Tactical Tuesday Episode Thirty-Two - Clearing Straight and Commercial Stairways: This is no Stairway to Heaven

In this episode of Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim, we discuss maneuvering through and clearing hallways.  Specifically, we discuss:

• Angles of Attack/Angles of Exposure (2:08)
• Essential Elements of Stairway Clearing (6:26)
• Definition of Stairway Types (7:32)
• Clearing Straight Stairway (8:10)
• Clearing Commercial Stairway (10:58)
• Entry Team Movement for Commercial Stairway (12:58)
• Post Stairway Clearing Procedures (17:31)
• 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

• 2:08 Angles of Attack/Angles of Exposure
• 6:26 Essential Elements of Stairway Clearing
• 7:32 Definition of Stairway Types
• 8:10 Clearing Straight Stairway
• 10:58 Clearing Commercial Stairway
• 12:58 Entry Team Movement for Commercial Stairway
• 17:31 Post Stairway Clearing Procedures

Transcript

TACTICAL TUESDAY WITH MODERN MILSIM – EPISODE 32 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 32 of Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim. I am your host, Craig White. As always, thank you for being here. Now, today we are beginning our discussion of tactics, techniques and procedures related to straight and commercial stairways and their importance in controlling individual building floors. As previously discussed, this series of episodes is intended to provide a more basic understanding of CQB TTPS. For more detailed explanation of these tactics, techniques and procedures, check out from Insertion to extraction, Advanced MILSIM CQB Tactics, Techniques and Procedures now available at Amazon.com.

As before, the topics of this episode builds on the TTPs discussed in prior episodes. These previously discussed TTPs link with the lessons from this and future episodes to create an overall method for breaching and clearing rooms. 

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

So today we're going to discuss one of the most dangerous and difficult urban terrain features to clear in CQB. Of course, we are talking about clearing stairways. 

Stairways represent the most challenging and dangerous environment for CQB operations. Stairways represent choke-points with many non-obvious angles of exposure which can make them a kill sack for troops attempting to ascend or descend them against a determined enemy.

To refresh everyone's memory concerning the difference of angles of exposure versus angles of attack, angles of attack are angles that are covered by friendly forces’ eyes and muzzles. In other words, angles of attack are angles upon which team members can cover with fire. In contrast, an angle of exposure is an angle from which entry team members can be attacked. Although these two forms of angles can coexist at the same time, that is not always the case.  In CQB, the goal is to maximize each team member’s angles of attack while minimizing his or her angles of exposure.

Especially with open stairways, achieving this goal is more difficult. Unlike clearing hallways and rooms where your angles of exposure are typically limited to horizontal planes, clearing open stairways will often present team members with multiple angles of exposure…some of which are not readily recognizable by team members.

The more angles of exposure there are, the more guns you may need to cover them. Angles of attack and angles of exposure exist in every combat situation; however, they become acutely important inside buildings because of the close quarters environment reduces the reaction times needed to respond to threats. As such, identifying and engaging your enemy first is critical. Action always beats reaction. That is why stealth is critical when working in stairways.  Whenever possible, walk quietly,  use non-verbal signals and maintain noise discipline. Doing so will sharpen your hearing to detect possible threats and allow your eyes to identify the threat as enemy.

Now, angles of exposure in a stairway come from three basic areas. The close angle, which is typically the next landing to your front, the mid angle, which is typically the ascending or descending flight of stairs located across the stairway cut, and the high angle, which is the landing or landings and the cut above or below you. For clarifications sake, the cut is the open space that often exists in the center between each flight of stairs of a commercial stairway. Moving through the stairway with some semblance of safety, whether heading up or down, requires you to constantly shift your focus amongst these angles. 

Think of stairways as being a large fatal funnel where there is little, if any, cover. The entry team is exposed to potential enemy fire from multiple directions, including from above and or below. ..especially when the stairs consist of metal grating with large openings between each step.

In addition, the entry team is especially vulnerable to grenade attacks from above. Frequently, enemy forces will drop or roll grenades down into the entry team from enemy located on stairways or floors above them. For this reason, amongst others, the entry team needs to pay close attention to 360 degree security…in a sphere as opposed to a circle. Remember that in stairways the threat is likely to be above or below the entry team.

Typical stairways come in essentially two flavors. You have the straight stair that is commonly encountered in residential homes or a commercial stairway that is often seen in commercial or industrial buildings. Unlike a straight stairway that consists of a flight of stairs that directly connect one floor to another, commercial stairways often utilize one or more landings or platforms that connect to flights of stairs that switch back and forth in direction as they ascend or descend between floors. 

