Tactical Tuesday Episode Twenty-Three - Room and Hallway Anatomy: The Language of CQB

In this episode of Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim, we discuss CQB Room and Hallway Anatomy.  Specifically, we discuss:

• Definitions of Center and Corner Fed Rooms (1:59)
• Room Shape Characteristics  (4:29)
• Describing Interior of Rooms (6:28)
• Fatal Funnel (9:50)
• Partial View Zone (11:53)
• Blind Zones/Dead Space  (12:20)
• Immediate Danger Area (12:46)
• Hallway Types (13:07)
• Diminishing Sectors/Slicing the Pie (14:44) 
• Moving/Floating Angle (20:43)
• 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.

Website:  https://tacticaltuesdaywithmodernmilsim.buzzsprout.com

YouTube Instructional Videos:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUXI_GBdPeDuIoq_KJeCgWg

SUBSCRIBE

If you like what you hear on this episode, please subscribe and provide us with a review and a rating.    You can subscribe  to Tactical Tuesday on ITunes, Stitcher, Spotify and YouTube.  You can also find us on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/ModernMilsim.  If you like this episode, you can find others Here.

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

• 1:59 Definitions of Center and Corner Fed Rooms
• 4:29 Room Shape Characteristics
• 6:28 Describing Interior of Rooms
• 9:50 Fatal Funnel
• 11:53 Partial View Zone of Room
• 12:20 Blind Zone /Dead Space
• 12:46 Immediate Danger Area
• 13:07 Hallway Types
• 14:44 Diminishing Sectors/Slicing the Pie
• 20:43 Moving/Floating Angle

Transcript

 TACTICAL TUESDAY WITH MODERN MILSIM – EPISODE 23 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-three of Tactical Tuesday with Modern MilSim. As always, I am your host. Thank you for being here. Now today we are 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.

In order to have an intelligent discussion regarding CQB tactics, techniques, and procedures, we need to use a common method of describing different types of rooms and hallways. For purposes of CQB tactics, we use That methodology is referred to as room and hallway anatomy. It is also what we call a shorthand for identifying potential danger areas and threats in a CQB environment.  In an effort to maintain clarity in what tends to be a very complicated subject, we will be using this shorthand method throughout season two of this podcast. 

Now, the number one rule for describing room or hallway anatomy is that you always describe it from the perspective of the breaching entry team and not from the perspective of the enemy or a different entry team.  This is to prevent confusion and to make sure all members of the breaching entry team are properly oriented. On the target room. So with that in mind, let's get to it. 

The first concept we need to discuss is the location of the entry point in the target room. For CQB purposes, each room is described as being either a center fed or corner fed room.  A center fed room is the easiest one to describe. It is a room where the entranceway or door is located near the center of the room’s near wall. In a center fed room, members of the entry team can proceed both left and right along the near wall as they enter the target room. A center fed room is a room where its entranceway or door is located near the center of the room's near wall.

In a center fed room, members of the entry team can proceed both left and right along the near wall as they enter the target room. Any room where the entranceway or door is located at or near the corner of the room is defined as a corner fed room. In a corner fed room, members of the entry team can essentially proceed in only one direction along the near wall as they enter the target room.

Note that a room with an entry point almost but not quite in the corner of the room is still defined as a corner fed room. Room entry for corner fed rooms works the same as standard room entry, a/k/a. center fed except that the dominant walls are not parallel to each other. An entry team can either move along the near wall or the perpendicular wall that feeds into the corner with the near wall.

Statistically speaking, most building rooms are corner fed. Depending on the direction from which you approach a corner fed room, it can be described as either positive or negative. A positive corner fed room is one where you can see the side wall from the outside as you approach the entry point to the room.  A negative corner fed room is one where you cannot see the sidewall of the room as you approach the entry point to it.  Wth a positive corner fed room, you can immediately determine that it is not a center fed room and that the threat area of the room will extend from the opposite side of the entry point from the sidewall.

In contrast, you cannot determine that a negative corner fed room is not a center fed room until you either make entry into the room or it is revealed by pieing off around the near edge of the entry point to the room. Remember that all rooms are first defined as being either center or corner fed. 

Next we need to talk about room type or shape.  Although there are many variations, room types can essentially be categorized into one of four types. They are the box shaped room, linear shaped room, L shaped room and irregularly shaped room. First, let's talk about the box shaped room. The box shaped room is the easiest to describe. Although it's walls do not have to be the same length, a box shaped room is nearly square in shape. Box shaped rooms are found in many residential, industrial, and commercial buildings. 

