control officer.

So in effect, the fire control officer would come back with the final message of end of mission, and then whatever the battle damage assessment would be, such as 15 infantry, EKIA, and that's how that would work. It is important not only to provide fire control with the proper location of the enemy target to avoid fratricide but also must timely call fires for the same reason. Delaying fires could result in your forces moving into an area of the effect of the artillery fires. 

Be aware that fires along with close air support are probably the biggest mass casualty producing weapons of either side.  With a typical area of effect of fires being a 20 foot radius, it should suppress or hit anyone in a 40 foot diameter of the impact point of the strike that are not inside buildings. Fires can reduce enemy forces in anticipation of an attack to seize the objective and can destroy enemy vehicles. It can also deploy smoke to screen an attack. On the defense, fires can spoil an enemy attack and can illuminate the battlefield to reveal an enemy attack.

Like artillery fires, close air support, or CAS, when used properly, is also a large force multiplier. Air delivered weapons tend to be larger than those delivered by field artillery. A typical area of effect for CAS, using Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAMs, It's a 50 foot radius. In other words, one JDAM should suppress or hit anyone in a 100 foot diameter.

According to some MilSim organizer rules, JDAMS can also be used to simulate destruction of buildings and all troops contained in them.

Like with call for fires, a call for close air support has a specific procedure that is similar to that for a call for fires. It should go something like this:  First, the requesting unit through a JTAC would request CAS in the following manner.

Black rain (which would be the air support operation centers call sign), this is Liberty six, CAS mission, Over… to which the ASOC would respond with CAS mission, out.  The requesting unit would then give the grid by stating grid 54317926, over…to which the ASOC would respond with, grid 54317926, out. 

The JTAC that would then request the weapon, which would be one JDAM, platoon of platoon of infantry and one gun truck in the open, over. To which the ASOC would confirm with one JDAM, platoon of infantry and gun truck in the open, out.

The ASOC would then respond with would be essentially the same as message to observer in a fire mission, which goes something like this. One JDAM, JTF 026, out. With this message, the ASOC is advising the JTAC that one weapon, a JDAM, is to be released and assigning a close air support identifier number.

Now, a few moments before the weapon was released, the ASOC would advise the JTAC that it is coming by stating: “weapon release, over”, to which the JTAC would respond with “weapon release, out”. That would be followed by the ASOC advising the JTAC that the weapon was about to make impact by stating “splash, over”, to which the JTAC would respond and acknowledge by saying “splash, out”.

And also similar to a fires mission, the ASOC would advise the battle damage assessment and the end of mission statement along the lines of this:  “End of mission, 24 infantry, EKIA, one vehicle destroyed, out”.  Used properly during offensive operations, close air support can be extremely successful in taking out large formations of enemy troops or clearing a fortified building ahead of advancing troops. 

Similarly, on the defense, a well placed JDAM can spoil an enemy attack and to set them up for an effective counterattack.  Because of the large area of effect for a JDAM weapon when it's being employed as close air support, great care must be made to make sure you do not commit fratricide on your own troops.

This can be avoided by having a forward observer or a JTAC with eyes on the target area to ensure there are no troops moving into it and also making sure that the strike is brought in timely so that friendly forces do not move into the target area. 

So now I want to talk briefly about how troops can avoid being casualties brought on by artillery fires or close air support.  One is to make sure that you are in cover, especially overhead cover, to make sure that the effects of the weapon will not have any impact on you and also to make sure there is a great deal of dispersion between you and your other players so that you do not make yourselves a tempting target for an artillery strike or a close air support mission. 

So these are some of the basic considerations of using and being aware of force multipliers on the Milsim battlefield. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. I want you to tune in next week when we're going to discuss urban operations, also known as military operations on urban terrain.

 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 we are already planning 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 podcasts, as well as many other podcast directories.  As always, thank you for your support, and I'll see you in 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/ModernMilSim with any suggestions you may have.  In our next episode of Tactical Tuesday, we will discuss urban operations, also known as military operations on urban terrain. 

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

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