Entry team members should move up the outside of the stairway while staying off the walls.  As much as possible, entry team members should allow the stairs themselves to provide as much cover as possible to potential fire coming from above or below. 

Don't bunch up on the stairs. In the confined space, a grenade will create many casualties and will likely eliminate the entire team. Also, whenever possible, the entry team should clear the stairs while descending down the tops of stairs, landings, doorways and balconies and enemy located there are more likely to be visible while descending the stairways than while ascending them.

Now, although there are many variations in stairway clearing TPS, the essential elements remain the same. First, the entry team designates an assault element, which is usually a four man team to clear the stairway.  Two, the entry team can designate a support element, usually consisting of 4 to 8 members, to secure hallway landings and doors as they are cleared by the assault element. Third, the entry team maintains a 360 degree three dimensional security in the vicinity of the stairs. Four, the assault element moves to locate, mark, bypass or clear any obstacles or booby traps that may block or prevent the entry team from having access to the stairway. Five The assault element proceeds up or down the stairs while maintaining overwatch and security. And then finally, six, upon reaching the next floor or landing, the entry team secures or covers all likely avenues of enemy counterattack before moving to another floor or exiting the stairway to clear the floor.

As mentioned briefly near the beginning of this episode, stairways are typically classified into two main types. They are the straight stairway and the commercial stairway. Now a straight stairway is defined as a stairway that consists of one flight of stairs that connects floors on two different levels with no landing or switchback of the stairs between them. This is the type of stairway that typically connects the first and second level of single family homes.  Because, straight stairways tend to be fairly short, they can be effectively cleared dynamically by a four man team with the use of suppressing fire and violence of action.

So this is how this stair clearing technique typically works on straight staircases. 

First, the stack would line up in the vicinity of the base, the stairway while in cover. 

Second, the. point man moves to the opposite side of the stairway while proceeding methodically toward the top or bottom of the stairs, depending on the direction that they are traveling. His sector or area of responsibility is the top or bottom of the stairway on his side, depending on whether the team is ascending or descending the stairway. 

Third.  At the same time, the second man moves to the near side of the stairway and immediately abreast of the point man and moves in sync with the point man in proceeding methodically toward the top or bottom of the stairs, depending on which direction they are traveling. Second man sector or area of responsibility is the top or bottom of the stairway on his side, depending on whether the team is ascending or descending. 

Fourth, the stairway for third man moves to a position just behind and between the point in second man with his weapon sticking between them as he proceeds up the stairs. His sector or area of responsibility is the center of the upper or lower landing, depending on whether the team is ascending or descending the stairway. 

And then finally, Five.  The fourth man proceeds up the stairs behind the third man while facing backwards to cover the rear. 

If opposition forces are known to be secure in the top of the stairs, the point,  second and third men will proceed to fire in a steady rate to keep defenders suppressed until the top of the stairs can be reached. 

Grenade should be used sparingly while ascending stairways due to the likelihood that it could fall back or be thrown back down the stairs on your own team members.  Please note that it is easier to defend a staircase from above than from below. This is because gravity tends to pull thrown objects such as grenades back down the stairway to whichever force is ascending the stairway. Please note that is far easier to defend a staircase from above than from below. This is because gravity tends to pull thrown objects such as grenades back down the stairway to whichever force is ascending the staircase. It is also typically easier for team members descending the staircase to see landings below them as opposed to above them. 

In contrast to a street staircase, clearing a commercial staircase is a much more deadly endeavor.  Commercial staircases are generally defined as staircases where two or more flights of stairs switch directions while ascending or descending between two or more floors and/or via an intermediate landing. The staircase are most often seen in commercial or industrial type buildings. They are also prevalent in hotel staircases.  For examples of straight and commercial staircases, check the post for this episode on the Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim Facebook page. 

Now, training to clear commercial stairways is even more difficult because no two of them are the same. Unlike straight stairways, where you're essentially clearing an ascending hallway, the variations in commercial stairways are much more complex. The width of the stairways can be different. The cut or open space that can exist in the center between each flight of stairs can create additional angles of exposure, depending whether it is wide or relatively narrow. Such a cut typically extends from the top of the stairway to the bottom. 

Clearing stairways with landings and alternate direction of stairs are extremely difficult to clear because of multiple threat axes located in multiple directions and elevations and the movements needed by team members to transition from one area of responsibility to another as the team proceeds up the stairs.

If all possible movement up complex stairways with multiple landings needs to be made more slowly but smoothly to ensure that all angles of exposure are threat axes are covered while the team proceeds upstairs. Think of each flight of stairs as being an L-shape, where the landings are the short leg of the L and the ascending or descending flight of stairs is the long leg of the L. Essentially, the commercial stairway is a series of L-shaped. 