In contrast to a box shaped room, the linear shaped room is described as a four-sided room where one set of parallel walls are significantly longer than the other set. It is a room that is more rectangular shaped.  It is sometimes referred to as a tubular room. 

So that brings us to the L-shaped room. Like the name suggests, this is a room that is shaped like an L. One portion of the room is offset and extends off to the side of the main portion of the room. The larger side of the room, from the perspective of the entry point, is the heavy side.

For example, if the portion of the L-shaped room extends out of the main part of the room to the right from the perspective of the entry point, it is referred to as L-shaped room, heavy right. Although L-shaped rooms can be found in any building, they are most often found in apartments and hotels.

Finally, we have the irregularly shaped room. Irregularly shaped rooms are those that do not fit into the box, linear, or L-shaped room categories. These rooms are commonly found in industrial and commercial buildings. Generally speaking, these rooms are most likely made up of a combination of box, linear, or L-shaped rooms.  Examples of box, linear, and L-shaped rooms are attached to the comments of the post for this episode of the Modern Milsim Facebook page. 

Although describing the type of room is fairly simple, things get more complicated as you describe the structures and locations within the room itself. During this podcast, we will refer to various locations within the target room in relation to the target rooms entry point.  Like we talked about earlier, rooms are described from the perspective of the team entering the room. For example, in a center fed room, the near wall is defined as the wall in which the doorway or entry point is located. It is sometimes also referred to as the strong or dominant wall. The far wall is the opposite wall from the near wall.  The left wall is the wall to the left of the entry point from the standpoint of the breaching entry team, and the right wall is the wall to the right. With a corner fed room, the strong or dominant walls are defined as the near wall, as well as the perpendicular wall nearest the entry point. This concept will be explained in more detail when we get to dynamic room entry in a future episode of this podcast.

Similarly, the near corners are the corners located to the left and right of the doorway or entry point where the near wall joins the right and left walls. The near corners are individually referred to as right near corner and left near corner, respectively. Near corners are sometimes also referred to as hard corners because they cannot be seen from the outside of the room through the entry point.

The far corners are the corners where the far wall joins the left and right walls. In a similar fashion, these corners are individually referred to as left far corner and right far corner, respectively. Far corners are sometimes referred to as soft or easy corners because you can see them from the outside of the entry point without actually entering the room.

Unless the doorway or entry point to the target room is located exactly in the middle of the near wall, the wall on one side of the door entry point will be longer than the other. In such circumstances, the longer part of the wall is defined as heavy or long and the shorter side is defined as light or short.

Primary corners are corners that the entry team expects to encounter while initially breaching the room. They include both the initial hard and soft corners of the target room. Secondary corners are ones that the entry team encounters after the initial breach of the target room. These include hidden corners that are out of the entry team's line of sight as it enters the target room.  Secondary corners also include corners in rooms immediately adjacent to the target room with an open entry point. Secondary corners may be unexpected and can catch the entry team off guard. 

So let's talk about the line of departure. The line of departure is an imaginary line drawn across the width of the doorway or entry point.  It represents the separation of the interior of the target room from its exterior. It is also the line past which the entry team must leave cover, enter, and dominate the target room. With dynamic room entry and deliberate room entry techniques, crossing the line of departure with an entry team member's body or weapon muzzle commits the point man and the rest of the entry team to breaching and clearing the room.

In addition to describing the walls and corners to the target room, room Anatomy also describes various danger areas within the room. The area that most of you have already heard about is the Fatal Funnel. The Fatal Funnel is a term used to describe the area of greatest risk while breaching the target room.  It is called the Fatal Funnel because it is the area where the enemy in the target room will most likely train most, if not all, of its weapons. The Fatal Funnel allows the enemy to focus their fire on the entry point where the entry team is forced to enter the room. It is the converging fields of fire toward the room's entry point that gives the Fatal Funnel its name.

Be aware that there may be more than one Fatal Funnel into the room depending on whether there are open doors or entry points that lead into the target room from outside. Now with both center and corner fed rooms, the Fatal Funnel tapers in from the soft corners. through the entry point and continuing into the space outside of the entry point unless and until it encounters hard cover.

It is important to note that the fatal funnel is simply a method of describing likely lines of fire through the entry point from enemy located inside the target room. It does not represent the threat itself. The existence of a fatal funnel depends on whether the target room contains enemy with lines of fire extending through the entry point.

