Tactical Tuesday Bonus Episode Two - Vehicular Tactics as Part of a Combined Arms Assault

In this bonus episode of Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim, we discuss vehicular tactics in the context of a combined arms assault.  Specifically, we discuss:

• Definition of Technicals (1:46) 
• Types of Technicals (2:59)
• Technical Crew Roles (3:46)
• Advantage of Maneuverability (5:00)
• Technical Standard Operating Procedures (5:07)
• Hull Down  (8:22)
• Working Technicals in Pairs  (8:58)
• Applicability of Battle Drills to Technicals (9:34)
• Example of Battle Drill Utilizing Technicals (10:38)

A new episode of Tactical Tuesdays is 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

• 1:46 Definition of Technicals
• 2:59 Types of Technicals
• 3:46 Technical Crew Roles
• 5:00 The Advantage of Maneuverability
• 5:07 Technical Standard Operating Procedures
• 8:22 Hull Down
• 8:58 Working Technicals in Pairs
• 9:34 Applicability of Battle Drills to Technicals
• 10:38 Example of Battle Drill Utilizing Technicals

Transcript

 TACTICAL TUESDAY WITH MODERN MILSIM – BONUS EPISODE 2 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.

 Welcome to our second bonus MilSim. I am your host, Craig White. As always, thank you for being here. There are now 25 episodes of Tactical Tuesday with Modern MilSim in the can with many more yet to come. To celebrate this milestone and to thank you for your continuing support, I've decided to do a bonus episode concerning vehicular tactics and how to incorporate them into a combined arms assault.

In more recent years, I'm starting to see a much wider use of improvised fighting vehicles, also known as technical at Milsim events.  As Milsim events have become much more complex, the use of vehicles at these events have evolved from being simply a troop taxi to get them to the fight, to becoming a combination of troop transport and gun truck.

So what I want to do today is discuss the employment of vehicles at Milsim events and the tactics, techniques, and procedures that will make them more effective as part of a combined arms combat team. So let's get to it. 

Technicals also known as non-standard tactical vehicle or NSTV in US military parlance is a light improvised fighting vehicle typically built around an open backed civilian pickup truck or four wheel drive vehicle. Technicals typically mount a machine gun, anti-aircraft or anti-tank weapon, mortar, rocket launcher or other support weapon. It is often also referred to as a gun truck or gun wagon. The term technical, as it pertains to vehicles, is believed to have originated during the Somali Civil War in the early 1990s when non governmental organizations hired local gunmen to protect their personnel using money defined as “technical assistance grants”. Eventually, the meaning of the term technical broadened to include any vehicle carrying armed men and or mounted weapons. Translated to the Milsim battlefield, technicals or gun trucks are governed primarily by the rules of the event organizer in which they are used. Often, technicals and their crews must be approved by the MILSIM event organizer. Crews will often also need to attend a safety and rules briefing before they can operate in the field. 

Technicals are essentially broken down into three categories. They are troop transports, gun trucks, and combination.  Depending on some event organizer rules, technicals may operate as either a gun truck or a troop transport, but not both. Other event organizers allow one vehicle to perform both roles. We call these technicals combination or combos. For purposes of this discussion, I will refer to vehicle operations from the standpoint of a gun truck or transport operations from the standpoint of gun truck or transports.  However, be aware that such operations can also be performed by any armed technical with sufficient room inside to embark and transport troops. Think of such vehicles as improvised infantry fighting vehicles. 

With many MILSIM organizers, technical crews consist of a vehicle commander slash main gunner, driver, and security man.  These crew members must stay within the vehicle at all times. Only the security man and the main gunner may fire from the vehicle. For safety reasons, the driver is limited to operating the vehicle at or below speed limits set by the event organizer. He or she cannot engage the enemy. They must first disembark from the vehicle before they can be hit by small arms fire or engage the enemy.  Also note that many event organizers will not allow a vehicle crew member to disembark and seize terrain objectives. 

