Tactics - Perimeter Defense

good afternoon captain Justin de Leon here from the University of Iowa Army ROTC a PMS here at Iowa and also the MS 3 instructor today we're going to be talking about defensive operations at the platoon level and specifically we're going to be talking about a perimeter defense the references that we'll be using today will be 3 - 21:8 infantry platoon and squad that'll be their main reference that we use so the purpose of today's lesson is to go over a perimeter defense and talk over a doctrinally sound a way to do it defense is a very very complex operation whether you're doing all kinds of out defences area defense mobile defense delay withdraws reverse slow perimeter there's so many different types of defense operations there's so much that goes into them you could talk for hours about it so I'm gonna focus in on perimeter defense today the reason I'm gonna focus on this is this is a defense that a lot of our cadets encounter either at the programs are at an advanced camp but it's definitely all the characteristics and things that we do here will be applicable to any defense on the battlefield all right so today talking about perimeter defense we got our EA development here this is one of the key parts of a defensive operation is developing our engaging areas where we want to kill the enemy we've also got our battle positions here primary alternate supplementary subsequent in a strong point all right we're gonna talk about those throughout as well the key ones that I really want to focus on today is our primary bowel positions and our supplementary bowel positions those will definitely come in two key play in a primer defense okay so first of all what is a perimeter defense a perimeter defense is basically where you have to defend with 360 security around yourself so a patrol base would be an example of a perimeter defense typically a perimeter defense is in a is in wooded terrain or heavily vegetated terrain or it's an urban terrain you could it's a great place where you can do you know the Alamo is a great example of a classic perimeter defense where you're confined to a compound or a building or a neighborhood block where you're trying to basically keep three security and not allow the enemy into your AO okay typically when we do a perimeter defense we're holding some type of piece of some type or piece of key terrain that we do not want the enemy to seize or secure all right a the biggest thing about it also is that you are not mutually supported by any other elements so if you are a platoon and you're doing a perimeter defense you're basically out there alone unafraid without immediate support from someone else maybe they're trying to get to you whatever it is maybe but you need to hold on in that location for however long it may be all right so usually when we do defensive operations like I said we're part of a company battalion or Brigade larger defense this example we're by ourselves okay so we got from your defense here so we're gonna kind of walk through a basic scenario of what this would look like and the steps to make this a good and decent defense that's gonna stop the enemy and at least make sure we've heavily disrupt his operation so we have this circle here and very simple but we have to do a perimeter defense around this circle all right so work we're gonna do first is we're gonna do our ei development all right and try to identify enemy average approach determine their course of action where you want to kill them and then we're gonna start and placing our elements in order to do that okay so one of the first main elements we gotta do once we identify our location is we gotta do a recon we got a recon the area to make sure all right that we identify all these things so the pl is going to do a recon around the perimeter defense all right and identify number one what are the enemy like these have likely avenues of approach okay basically can do this in many ways but he could cloverleaf he could go around a circle but the main thing is he's got to get out there okay the best way to visualize where the enemy's I'd likely having to approach our is for him to get out there and look around and say hey if I were gonna attack this objective if I were trying to take this terrain how would I do it all right that's the best way so let's say the PL is out here and he's able to see that there is some great mobility corridors here to the east and to the south where the enemy has some cover and concealment but he can also move rapidly we got to remember one thing that the enemy needs to do typically is they need to move hard and fast on to that objective ok let's say the PA identifies that there's a lot of thick brush and thicken over here to the northwest now the enemy could try and sneak up on us and attack from that position so that is a Avenue approach that he could use but he's considering that very unlikely because it's gonna have eaters of thick brush to get through and he's gonna make a lot of noise doing so all right so we're gonna hear him from a far away off these to providing the best haven't approached into the objective ok the PL now let's say for scenario sake has also identified a small little mound here alright it has observation fields of fire over the objective ok and he thinks that the enemy is gonna try and put their support by fire here it's a great position for the enemy to put that support by fire position ok so now we starting to go into that second step determine any course of action so we got a away let's go this we got a Oh a 1 here we got a Oh a 2 we got any way three we think these are most likely with let's say Aon anyway one be most likely somewhat likely and much more like least likely ok and now we're saying hey determining is the course of action we think he's gonna put a support by fire up on that mount and we think that he's an attack along a oa1 most likely he may attack along aoa - okay so we've kind of determined how he's gonna do it also we know for a fact the