Tatical Basics: Team make-up part II.

SWAT 4 Tactics: Team make-up part II.

Individual positions within the team

With the inclusion of our basic Tenant No.1 theoretically any single Officer can lead a clearance procedure into a unknown space if required. Although possible, it may not be "best practice" for an Officer weighed down with heavy body armour and primarily rigged for non-lethal to lead a confrontation onto an assault rifle wielding suspect intent on securing his escape from Police Officers with deadly force. As said it can be done if an advantage by quick decisive action overrides the time spent dropping into a deliberate assault pattern.

You may have noticed reference to "roles" within the fluid team. This section will attempt to install a mindset running through the core tactical doctrine that the ARU SWAT 4 co-op team/clan wish to cultivate among its team members and describe the fluid cell concept that can adapt quickly to conditions and can be projected in any direction to confront any threat to the team with appropriate force instantly. Note: A surprise compromise by an armed hostile must be met with an Armed (firearm) Officer immediately who will assess the situation and hand-down the threat (Domino hand off, discussed in future posts) as he she sees fit.

Individual positions naming convention and role primary and secondary

#1

ARU name: #1 (stated on voice as "one") other names: lead, point, assaulter, primary shooter

Duty: #1 is the name given to the individual that is pointing at the target area (direction of movement) and leads any assault into the area whether that assault be a staged TACAID enclosed space entry or team movement in transit. #1's focus is forward at all times clearing forward which can be in a semi-passive or aggressive posture (not Rambo). #1 provides a clear and safe route line for following team members in transit and key decision on entry into enclosed spaces (rooms, yards etc etc). #1 calls the deployment of equipment within the team leaders pre-deployment brief remit as required and "Set's" the teams posture pre-entry.

Weapon selection: Weapon selection would match reaction to direct threat of life from deadly weapons from areas not under control of the team. Within the ARU armoury normal choice would be the HK MP5 9mm Sub-Machine gun or the Colt M4-A1 Carbine, with justification for the use of Shotgun systems possible.

Equipment: Basic set-up as per the team leaders pre-deployment brief. Normally rigged for "assault" with the inclusion of sub-rig for example "Gas". Note: "Assault GAS" Rig. Fire-arm primary, fire-arm secondary, more Gas then other tacaid aids.

#1 is considered a "guns up" position, a position where a firearm is always at the ready to engage hostile threats.

#2

ARU name: #2 (stated on voice as "two") other names: support, secondary shooter

Duty: #2 supports #1 in all things tactical. An effective #2 would be an Officer that can compliment and improve upon #1's ability to confront, intimidate or neutralise a threat(s). #2 acts as the #1's second pair of hands deploying TACAIDS, adding weight/intimidation factor/fire power to the assault and providing immediate security to #1's blind areas. Note: Example If #1 goes right, #2 goes left. More on room entries in a future post.

During transit drill #2 would be considered a "short" cover, i.e. covering potential threat areas in the near ground for example the closest door, window, space, opening etc etc

#2 is considered a "guns up" position in transit and hold and primary TACAID deployment anchor on staged entry.

Individuals on station as #1 or #2 should be interchangeable and swap as required.

Weapon selection and equipment: as #1

1# and 2# together are known as "red" element. Note: Red is selected because the game uses it. you can replace with alpha, bravo, clown, egg, horse... they just need a name to distinguish them from #3 and #4. I commonly use "you lot" and "us lot" as I'm normal #3.

#3

ARU name: #3 (stated on voice as "boss" if team leader or "three" if not team leader) other names: lead, team leader, Rupert

Duty #3 is normally the team leader and is in formation with Blue element as an active shooter. #3 is the director of team wide operations and the "#1" of the blue element (confused?), think of #3 as another #1 when acting in an Element ONLY movement and as the descriptive #3 outlined below during team operations.

#3 team wide: as well as normal directive command the position is also in transit the "long cover" note: targets which are not considered a local threat (which would be covered by #1 and #2 forward and #4 rear). As a long cover, weapon selection tends to lean towards the longer barreled weapon in the armoury the M4. #3 on entry is a "called in" position and enters and adds weight to an assault as required.

#3 is the individual charged with restraining suspects/civilians and the collection of all evidence once a "bubble" as been established. Only #3 (or acting #3 due to incapacitation) can call a switch from tactical entry into process bubble phase.

#3 is considered a "guns down" position during bubble process and can request a bubble be formed around him/her as anchor. As this position is a guns down #3's often elect to carry the teams breaching shotgun allowing forward operators more freedom of choice on rigs.

#4

ARU name: #4 (stated on voice "four") other names: rear, rear guard, rear security.

A #1 looking backwards, self descriptive.

Weapon selection varies dependant on the area of operation. #4 should be rigged to swap in to #1 on team 180 directional changes.

Coming next Team make up part III: Specialists

Tactical Basics: Team make-up part I.

Introduction

I was going to write a manual with diagrams, pretty screen shot pictures and full blown descriptive notes. But I decided against it, 1. I don't have time 2. I'm a little on the lazy side and 3. Long formal manuals I find extremely pretentious and boring.

So although formal in its very nature, a standing procedure for SWAT 4 CO-OP play I'm attempting to breakdown basic drill and method into bite size chunks in a drip feed fashion which is good for my stress levels and good for SEO.

The procedures/training series of blogs can there for be found in our tag cloud as "SWAT 4 Tactics" and then by the subject matter in this case "introduction" and "Team make-up", simple to the point and hopefully a little easier to digest. So lets get started.

Team Make-up

ARU operational teams assume that the virtual Officers assembled to make-up the team are fairly intelligent, i.e. switched on. This assumption should be apparent in our selection process and allows us to conduct missions which are fluid and logical.

As such a teams basic make-up is designed to allow such fluid actions and places the onus on the Officer "at the point" to instantly recognise the priorities, communicate as such with authority and assume lead accordingly. ARU firmly believes in allowing Officers with actual eyes on to call the shots.

Basic tenants

All Officers have the right to defend themselves from personal attack or threat of attack, injury or death. They also have the duty of protecting in order of priority (repeating i.)

i. Protect themselves
ii. Fellow team members or legal Authoritative agencies (except traffic wardens)
iii. Innocent by standers/ hostages
iv. Suspects (suicide by cop, self harm, deranged persons)
v. Property

We can draw an initial conclusion from this basic tenant.

Basic tenant #1. All Operational Officers must carry at all times a Firearm which can provide a lethal conclusion to a problem.

We can have a long drawn out discussion on priorities, the simple context of the above list is simply that an injured or dead officer cannot rescue jack-shit. In protecting yourself and fellow team members you are increasing the chances of everyone involved in surviving the situation.

This being the case that all Officers must carry a firearm at all times allows us to deal with the greater issues of team responsibilities with the assumption that If stated a position requires a "non-lethal" specialist we know that he/she will be capable of defending themselves at all times, to-wit they will have a firearm of some description.

Coming next: Part II. Actual team composition and responsibilities

ARU News update

ARU news

ARU posted as "in training"

Armed Response Unit officially formed by the Chief Constable of the virtual operations area. The SWAT 4 tactical CO-OP team begins its basic training phase. Inspector Rob "Rockape" Lee and Sergeant Jamie "Balls" Barclay posted to the unit and assigned call signs respectively Romeo and sierra.

Fire Arms licencing

Call signs Romeo and Sierra have been cleared for operational firearms use on active duty as per ROE form FM1-11/A and Annex A.