Tactical Tuesday Episode Twenty Two - CQB: Line Up a Row of Portapotties and Someone Will Clear Them (Overview)

In this first episode of Season Two of Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim, we discuss various preliminary aspects of Close Quarters Combat (CQB)on the MILSIM battlefield.  Specifically, we discuss:

• Definition of Close Quarters Battle (1:36)
• Angles of Attack/Angles of Exposure (3:55)
• Assault, Support and Security Elements (5:26)
• Definition of Dynamic Room Entry Method  (8:24)
• Definition of Deliberate Room Entry Method (11:28)
• Definition of Limited Penetration (LIMPIN) Room Entry Method (12:42)
• Transitioning Between  Room Entry Methods (13:46) 
• CQB Safety Rules (14:24)
• 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

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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

• 1:36 Definition of CQB
• 3:55 Angles of Attack and Angles of Exposure
• 5:26 Assault, Support and Security Elements
• 8:24 Dynamic Room Entry Method
• 11:28 Deliberate Room Entry Method
• 12:42 Limited Penetration Room Entry Method
• 13:46 Transitioning Between Room Entry Methods
• 14:24 CQB Safety Rules

Transcript

 TACTICAL TUESDAY WITH MODERN MILSIM – EPISODE 22 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 get ready.

Hello and welcome to episode twenty-two of Tactical Tuesday with Modern MilSim. As always, I am your host, Craig White. Thank you for being here. Now today we begin Season Two with an overview of Close Quarters Battle, or CQB for short. CQB is an extremely complex subject with many variations in its TTPs. Some effective CQB tactics and techniques have been around for more than 50 years.  More recent TTPs have been developed as enemy tactics have evolved and to make CQB more survivable. 

Now I have a brief word of warning here. The tactics, techniques, and procedures in this podcast are for MILSIM purposes only. They have been adapted from real world tactics for MILSIM. Actual CQB combat is a deadly endeavor.  Do not apply these TTPs to real world combat. 

So with that disclaimer out of the way, where do we start with this discussion? Well, the first thing we need to do is to define CQB. Close quarters battle or CQB. Is combat characterized as short duration, extremely violent action at close range. Although CQB is normally associated with clearing rooms and buildings, CQB TTPs can be used anywhere.  The environment where CQB takes place does not define it. Instead, it is the violence of the short-range engagement that separates CQB from other combat. 

Because CQB is the tactical set typically used to clear buildings in urban terrain, there is an obvious interplay between it and military operations in urban terrain tactics.  That interplay sometimes causes players to confuse one for the other. There are occasions where due to the extremely close range of outdoor engagements, friendly forces will resort to CQB tactics to outmaneuver and prevail against the enemy. With that exception, the rule of thumb differentiating mount and CQB TTPs is the following:  MOUT tactics are used to get the entry teams through urban environments and to the target building. Once the entry team breaches the door of the target building to gain entry and to establish a foothold, it transitions to CQB TTPs to clear it. The objective is to seize and clear the building. CQB is the way to do it.

During this discussion, I want to make sure that we are all using the same CQB terms and definitions. I think if everyone is on the same page concerning what various CQB terms of art mean, it will allow you to gain greater understanding of the concepts that make up CQB TTPs. So let's talk about angles of attack and angles of exposure.

Central to the successful application of CQB TTPs is situational awareness. And when I say situational awareness, in this context, I'm talking about hyper awareness. Visualize yourself in a complex building interior. In an outdoor environment, the threats, other than air or fires, come at you in essentially two dimensions.  In CQB, the threats can not only come at you in two dimensions but also from above or below. As such, your situation awareness is not a 360 degree circle. You are in a 360 degree sphere. 

You and every other member of the inter team must identify both angles of attack and angles of exposure to your positions in a fluid environment where these angles change, according not only to your movement, but also to that of the enemy.  Angles of attack are defined as angles that team members can cover with fire and through which team members can also attack the enemy. In contrast, angles of exposure are angles from which you or your entry team may be attacked by the enemy. These two types of angles exist in every combat situation, but they become acutely important inside buildings because the close quarters reduce the reaction times needed to respond to threats.  Keep in mind that angles of attack and angles of exposure are not the same thing. This is especially applicable when you apply diminishing sectors or slice of the pie techniques. You could be exposing your leg or other parts of your body to the enemy incoming fire before you're even able to acquire the enemy.