enemy likely has mortars hopefully now artillery but maybe he has both and he's probably got some fires targets in our security within our perimeter so we should expect to see indirect fire as well in order to help facilitate suppress and facilitate that assault through ok so there's not a lot more in depth and a lot more detail we can go into and identifying an enemy course of action and really hammering down into the details but basically this is kind of what we're looking at so we can go through and talk hey he's gonna move a team here he's gonna move a squad here then he's gonna do a feint here and hit here he'd get very deep okay for now we're gonna leave it at this okay so we got a basic enemy course of action of what are the possible ones okay and now we want to determine where do we want to kill the enemy guys Herman where we want to kill him okay so again we think he's either coming on a away one or a a two so what we're gonna do is we're gonna make some engagement areas along those avenues of approach all right so we got ea2 down here you got ei one over here okay these are these boxes that we define where we want to kill the enemy where we see that we have good fields of fire and observation on those objectives are those engagement areas and we'll be able to lay effective fires and mass and concentrate all fires that we have on those positions if we feel like they were capable of doing that that's where we want to kill them that's where we want to kill them okay so if I identified now we're gonna kill them there all right next is we want to integrate obstacles into this okay so we want to integrate potential officers that we have so if we're lucky we have some type of Minds maybe we have some digging assets but really what this is gonna result in if we have any extra sea wire okay so we got four types of officers we can have right we've got disrupt we got turn we got fix and we got block all right those are the different types of obstacles we can use okay with sea wire the best you're probably a little hoping for is disruption maybe a little bit of fix with mostly disruption okay if we had some if we place some along the avenue of approach in order to disrupt okay or if we have enough maybe we put a fixing obstacle in here that makes it so the enemy gets stuck and gets bogged down in that ei is easier to kill them there okay either way that's what we pretty much have it at our disposal all right likely in many scenarios you might not have the ability all right to have obstacles what you can use to help you with this though is you can use claymores that kind of goes into more using your assets but we definitely want to be placing claymores along these and easy engaged neighbors it probably might be a good idea as well if we have the ability we could place the Claymore up here or ant it out towards that support by fire position what we'd likely think the enemy is gonna lay down his machine-gun teams okay but now we basically integrated obstacles to try and one force him into those engagement areas disrupt his movement up and also fix him potentially once he's inside that engagement area so we can destroy him okay now we want to emplace our weapon systems so really now we're starting to emplace our defense around our perimeter and throughout all right we're starting to identify that this is challenging hi this is challenging but it's very possible if we just lay down our priorities okay so we know our priorities are AOA too and anyway one that's where we likely think the enemy's gonna come that's where we want to kill okay so first of all what I ought to do like to place my most casualty-producing weapons first so those two forty Bravo's those machine guns so I'm probably gonna play some machine gun facing down here one machine gun team here and one machine gun team here and those are gonna be their primary bow positions all right so let's say I got my alpha gun here and I got my Bravo gun here and those will be their primary Bala's ish ins okay now I'm looking and I'm thinking hey I want to have additional troops an AOA one for sure because I think that's the enemy is most likely coming okay so I'm gonna put a team sized bowel position there and maybe that's alpha from a1 actually let's change that let's go it's Alpha Team from 80 to okay then maybe on the other side this machine gun I've got Bravo from a2 so I'm basically got my assault to squad here with that alpha machine gun all right and they're working fires on this engaging area all right direct fires down here with the Bravo machine gun I'm gonna put my alpha team from a1 down here and they're working fires together on this engagement area okay I got some other elements left I'm gonna put Bravo from a1 in here and they're gonna be my strike force I'm gonna talk about them a little bit later okay and now we got our security squad there's different ways to use them there's different ways to employ them I'm gonna give a technique something that helps okay something that could be used so we got to make sure that we still have 360 security we got to make sure we have that all right so what I'm gonna do in this situation all right I've got three enemies enter approach what I'm likely gonna do is I'm gonna basically put one men's locations on the back side of my perimeter all right to make sure I'm watching these areas as well okay so I'm maintaining that 360 security but I'm overloading certain sides where I'm confident the enemy's gonna choose to come from okay and now I still got six people remaining from that security squad so this is all the security squad right here on this side I got six people the way I like to use them and then way I think it's an effective way to use them is we need to have Opie's all right we need to have Opie's out in front of our position okay so I'm doing this I'm probably gonna put an Opie back in this thicket to make sure I identify anyone moving this way I'll put an Opie up in this elevated terrain here identify support moving in identify