Room Clearing
Room clearing is mostly common sense, but in the heat of the moment it can be easy to forget simple things in a tight space. Some things to remember are to always check right beneath the door for an individual if he is there; individuals often times hide themselves in conspicuous areas or are right next to the door. This can be an easy place to miss as you are frantic to check out the inside of the room and burst in, without checking first.
Ideally, you want complete situational awareness. You want to be able to respond in any direction from any place. When working in a team, however, you will often cover a general direction, as to provide even more cover.
This means that you will cover, point, flanks, and other directions. Generally speaking, squad lead will cover point, as he rushes into the room as fast as possible, the next two firemen covering the flanks, and finally the heavy machine gunner covering the rear. While it's possible to have a specific team or group of individuals, with specific gear, cover room clearing, this is the general set up with the general squad.
Room clearing squadIn general, someone will take point, while other people will take the flanks, and someone else will take the rear, to ensure that in a four man team, all the basic directions are covered. As well, there will generally be a person to open the door, and often times break the deadlock or the door in order to get in; the rest of the units will follow up after the door is open. Generally speaking, an individual will break the door, another will open it, a third will throw in a flashbang or other incapacitating device, and a fourth will enter and incapacitate the enemy targets, while the rest follow.
Room clearing can be especially dangerous, as you provide an ideal killing zone for your enemy, a place all of your units will be entering in a tight formation, allowing high volume of fire to displace your individuals.
Essentially, you want to move in and fan out as fast as possible covering every potential area of the room. After all open areas are covered, you want to proceed with caution, as individuals may be hiding.
You never want to enter a room alone, as if you experience a weapon malfunction or snag on to something, or simply aren't being careful enough, you can be engaged more quickly than you can respond. Prudence, indeed dictates, to always engage the enemy as if you may trip up or fail for some reason; even if your reaction time and intelligence is as such that you could clear a room with multiple assailants by yourself without hostages being hurt or yourself, you never want to assume that you will be perfect, as arrogance, and slipping up one time, can mean your down fall. It is kill or be killed, respond or be responded to; hence you want to be as fast as possible. Leave as little to chance and capabilities as possible; don't make it to where you have to be super amazing, do the easiest thing possible, and then still be super amazing with no problems.
Maneuvering in a team is also in large part, about not being in the line of fire. Individuals want to be ducked down, and close together, so as to avoid friendly fire and to engage the enemy from multiple directions without hitting their teammates or having their teammates in the way. Hand signals and other gestures are relatively important, and by following up based on what your teammate did (taking the opposite direction, having situational awareness), you should be able to cover most directions and leave no area un dealt with.
General Insertion Techniques When doing room clearing, the primary aspect is take down the enemy before the enemy takes down you; it's neutralize or be neutralized. In a tight space, through a small opening, such as a door or window, you will not be facing the ideal combat scenario, as you will not be relatively well protected.
As such you will need to employ a number of stunning and fast action approaches, often times utilizing team work to allow for a quick transition to your next goal. This will require door breaching, such as with shotguns, or other weapon, and then to immediate follow up with an incapacitating weapon, such as a flashbang or stun grenade.
When the target is presumably incapacitated or taken off guard you will rush in and engage the enemy, hopefully gaining some momentum and taking them off guard. The best method for quick action is to allow an individual, with an alternate weapon, such as a shotgun, to fire at the door. This will breech the door; another individual will open up the door, while yet a third will simultaneously throw a flash bang into the room; after it goes off, the fourth individual should rush into the room and attempt to the engage the targets while the other individuals, now recovering, should switch to their primary weapons and follow into the room; one checking each aspect of the room.
Quick weapon switching is ideal; flashbangs should be on the back of the individual in front of you, so you may switch to your weapon quickly before engaging your target. The man with the shotgun should not be opening up the door, and the individual that does should try to keep as little as themselves as exposed as possible. If possible, the man entering room should not throw the flashbang or open the door, to give them as clear a transition as possible.
Violence of action is your goal; to move in without the enemy being able to take you down. While stealth will not always be on your side, especially if you have already entered a facility, or made them aware of your presence by breaking in, by utilizing disorienting weapons, such as grenades, high explosives, or flashbangs if it is believed civilians or other non-combatants are present, the engage is to indirectly engage the enemy, disorienting them, and then only revealing yourself when the enemy is unable to respond.
It is possible to utilize smoke grenades although these may take too long to operate, and tear gas may in fact violate the geneva conventions depending on the scenario. Still, fast acting tear gas grenades with a stun effect and possibly rubber balls as low velocity shrapnel may be utilized to stun or cause the target to reflexively come back, as well.
Never expect your devices to work, however. The individuals may be faking it, have protection (such as goggles, tear gas masks, or basic body armor), or simply be able to take these incapacitation devices, being on drugs, and even lacking basic instincts, such as going unconscious. It is therefore ideal to always treat your enemy as a threat regardless of having incapacitated them or not.
Remember, speed is your ally. You don't want to rush into a room unprepared, but giving your enemy time to prepare or respond is worse. Always make sure to have every angle covered so that you can respond from every direction and to move as quickly as possible.