CQB is about using angles in an environment to place yourself in a more advantageous position than the enemy. As such, each member of the entry team needs to constantly calculate angles of attack. To ensure that any given moment he or she will have a better angle of attack and line of fire on a potential enemy than a potential enemy will have on him or her.  Combining multiple advantageous angles of attack with speed, surprise, and violence of action while reducing your angles of exposure will interfere with the enemy's decision making process and increase the likelihood of success in clearing the target room.  Using angles in the CQB environment to maximize you and your team's situational awareness and to maximize your own is key to success while employing CQB room, hallway, and staircase clearing methodology.

When it comes to clearing buildings, a platoon needs to be divided into three separate elements. They are the assault, support, and security elements. With your typical platoon, each squad assumes one of these roles. The squad acting as the assault element is typically divided into two fire teams that act as an entry team.  The assault element is tasked with actively clearing the building of enemy forces including clearing rooms, hallways, and stairways.  Since agility and the ability to recognize and utilize angles are the assault team's bread and butter its members should utilize rifles and/or submachine guns. Support gunners need to be relegated to the support or security elements.

Normally, entry teams should consist of four members. Should an entry team consist of five or six members, no more than four should enter a medium sized room. The remaining entry team members should remain outside of the target room and act as either additional security or as an additional door breacher.  Each team member is identified by his or her position in the entry team stack, moving from the front to the rear. The first man in the stack is the point or first man. The second person in the stack is the second man. The third person in the stack is the third man. And the fourth man in the stack is the security or fourth man.

In a four man entry team stack, the First/Point Man should be the entry team's best reflexive shooter. The second man position should be filled by the team's next best shooter. The entry team leader should fill the third man position, followed by the fourth man who should be the entry team's breacher or grenadier.

The support element should consist of at least one support weapon gunner and a medic. With the exception of entry team leaders, any other specialist in the squad should also be part of the support element. The support element follows behind the assault element after the initial breach of the target building.  It is intended to provide medical and fire support to members of the assault element. It is often also tasked with hallway security as the assault team clears rooms. Finally, the security team is responsible for clearing the approaches to the building breach point. Once the assault and support elements enter the target building, the security element should leave a buddy pair behind to secure the entry point.  The remaining members of the security element should follow behind the support element. The security element is then tasked with holding security on all critical danger areas. They're not within the target room, including stairs and hallway junctures, while the assault and support elements are clearing the building ahead of them.

Although there are myriad variations of room entry techniques, they essentially boil down into three different categories, dynamic room entry, deliberate room entry, and limited penetration room entry. Be advised that there are many variations among these room entry techniques based primarily on adapting techniques from one room clearing method to another.  Room clearing methods based on a mix of techniques from dynamic entry, deliberate, or limited penetration are often referred to as hybrid room clearing methods. 

The first CQB method or technique is Dynamic Room Entry. This is the method of which many of us are familiar. For you military veterans out there, this method is the underpinning of Battle Drill Six.  Dynamic Room Entry relies primarily on speed, surprise, and violence of action. It uses lateral separation of entry team members and triangulation of friendly fire to achieve its goals. The main advantage of Dynamic Room Entry is when the entry team breaches a room containing inexperienced players and or where it is able to achieve surprise during the breach.

The main disadvantages of Dynamic Room Entry is its lessened effectiveness once the initial breach occurs; the likelihood that enemy in rooms adjacent to the target room will become aware of the entry team's presence and will likely counter attack; and the inherent risk of immediately entering a target room, potentially filled with a reinforced or dug in enemy.

Although some variations of this technique utilize a two-man element to clear rooms. My experience has shown that a four-man entry team is the minimal effective size needed to effectively clear occupied medium sized rooms using this technique. Two or more entry teams may be needed for larger rooms.  For small rooms (< 50 square feet) usually a two man element is sufficient. 

As indicated earlier in this episode, dynamic room entry is guided by three primary principles. They are speed, surprise, and violence of action. So let's talk about speed first. Dynamic entry requires speed to achieve its goals. The entered team must maintain initiative as it clears the room.  This is 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. The momentum of the entry team keeps the pressure on the enemy, keeps the enemy unbalanced, and helps to prevent it from adapting to the attack.  Speed also helps the entry team achieve and maintain initiative by outpacing the enemy. 

