Regaining the Initiative - Major R.D. Lewis MC

[** Serge **]

Regaining the Initiative
Major R.D. Lewis MC

Surprise is a relative concept. Total surprise is an event that happens when you have no expectation or anticipation that it is going to happen. Relative surprise is where at least you have some inkling that something is going to happen. Recovery from a ‘tactical’ surprise is going to be relative to the enemy and context dependent but either way you are going to have to regain the initiative.
The current operating environment is complex and cluttered. Population expansion, urban growth and globalisation have created a myriad of frictions that the modern operator has to wade through.
The insurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan are good examples of the environment producing complex challenges to those that are sent in to harms way. The concept of the ‘accidental guerrilla’ is one coined by David Kilcullen and is a useful example of the challenges we now face. The ‘civilian’, when holding a spade, is a farmer. When that same man puts down his spade and picks up an AK he is an insurgent. For all intents and purposes it is the same man. We are obvious to him when on patrol; he is not obvious to us as an enemy combatant. This same challenge confronts Police Officers and security operators every day. Who is the enemy?
This means that the number of ‘ambushes’ or tactical surprises faced by operators is now significant. Rarely, on the modern battlefield, is an enemy pre-seen. Unless there is significant actionable intelligence a lot of patrols will be engaged at a time and place of the enemy’s choosing.
I think it important to make some differentiations though. To my mind the term ambush is often used loosely and gives too much credit to an ad hoc opponent. An ambush is a planned and coordinated attack on an unsuspecting opponent at a time and place of someone’s choosing. Crucially those being ambushed are unaware until they are in the kill zone. Actually most encounters, especially the ones I have been involved in are meeting engagements. The encounter may be at a place of the enemy’s choosing but I am aware that he is out there and I am prepared to react. Effectively I know something is going to happen, I just don’t know where or when. An ambush takes place when you are in ‘code white’ as Colonel Cooper would say. For a meeting engagement I am in ‘amber or red’. In both cases I have lost the initiative and I have got to take rapid and dynamic steps to get it back. So how do you regain the initiative when your opponent has stolen it from you? How do I tip that fulcrum back in my favour?

Firstly react. You have got to react. It is no good allowing yourself to be stunned. The longer it takes you to react, the harder it is going to be to regain the initiative. Your immediate action drills and individual skills have got to be finely honed. You need to train your contact drills as an individual and as a team. High repetitions are going to make the difference. Your drills will need to be fluid and subconscious. Get your weapon and your head in to the fight immediately.
Firepower is going to start to equalize the balance. A heavy weight of fire may stun your opponent but accurate fire is going to stop him dead-literally! Only you can make the decision about the balance of fire based on the situation being presented to you. Potentially easier for the soldier in the green zone than the Police Officer in the shopping mall, but you have got to be aware of the surrounding environment. As a simple rule of thumb though an initial weight of fire can be used for a shock effect but it should be replaced with accurate fire as soon as possible.
The reason for the firepower though is the need to start creating time and space. You need time to formulate a plan and you need space to give you that time. Put simplistically if you have a threat 1 metre in front of you, you have milliseconds to react. If the threat is 20 metres away and his fire is inaccurate you probably have a second or maybe more. Space and time are linked and in this situation you need both. So use your firepower to create space- by neutralising the enemy, driving him back or creating the opportunity for you to move back. This space will give you time.
Time is crucial for the next step. Once you have bought some time asses and accept. Assess the situation you are in and then accept the situation you are in. Don’t fight the battle you would like to fight; fight the one that you are in.
Once you have assessed the situation it is time for the crucial phase. It is time to make a rapid plan. Your initial speed of reaction, firepower and immediate action drills should have got you through the immediate danger but you now need to rapidly formulate a plan as to what is going on and what to do next. Is it an ambush or a come on? Is the obvious escape route too obvious and the place where the enemy will have put a secondary? Simplistically which way are you going? Forwards, trying to smash through the ambush or backwards, trying to break contact? Only you can make that decision based on the facts on the ground, but you need to create the time to come up with a plan.
Once you have a plan, communicate it. Make sure everyone knows what they are doing.
Once everyone knows what the plan is, violently execute it. In this situation there is no prize for second place. You have got to commit and you have got to commit everything to it. Start running your plan giving it everything you have got but remember, ‘don’t be in love with the plan’. Be flexible. Adapt and modify your plan as the situation develops and more information becomes available. There is a balance to be struck between violently executing the plan and being prepared to modify it.
Continually assess and remember to accept the situation in front of you.
Keep running through the cycle of fight, assess, modify until you reach your desired outcome. You are working through Boyds OODA (observe, orientate, decide, act) loop.
Look for the fulcrum. Understand the tipping point where the odds are back in your favour or at least level with the enemy. It is then time to plan again and work out what the next phase is. This will be heavily dependent on your own particular scenario. Continue mission or develop a new one? Whatever it is if you have created the time and space, have a ‘tactical pause’, take stock and calmly work out the next move. Take the time to consider all of the factors such as logistics. Do you have the capacity to continue?
The above steps form a cycle. The outcome will depend on how rapidly you can go through this cycle, especially in relation to your opponent.
Underpinning everything is your mindset. You have to train and develop an offensive mindset. One that can handle the chaos and complexity and still come up with a workable plan. You have to believe, down to your very fibre, that you will win. Whilst the enemy may have started this, you will be the one that finishes it. A simple plan, violently executed, with total commitment and determination stands the best chance of working. Before you head out take the time to visualise what is potentially going to happen. ‘Run the video’. Put time aside during battle procedure to mentally wargame scenarios- to imagine how it is going to feel, what you are going to think and most importantly how you are going to act. Imagine how much better prepared you and your entire team will be if you all do this?
So whether you are in an ambush or a meeting engagement you have got to regain the initiative. This battle may not be at the time or place of your choosing but now that you are in it, you have got to win it. Practise your own and your teams drills to ensure that the initial contact is the only part of the battle that the enemy controls. From that point forward the situation should be all yours. Commit, asses, plan, execute and refine until you have prevailed.