Stealth is also incredibly important, but you may lose this advantage as you progress through a room. This is why incapacitating methods, such as flashbangs, are vital to regaining momentum. Remember you try to feel, where the enemy will be, to be paranoid and realize where they may be, and to use your instincts to tell you what may be an easily ambush able position, among other things.
Keep your head calm, move quickly, but don't rush in too quick. You will need to be able to keep your wits about you to succeed. Make sure to pay attention to your surroundings, and your exits, and entrances, and potentially your enemies. Don't take anything on chance and try to be as effective as possible.
Room Clearing in GeneralRelatively straightforward and simple, as well as mostly common sense. Never enter a room with less than one person if you can help it, in case your weapon jams or there are a lot of assailants. Try to rush into the room as fast as possible, with multiple people guarding your flanks, and assure that every angle is covered; this will, in general require four people.
Even if your reaction time is fast enough to engage multiple enemies try to keep every angle covered, to be just that much faster. It's kill or be killed; in other words, you have to take them down before they take you down. Speed, is of the essence;
violence of action, with blunt, violent, and quick movements to take your enemy off guard, both in terms of stealth and speed to knock your enemy off guard and regain momentum. More focus is put on methods of entry and speed than in other forms of combat, as ground can be covered quickly, and the enemy can likely see, hear, or even feel your movements at such close range, where accuracy is less important due to being in such a close proximity to your target.
To help regain lost momentum, assuming you need to engage multiple targets in multiple rooms, flashbangs or the equivalent (stun grenades) should be utilized before entering a room in order to momentarily incapacitate your target.
For as quick acquisition as possible, flashbangs should be both on the man in front of you, easily accessible to yourself, and on your vest, as well. In addition, you should allow your door breacher to enter the room last, and utilize a different person to breach the door, another to open it, and yet another to toss the flashbang in while the last individual is the first to storm the room.
This allows as quick a switch between jobs as possible to ensure team work.
Most importantly, also make sure to have every flank covered and to be out of the line of fire of your team mate. Hand signals, gestures, and other movements can help to stealthy direct you and your team to the desired positions. A lot of close quarters is based on raw mechanics, that is a faster draw time, reload time, better accuracy, and noise and vision policing, I.E. entering an area stealthily and quickly, than actual combat itself. Since better equipment, or capabilities they don't possess, such as thermal or night vision capabilities are invaluable, some of close quarters combat does rely more so on raw skill. In close quarters combat, giving your enemy time to fight back makes the chance of being defeated nearly equal. Thus, taking your enemy off guard before they have time to respond is crucial, be it in a time intensive scenario such as a hostage rescue or bombing attempt, or just general combat. Matters of accuracy drops off in close range due to the ease of hitting targets that are close, and thus the enemy may feel inclined to reduce you to close quarters combat to give themselves, a lesser trained enemy, a chance. Walls become much more important, and thus complex areas can seem like mazes that must be fought as well as the enemy, which could be coming from any direction in a man made structure.
If in close quarters, do not feel afraid to focus on indirect fire. Shooting around corners with specialized weapons, using grenades or air bursting munitions, or flanking the enemy these types of weapon become substantially more essential. Unconventional methods in normal combat become much more important, such as using pistols or other smaller weapons.
Slicing the PieSlicing the pie predominately focuses on direction and angles, utilizing the
parallax effect. At all angles, but particularly at close ranges, you may notice a few degrees opens up a whole new world to you just based on visibility alone. It is best to exploit this to your advantage, by seeking cover that masks your position both physically and visually, to make it hard for your opponent to lock on to your position, as in general, your line of fire is based on what you can see in an almost two dimensional view of the world.
Even if you can sense or feel where your enemy is, especially in close quarters, you must to some degree expose yourself to target your enemy. Since you must generally see your enemy to be accurate, you must expose yourself or use a camera. It's easy
to see how, in close quarters, how a few degrees can make all the difference to how your enemy sees you, and how you see them. It's easy to see how this is something to keep in mind when combating your enemies, especially in close quarters.
Another commonly associated maneuver is the
buttonhook. Essentially, 2-3 operators moving into a room fast to cover every available direction and provide as much cover as possible.
Violence of ActionViolence of action is a commonly used term applying to keeping and maintaining momentum in a situation, to constantly keep the enemy on edge and relentlessly exploit advantages in speed, critical thinking, rationalization, and the element of surprise. To be constantly taking the enemy off guard and incapacitating them as to avoid damage to yourself.
Assuming all things otherwise equal, It is kill or be killed; either you take down the enemy, or they take down you. Therefore speed is the forefront to surviving and achieving your goals in close quarters. Whether by regaining the element of surprise, having it in the first place, or using flashbangs, tear gas, or other sensory stimuli to disrupt or incapacitate your enemy, you can more easily engage them, without causing damage to yourself. Therefore under otherwise equal conditions, or precarious conditions, such as opening up a door which draws fire to yourself, or puts you in the way of harm, it is always best to regain lost momentum (such as by alerting your presence by opening up a door) by utilizing incapacitation agents or utilizing a different route of entry, if one is available. Assuming one is not, flashbangs and other such devices can allow precious time and the advantage of stealth to take place again.
Speed and hiding are key. You do not want to be caught in a precarious position, and yet you want to catch the enemy in one, or create such a scenario artificially.