Where there is no enemy in the target room, there is no fatal funnel. The shape and dimensions of the fatal funnel can change based on three criteria. Number one, the locations of corners leading into the target room or danger area. These include hard corners formed by intersecting walls, and those created by the presence of a door frame leading into the target room or danger area.

Number two, the location of enemy in the target room or danger area in relation to the location of the entry team members. And number three, enemy lines of fire extending through the entry point from the enemy located in the target room or danger area. The dimensions of the fatal funnel can widen or narrow depending on the positions of enemy within the target room.

The partial view zone is the area located immediately to each side of the fatal funnel. It represents the area of the target room that is observable from the outside of the room, i. e. from the entry point frame, but without entering the fatal funnel and without crossing the line of departure. The combination of the fatal funnel and partial view zone represents the visible interior of the target room from its entry point.

Now, blind zones, also referred to as dead space, represent the 10 to 15% of the target room that cannot be cleared without crossing the line of departure and entering the room. It is the danger area, essentially centered around the near side hard corners.  With a corner fed room, there's essentially 1 blind zone. with a center fed room, there is a blind zone extending into both near corners. 

Now, in addition to that, there is the immediate danger area. The immediate danger area is the area just inside the target room from the entry point. It is called the immediate danger area because enemy located in this area can block and or apply point blank fire on entry team members as they attempt to breach and enter the room.

Now, before an entry team can breach the target room, it must reach it. In most cases, this will involve movement through a hallway. Hallways represent a unique danger area. They typically connect to other danger areas, such as other rooms or hallways, via open intersections and or doorways, spaced irregularly along their length.  

Hallway intersections are often described by their shape. Although there are some variations, the typical hallway intersections are described as follows. First is the cross shaped. Cross shaped intersections occur where two hallways cross through each other. The intersection they form is described as cross shaped.  This intersection is also sometimes referred to as X shaped. Now, a T-shaped intersection occurs where one hallway intersects into the side of another hallway in a perpendicular fashion. The intersection they form is described as T-shaped. When the ends of two hallways intersect each other in a perpendicular fashion, the intersection they form is described as a corner.

Well, now that we have discussed the basics of describing target rooms and hallways, we need to discuss a more complex issue known as the moving or floating angle. Before I do so, we need to talk about diminishing sectors, a/k/a slicing the pie. As a matter of standard operating procedure, entry teams should remain in a hallway as little as possible.  Hallways present long threat angles from hallway corners and rooms looking further down from one or more hallways. For that reason, it is important to rent the hallway but own the room whenever possible. CQB TTPs are designed to allow an entry team to gain control over the target room and by extension the building while eliminating enemy contained therein.

Use of CQB techniques such as diminishing sectors or slicing the pie are used to clear portions of a room or hallway prior to making entry into it. Diminishing sectors, slicing the pie, or pieing the corner means using walls or other cover to your advantage in clearing the area. Usually, the area being cleared is a hallway or other indoor area; however, this technique can also be used while searching vehicles, clearing outside corners of buildings, or anywhere else where there is an obstacle which is preventing an entry team member from seeing what is on the other side of it. 

The entry team member begins by approaching a corner or room opening close to the near wall.  Using the apex of the corner as a pivot point, the entry team member begins rotating in a semicircular arc away from his starting position near the wall while also increasing the distance between himself and the apex of the corner. By the time the entry team member reaches the position where he is perpendicular to the apex of the corner, He should be no less than 3 to 5 feet away from it.

Increasing the distance from the apex while moving in an arc around the apex of the corner is important. Putting more distance between the entry team member and the corner apex will reveal more of the dead space on the other side of the corner. While revealing less of him to potential enemies and threats in the room.  This maximizes the chances an entry team member eliminates any threat around the corner before it eliminates him. As he performs this technique, each entry team member needs to ensure that neither of his feet extend beyond the apex of the corner. The idea is to reveal as little of the team member's body as possible while clearing such areas.

The team member must be careful to prevent extending arms or legs beyond cover. Watch your feet and avoid the chicken wing when clearing corners. If you see daylight between the enemy and your cover, you are likely exposed to incoming fire. Once the team member pies enough of the corner to see that there is no immediate threat on the other side, he or she commits to proceeding along that wall to the next corner and or threat area.  This step of the process is commonly referred to as taking the corner. 