So now let's talk about entry team movement with regards to commercial stairways. Because of the increased potential angles of exposure inherent in clearing commercial stairways, the entry team needs to maintain momentum by not wasting time standing still in problem areas. Do not dawdle on the “X” in stairways. This is how you get killed. That being said, you also do not want to sprint up or down commercial stairs where you will likely activate and stack multiple angles of exposure on your team. That is also a good way to get your team smoked. 

Instead, keep moving at a deliberate pace where each entry team member can cover angles of exposure and eliminate enemy forces.  Remember, you cannot move faster than you can positively identify the enemy and engage them.  When entering a commercial stairwell, the entry team needs to clear the initial stairway landing, especially any adjacent doors entering into it before proceeding to clear the stairway itself. If a support element or more than one entry team is available, the support element or second entry team should hold cover on any additional doors entering on to the landing while the other team proceeds to clear the stairs. 

The procedure for descending the stair is similar to ascending it, except that team members will need to be covering a lower elevation versus a higher one.

Initially, a four man stack would move up to the initial stair in a manner similar to that which is done with the straight stairway. The entry team will stack up against an adjacent wall prior to beginning its ascent up the stairs. When ascending each flight of stairs, the use of grenades are discouraged unless the team leader is assured that they will detonate on an upper landing and will not roll back down the stairs toward the entry team. 

So now let's talk about each team members responsibilities as they ascend or descend the staircase of a commercial stairway. So let's start with the point man. Point man begins movement up the lower stair on the outside edge while moving upward toward the landing.  Point man's area of responsibility and sector is the landing immediately above and ahead of him. At the same time, second man moves up immediately behind point man while covering the stairs and the landing behind and above him. Third man moves immediately behind the second man. His immediate area of responsibility is the opposite corner of the next landing above him and the ascending stair barely ahead and above him as well. 

Point man continues to move up the lower stair toward the landing while covering same as well as any door entering into that landing from his right. As the stack moves up the stairway, Second man continues to maintain his field of fire and area of responsibility on the landing or the top of the ascending stair above and behind the stack. The third man continues to maintain his field of fire in area of responsibility on the opposite corner of the landing and the lower portion of the ascending stair immediately ahead and above him. Fourth Man's area responsibility is the left side of the landing above him, as well as any door entered into the landing from his left.

Upon reaching the landing, point man moves around the outside edge of the landing to the beginning of the next ascending stairway while covering the stair and all landing immediately in front and above him. The remaining members of the stack line up and cover their areas of responsibility as set forth in the previous discussion before repeating the same procedure to clear the next stairway and landing. 

When in doubt. Team members need to cover any gap in the stack’s fields of fire and areas of responsibility not covered by another team member. When in doubt, cover a hole. 

There are many variations of this technique. One of the more popular variations is to change the fourth man's sector or area of responsibility to cover the lower part of the stairs as the team moves up to prevent attacks from the rear. If the assault team is working with a support or security element below and behind them, fourth man can concentrate on covering sectors and areas of responsibility, in other words, holes, not picked up by other assault element members. 

These tactics and techniques can be used to clear down commercial stairwells as well. Simply replace clearing up stairs and upper landings with down stairs and lower landings. 

Now, upon securing the landing to a floor entrance, the entry team must cover potential avenues of enemy counter-attack with priority initially given to securing the entry team's direction of attack. These avenues include access points from other buildings, covered routes within the same building, hallways entering onto landing, windows, roof access and stairs or landings located both above and below the entry team. 

If a support element is available, it should take over the security in holding cover on enemy points onto the landing as the assault element continues to clear the stairway.

The assault element should not only be prepared to continue its own attack, but also to support other assault elements and or provide overwatch to other elements. Especially in clearing operations, it is critical that the assault element maintain its momentum to prevent the enemy from establishing other defensive positions. Maintaining momentum should keep the enemy off balance and reduce the chance that it can prepare a strong defense against the entry team’s attack. Remember that stairways are often the only access to other floors in the building. Expect the enemy to fortify their approaches to stairways and to provide a strong defense to friendly attacks. Similarly, entry teams should expect enemy counterattack at any time. 

I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Tactical Tuesday. Tune in for our next episode when we're going to begin our discussion of more advanced CQB TTPs that can be effectively utilized by more experienced entry teams. 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 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 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/modernmilsim with any suggestions you may have.  In our next episode of Tactical Tuesday, we are going to begin our discussion of more advanced CQB TTPs that can be effectively utilized by more experienced entry teams. 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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