Then there is surprise. 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 the first seconds of the breach. Remember that combining speed and momentum with violence of action can often result in a surprised enemy.  Surprise will help establish relative superiority over 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. 

Finally, there is violence of action. Gaining and maintaining physical and psychological momentum in a dynamic room entry is essential to its success.  Quick, decisive action, including the use of accurate fire, target discrimination, and grenades overwhelms the enemy and maintains the momentum of clearing rooms. Violence of action is essential to maintaining pressure on the enemy. 

Deliberate room entry relies more on clearing as much of the room as possible from outside of the doorway or entry point before using dynamic entry techniques to clear the near side, also known as hard corners.  Stealth is at a premium for Deliberate Room Entry. If compromised, the entry team will likely need to transition from Deliberate Room Entry to Dynamic Room Entry technique to clear the target room. The advantage of Deliberate Room Entry is that up to 90% of the target room can be cleared from outside of the room.  Utilizing the Deliberate Room Entry Technique lessens the odds of incurring friendly casualties while clearing the room. The entry team has the opportunity to ascertain enemy strength and fortification in the room before committing to breaching it. The disadvantage of Deliberate Room Entry Technique is that the entry team is vulnerable to attacks while it is in the hallway, and that the point man is exposed to potential enemy fire while he sweeps across the doorway or entry point to clear most of the target room.  It also is less effective where the door to the target room is closed. 

As with the Dynamic Room Entry, you will likely need a four man entry team to effectively clear a medium sized room using Deliberate Room Entry technique. Two or more entry teams may be needed to clear larger rooms. 

Like the Deliberate Room Entry, Limited Penetration or Limpin Room Entry relies on clearing as much of the target room as possible while using the walls and or doorway and entry point frame to provide cover or concealment against enemy incoming fire. In other words, you are fighting from the door. It relies more on security cover and force protection by engaging the enemy almost exclusively from outside the target room. 

Unlike both dynamic room entry and deliberate room entry techniques, the Limited Penetration Room Entry technique is focused on force protection. As such, enemy team members do not actually enter the target room until almost all of it is cleared from the outside. The near or hard corners of the target room are cleared by diminishing sectors or slicing the pie from the frame of the entry point or by limited penetration into the room by one or more entry team members.  The main disadvantages of limited room entry is that it is often plagued by entry team members getting bogged down at the target room entry point and by enemy attacks on its flanks while doing so. 

Now, entry teams should train to the point where they can easily transition from one room entry method to another.  For example, if the entry team initially utilizes a limited penetration room entry technique but it's getting bogged down, it should easily transition to dynamic room entry. If the team initially utilizes a deliberate room entry or dynamic room entry technique, but determines that the target room is heavily fortified, the point man should be able to pull back while the entry team transitions to limited penetration room entry technique. The entry team needs to be flexible enough to transition to each room entry technique if circumstances warrant it. 

Now as the last topic of this introductory episode concerning CQB tactics, techniques, and procedures, I want to talk about entry team safety.  Because CQB tactics, techniques, and procedures are typically performed in close confines such as building rooms and hallways, they are subject to different safety rules and procedures than those utilized on a square range. Due to the close confined spaces typical in CQB operations, safety rules need to take into account the lack of time to react to events occurring near entry team members, the typical human flinch away or bail reaction from sudden threats that appear in close proximity to individual team members and other factors.

So here are the CQB rules. I'll have illustrations of each rule on the post for this episode at the Modern Milsim Facebook page. The first rule is called the two step, two meter, or six foot reactionary space rule. Each entry team member has a reactionary space that extends in a 2 meter or 6 foot radius around him.  This working or reactionary space is designed to provide enough time and space between individual entry team members to allow them to react to entry team members around them. The reactionary space is sometimes also referred to as reactionary gap. 

The next safety rule is earning the shot. Earning the shot means that a team member does not take a shot if it places another team member in danger.  Instead, the team member in question must move or otherwise manipulate his weapon to earn a firing lane that does not place another team member in peril of friendly fire. It takes to account short reaction times necessary to respond to another team member's actions. If you have not earned the shot, do not take it.  Avoid shooting from depth behind other entry team members where there is an inadequate time and space to prevent friendly fire.   