There are essentially two schools of thought on how to diminish sectors or slice the pie. They are the small sidestep and fast pass techniques. Now the small sidestep technique uses a series of slow, small sidesteps, otherwise known as slices, in an arc away from the wall in a semicircular manner.  After each step, the entry team member pauses briefly to scan each newly revealed area for potential threats. This tactic allows team members to develop a greater line of sight into the room, while still using cover to present the smallest target possible. To any enemy in an uncleared area. The disadvantage of this technique is the slow and tedious manner in which it is typically performed.  Once one target is engaged with this technique, other potential targets will likely move to cover or other more advantageous positions. 

Although the fast pass technique uses the same basic procedures of diminishing sectors or slicing the pie as a small sidestep technique, it relies on a more fluid movement to complete the technique.  The entry team member does not really pause between each slice of the pie. In essence, the fast pass technique trades protection and possibly some weapon accuracy for a more fluid motion and increased enemy reaction time. It is much harder for the enemy to hit a faster moving target than a slower one.

The fast pass technique is typically used as part of the deliberate room entry clearing technique. Is also sometimes referred to as panning the room. Now the 45-90-45 technique is a method of both performing and describing dimensioning sectors and slicing the pie while clearing a target room, it is most often associated with limited penetration room entry techniques.

The term 45-90-45 represents the degree of arc used to clear the target room. The first 45 represents movement from the wall to approximately a 45 degree angle of line of sight and fire into the target room through the entry point. 90 represents movement from the first 45 degree position to approximately a 90 degree angle of line of sight and fire into the target room.   The entry team moves parallel to an imaginary line drawn perpendicular to the near edge of the entry point. The second 45 represents the continued movement from the 90 degree position to a position against the wall on the opposite side of the point. To utilize the 45-90-45 technique, the entry team member approaches the door or entry point while following along but not touching the adjacent wall.

When the entry team member gets to the point where he can see a sliver of the target room, he stops to perform a SLLS, otherwise known as Stop, Listen, Look, Smell check to determine as much as possible, whether there are any occupants in the target room.  Instead of diminishing sectors by taking incremental slices of the target room, the entry team member will move directly to the 45 degree position.  Since there is a likelihood that he will engage enemy when he moves to the 90 degree position, the entry team member will need to aggressively snap to the position to maximize the element of surprise against potential enemy revealed during that movement. He will then move on to the. 135 degree position, which also represents the second 45 degree after the 90 degree position.

In formulating and implementing CQB TTPs, entry teams need to take into account the moving or floating angle. I call it a moving angle because the recreation of dead space occurs in real time as the entry team member and his opponent move dynamically and separately from each other. The moving angle represents dead space that is recreated when Entry Team members lose line of sight into a previously cleared area of a room or hallway.

When Entry Team members lose line of sight into a previously cleared section of the room or hallway, it allows the enemy to move into that dead space and potentially ambush Entry Team members as they breach the target room. In essence, the Entry Team member allows himself to be ambushed by taking eyes off previously cleared areas and allowing it to revert to dead space again.  Enemy that move into that recreated dead space are in an advantageous position and will likely surprise the entry team member in whose mind the space remains clear, but was not when he breaches the target room.

For that reason, do not give up control over a section of a room or hallway, i.e. real estate, after you have cleared them.  Maintain visual of the cleared areas of target rooms to prevent enemy from later moving into it and to ambush your entry team.

So here's an example of how an enemy synchronizes his movements with the entry team member's efforts to clear the interior of a target room from the outside while using a deliberate room entry technique. As the entry team member conducts his sweep from the interior of the target room and moves from the left side of the doorframe to the right side, he gradually loses line of sight into the partial view zone on the right side of the room.

By the time the entry team member has reached the end of his initial sweep of the target room, the enemy has already moved into the danger area just inside the entry point. At this point, it is unlikely that the entry team member that conducted the sweep is aware of the enemy's movement and will likely breach the room based on his last known line of sight into the room.  If he does so, the entry team member will unexpectedly be confronted by enemy in the danger area and will likely be eliminated. To counter this possibility, entry team members need to maintain cover over areas of the room they have cleared so as to limit possible movement by enemy in the room from attaining positions of relative advantage and surprise over entry team members.

Often this issue is addressed by having the second man immediately move up and hold cover over the partial view zone that is subject to the moving angle. While the point man completes his initial sweep. If an enemy attempts to move from the blind zone toward the danger area of the room, second man should be in a position to eliminate him before point man breaches the room.

I hope you've enjoyed this episode of tactical Tuesday.  Tune in next time when we're going to discuss entry team stacking and 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 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 entry team stacking and related tactics, techniques and procedures. 

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.

TRANSCRIPTION PERFORMED BY DESCRIPT.COM