Major R.D.Lewis MC is a British Army Officer with 16 years experience in the Airborne Infantry. He has served in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan and is currently an instructor at the Joint Services Staff College.

[Moleson]

Texte intéressant mais légèrement orienté militaire avec la conduite d'un groupe.

On peut compléter.
Il y a l'embuscade préparée et l'embuscade improvisée. L’embuscade préparée, est préparée des jours à l'avance. Par exemple dans un endroits de passage obligé on aménage un poste de tir, un deuxième de repli. Les zones de feu sont prédéterminées. L'embuscade est complexe etc..
L'embuscade improvisée se monte en 20-30 minutes, mais peut être aussi dévastatrice qu'une embuscade préparée.

Normalement dans une embuscade on essaye d'avoir un rapport favorable d'au moins 2:1

Le but de l'embuscade est d'obtenir d'emblée la supériorité de feu, de blesser et tuer qqs ennemis dans les premières secondes et de fixer l'ennemi.

Ça c'est le problème de l'embuscade qui est le cauchemar de tous soldat.

Dans un groupe on essaye de gagner la supériorité de feu, de la conserver et de la regagner.
Regagner une supériorité de feu est uniquement possible avec des explosifs et des armes à trajectoires courbe. S'imaginer de sortir d'un couvert en tirant comme des fous pour regagner une supériorité de feu c'est juste une forme intéressante de suicide.

Ensuite dans un groupe on peut tactiquement avoir plusieurs choix, tenir son emplacement, partir à l'assaut, esquiver et reculer. Tous ces choix nécessitant une supériorité de feu.

Finalement pour ceci on a des outils qui sont les "immediate action drills" ou TAI en français.

Transcris dans la self on peut trouver les similitudes suivantes.

C'est pas pour rien qu'on dans l'ACDS un module qui s'appelle TAI à main nue.
C'est une boîte à outil qui permet de regagner la supériorité de feu si on a perdu l'initiative. Ça sert à gagner de l'espace pour saisir une arme (spray, baton, couteau, pelle, pistolet, fusil).


Et après on les mêmes choix tactiques avec des nuances.

Je peux partir à l'assaut (le sprayer, le taper avec le bâton ou lui tirer dessus si c'est justifié).
Je peux tenir (faire une arrestation)
Je peux esquiver( je l'ai sprayé, je pars à 45° car le BG va vouloir taper à la dernière adresse connue)
Je peux reculer (le BG est hors d'état de nuire pour qqs secondes, minutes donc je peux m'enfuir, appeler la police etc..)


Moléson