So now that we have defined what a technical is and what comprises its crew, let's move on to discussing how technicals are used in the field. The first thing you need to understand is that a technical's greatest advantage is speed and mobility.  As such, technicals need to remain on the move also known as Oscar Mike. During combat operations, doing so makes it much more difficult for enemy anti-tank teams to accurately range and target friendly vehicles, their crews and embarked infantry. Maneuver is your friend. It keeps your troops protected and the vehicle in the fight longer.

For vehicles, maneuver is most effective when they are moving across the enemy's field of fire. Simply moving to or away from the enemy is not as effective. If you are moving directly toward the enemy, you are presenting him with a target that gets larger as you approach him. For that reason, use lateral movement as well to force the enemy to readjust fire based on your vehicle's movement.

Technical commanders should keep in mind that they are responsible not only for the vehicle and its crew, but also for all troops embarked within it. The second advantage for gun trucks is that with the exception of grenades, artillery, close air support, or anti-tank launchers, they are immune to attack.  Infantry small arms fire is ineffective against technicals. At the same time, the gun truck can use the longer standoff range of its SAW, LMG, or general-purpose machine gun to suppress the enemy as its disembarked infantry moves up to engage them or seize objectives.  As such, a gun truck should maximize the advantage of the standoff range of its main gun to stay out of effective hand grenade range and to suppress enemy positions.

Gun trucks should not advance straight into the teeth of any enemy position where it is at greater risk of effective enemy anti-tank attack. One of the things that is important to note is that technicals are employed to support dismounted infantry and not the other way around. This is especially true in urban areas where technicals lose their biggest advantage, speed and mobility.  The tight confines of urban streets lined by fortified buildings as they are ready-made kill sacks for anti-armor teams. Especially in urban terrain, vehicles should use their dismounted infantry to clear ahead of them while they provide overwatch and suppressive fire on the enemy. As dismounted infantry clear the buildings on either side of the road, the technical can move up to better support the infantry.

So this brings me to our next vehicular SOP. Do not come in hot to disembark your troops. Only in rare cases where time is of the utmost concern, such as a hostage rescue mission or Frago, should vehicles disembark their troops in contact with the enemy. Again, gun trucks will move up behind your troops to provide overwatch and suppressive fire on the enemy.  For additional information on this issue, see the comments section of this episode's post on the Modern Milsim Facebook page. 

Similarly, the technical commander should maneuver his vehicle so that it shields disembarking infantry from incoming fire. As mentioned earlier, technicals are immune to small arms fire.  Dismounting infantry is not. To prevent a mass casualty event, troops should disembark from the side of the vehicle that is away from enemy fire. That way the vehicle acts as cover for the infantry while suppressing the enemy with its main gun and the security man's weapon. One quick note here, I highly recommend that security men use a SAW or LMG as their primary weapon.  That way he or she can use automatic fire to better suppress the enemy. Also keep a battle rifle close by in case the enemy closes within the SAW or LMG's minimum engagement distance. 

The next vehicular SOP, or Standard Operating Procedure, That I want to discuss is to use terrain to better protect the vehicle from incoming enemy fire.  This is often referred to as being hull down. To benefit from hull down, maneuver the vehicle into a position where nearby terrain provides cover that obscures at least part of the vehicle. Typically, this is achieved by moving the vehicle behind a low hill that obscures its lower portion from enemy fire.  The best hull down position is where the vehicle is protected from fire, except for the turret or main gun firing position. 

It is important for two or more technicals to work together for mutual support. The two vehicles need never be further apart from each other than one half of the main gun's effective range.  This ensures that both vehicles can provide suppressing fire, regardless of their relative position to each other. They're never out of range of each other. And this is important because a single vehicle is effective, but it's also very vulnerable. If you put two vehicles together where they're supporting each other, they can better suppress the enemy around them and also suppress anti-tank teams to prevent destruction of themselves or the other vehicle.