Getting online is a technique for earning the shot in structures and areas where there is enough lateral space to accommodate it. With this technique, an entry team moves to the side and around another teammate in order to line up beside him.  In doing so, each entry team member maintains visual on his other teammates via his peripheral vision and maintains his and his teammates reactionary space. The position of both team members on line with each other prevent them from firing on each other unless one of them moves forward past the other and intrudes into the other teammates firing lane.  It also limits the possibility of another team member moving or flinching into the firing lane of an adjacent team member. 

If you properly follow the techniques and procedures for dynamic and deliberate room entry, you will note that the movement of entry team members along the near or strong wall position in an online formation.  This is also the reason why entry team members need to avoid over penetrating into the room. Getting offline allows team members to inadvertently fire on other team members from behind. Getting online works in conjunction with the 45 degree rule. And the two step/two meter/six  foot reactionary gap rule.

Now the next safety rule is the 45 degree rule. Each entry team member maintains a 45-degree firing lane in front of him or her. At no time does an entry team member allow another entry team member to enter into his field of fire, nor does he allow his 45 degree field of fire to intersect with another team member.  This rule works to limit left and right movement of each team member's field of fire. It also prevents an entry team member from masking or blocking fire of other team members against a target. 

Next, we have the 2 meter to target rule. Team members need to maintain a 2 meter or 6 foot standoff distance between the shooting team member and his target.  Closing with the target, especially within 2 meters of him, places that team member in danger of being hit by fire from other team members on that target because of the shooting team member's proximity to the target and likely masking or blocking of other team members’ fire. 

Remember, you always want to have two or more guns on any given target.  Two guns are one, one is none. You never want to engage the enemy in a one on one firefight. Masking support fire from other teammates by closing too close to your target creates such a one on one firefight. 

So then we get to first to shoot owns the firing lane. Do not compete with other team members to use a firing lane.  The first one to shoot owns the lane. This rule helps prevent team members from inadvertently hitting another entry team member in front of them. This is especially true in confined environments, such as hallways. Once another team member has engaged the enemy, earn the shot from another safe angle, if possible.  If not, hold your fire until a safe firing lane opens up. 

Then we come to muzzle discipline. Entry team members should have constant awareness of the position of their muzzle at all times. Especially when an entry team is stacked up, there is a significant danger that second, third, and fourth men in the stack will muzzle flash team members in front of them, especially the back of the head.  For that reason, team members will need to use either a low ready or high ready position to prevent sweeping of the head and or legs of the entry team member ahead of them. Entry team members must constantly extend an imaginary line between his weapon muzzle and his intended target to ensure his fire will not hit friendly forces and to identify other potential safety issues.

Now, if you get hit or fall down, stay down and remain down until the engagement is over to prevent being hit by friendly fire from the rear. 

Next, we have grenade discipline. Each entry team member must maintain awareness of the position of every other team member. Know the blast radius of the area of effect weapon that you are using to ensure that you do not deliver the weapon where it will create friendly casualties.

Finally, the overall biggest safety rule there is is situational awareness. This is the most essential consideration in the employment of CQB TTPs. Awareness by entry team members of changing conditions surrounding them as well as changes in known or potential threats are critical to force protection and completion of the mission assigned to it.  Team members need to constantly observe and evaluate their surroundings for potential threats in three dimensions. It is also especially important to maintain situational awareness while breaching the room. Tunnel vision such as fixing or clearing corners as opposed to eliminating known threats, feeling the transition from primary sectors to secondary sectors, failing to be aware of the positions of other team members and over penetrating into the room while clearing it will result in friendly casualties or loss of the entire entry team.

I hope you've enjoyed this first episode of season two of this podcast. Tune in next week when we're going to discuss room and hallway anatomy, including common room types and how to describe them in a tactical sense, including the fatal funnel, immediate danger area, and moving angles. As before, each episode in the second season will build on the previous episodes.  We will crawl, then walk, then run, right? 

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 Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, as well as 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/ModernMilSim with any suggestions you may have.  In our next episode of Tactical Tuesday, we will discuss room and hallway anatomy, including common room types and how to describe them in a tactical sense, including the fatal funnel, immediate danger area, and moving angles. 

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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