So now let's discuss tactics that employ technicals. The first thing you need to recognize is that many of the same standard battle drills that apply to infantry largely also apply to the technicals that support them. The biggest difference is that the technicals are providing transport and direct fire support to the troops actually conducting the drill.  As my friend Alex Natarelli said it best, think of technicals as mobile support by fire positions. Technicals are typically mobile enough that they can reposition themselves to better provide inflate fire on the enemy from range before moving up to support the troops actually assaulting the objective.

The point is to synthesize vehicles into the execution of the battle drill so that the vehicles and dismounted infantry work together as a combined arms team. The term mechanized infantry team is often used to describe such a force. To be even more effective, the platoon leader should also incorporate fires into the execution of the battle drill.  We will have more on that in future episodes of this podcast. 

For example, Battle Drill 2 is used by dismounted troops of a platoon To seize, then control, objectives. Typically, forward transports with supporting gun trucks are employed to support a platoon of infantry to seize an objective. The forward transports will be divided into two sections, Alpha and Bravo, of two vehicles each.  If the transports are unarmed, each section should be accompanied by at least one gun truck. So here's an example of how a mechanized infantry platoon executes the seizure of an objective. 

First, transporting tentacles use bounding overwatch techniques to approach the objective. As with all objectives, the force must assume that it's defended by the enemy.  Two, at a distance beyond the effective range of the enemy's weapons, One section, in this example Bravo Section, dismounts its infantry who form up ahead of Bravo Section vehicles before bounding forward toward the objective. The vehicles of Bravo Section maneuver behind their dismounted troops to provide overwatch and suppressive fire.  At the same time, Alpha Section maneuvers with its embarked infantry to flank the objective if possible. Presuming that Alpha Section vehicles cannot use concealment to mask their maneuver to a flanking position, Alpha They will also put suppressive fire on the enemy and immediately around the objective.  Three, once Alpha Section is in a position to flank the objective that is outside the effective range of the enemy's weapons, it dismounts its infantry to form up ahead of the vehicles and to bound toward the objective. Vehicles of Alpha Section then provide overwatch and suppressive fire for their disembarked troops.

Four. At this point, dismounted infantry from Alpha and Bravo sections execute Battle Drill Two with technicals providing the support from behind. Battle Drill Two a/k/a platoon assault is essentially a scaled up version of Battle Drill Two-A, which is squad assault. See the comments to this episode's post on the modern Milsim page for more information.

Now think about three or four vehicles in support of assaulting dismounted troops, especially where the defenders do not have effective anti-tank capability. Enemy defenders can become overwhelmed in a hurry. Also be aware that technicals can also employ an anti-tank launcher to destroy enemy vehicles.  Vehicles that have both a main gun and anti-tank capability are very effective in stopping an enemy attack. The technical crew uses their anti-tank capability to destroy enemy vehicles and their main gun to suppress the enemy at range. It is a potent combination. 

Up to this point, I've only been talking about offensive and defensive operations for technicals.  One other SOP you really need to consider is the use of the vehicle to speed replenishment of troops back to the battlefield. If you are driving back to the Alpha Alpha and you see troops walking back because they have expired, pick them up and drive them there to speed it up. The quicker you get them back to the Alpha Alpha, the quicker that they can be reconstituted and back into the fight.

Even better yet, hang around until the troops are replenished and then take them back into the fight. I hope you've enjoyed this bonus episode of Tactical Tuesdays. I will try to sneak more in from time to time. I really appreciate your support of the podcast and I look forward to providing you with quality content concerning tactics, techniques, and procedures that are adapted for the MILSIM battlefield.

Even though we have a full season in the can, we are really just scratching the surface. There's a lot more to come. But for now, I will see you at our next episode on CQB entry team stacking and related tactics, techniques, and procedures. 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 CQB 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.

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