this assault element maybe I'll put an Opie down here that can identify anything moving in that area or anything we were down here so ideally I've got Opie's around my perimeter looking for movement all the way around okay and they're serving two purposes one they're providing me early warning of enemy movement around the objective and two all right they're disrupting enemy movement around the objective okay before any fight and understanding this is also gonna help you whenever he comes to platoon attack or platoon raid because the enemy likely will have their Opie's out there in front of you all right when you were trying to attack me anyways got my Opie's out they got to method they got to things are doing so they're conducting early warning techniques so they're trying to identify where the enemy is coming from and provide that information to the PL o is a headquarters is in the middle all right and also they're there to disrupt any movement okay so one of the key things that happens is there's gonna be a recon fight alright what's the first thing that we do once we get to our RP and a platoon attack let's say and we're gonna hit an objective what's the first thing we do after we prep men and weapons and equipment in that ORP we're gonna go conduct a leaders recon recon the objective identify where we want our salt and support you know get a clear view of it and hit that objective correctly all right so what do you think the enemy's gonna do when you're in a defense they're gonna be doing their recon they want to recon this objective your job and the oak the job of your opiez is to not let them recon this objective fight that recon off all right if the enemy can't see you you cannot get eyes on the objective they cannot make an effective attack and if there are time runs out one they have to abort two they have to make a hasty attack with limited knowledge which gives the idea to you okay so that's what the Opie's are doing all right one thing we got to make sure and think about before we send these Opie's out is comms they got to have communication back to the PL so whether it's a salt one or assault two or someone else they're giving up radios to these no peace so we can communicate with them and they can report back to the PL very important okay what they also got to have John over here they got to have engagement criteria and they also got to have disengagement criteria what does that mean that means we're telling them what to shoot at and what not to shoot at or when to shoot and when to withdrawal okay so we're looking at this and we're saying hey Opie's if you run into an enemy for the enemy element that's four people or less you're clear to engage I engage disrupt them all right do not let them get in with inside of this objective because it's likely the enemy recon if they're coming into an element of five people or more comes into view of them they're in order there they are to empty a magazine and then withdraw back to the security posture okay so we're working through that so we want to give them what to engage and what to disengage from because that will give them the intent of the end of the PL on the ground okay now here we go into a very very important part where as we're in placing weapon systems and doing our defense okay and that is the biggest part of this is fire control measures okay it's very easy for fratricide to happen all right especially if I got Opie's out here fratricide is very likely if I'm shooting out for my perimeter okay so I got to be careful with this so what I'm doing is I a method okay because what I like to do is I like to split this into sections so what I'll do just like undo any defense is I will find a TRP out here a target reference point to identify maybe it's a big tree a big boulder whatever it is this is TRP let's say this way so I'll do one here I'll probably do something up here so TRP 1 TRP to TRP 3 okay overall platoon TRPs I as fire control measures okay so what I can do is I can then name these sections see how I've split it into three sections I can have up here and this is section 1 this is section 2 this is section 3 okay and now I can say hey all section section 1 2 & 3 are all cold all cold you can't shoot into that section because my Opie's are out there when this Opie either it goes to ground which means he's basically getting his face in a hole and going to ground or he withdraws because he engaged some in a large enemy element and then moved back to the secure posture in here now I can say hey section 1 is hot section 1 is hot too was cold and 3 is cold ok I'm constantly communicating that out if the enemy is identified in section 1 and section 2 and both Opie's move back in hey section 1 & 2 they're hot section 1 and 2 are hot section 3 is cold okay I can use that as a fire control measure throughout to make sure we're not connecting fratricide alright hopefully that makes sense okay so I've got all that here I've got some control measures in place alright and now what I want to do is I want to plan an inter and integrate indirect fires so whether I have mortars or friendly artillery and general support to me whatever I got I want to make sure I got fires targets out here okay so let's say my higher elements has given me three targets where would I probably put them I want to mass and concentrate fires where I want to kill the enemy right so I'm probably gonna put a fires target in this eh-eh so I'll say this is I'll call the zero two target zero two I'll put one in this ei target zero one and maybe I'll put one up in here target zero three well I think the supports gonna be okay and the naming convention of the target will obviously change but that's how I might make my targets okay now something to think through okay these Opie's can also call for fire out if they call if they see enemy of moving into the okay people who sometimes get confused just because I only have three targets doesn't mean these are the only three locations that I can fire on they're just meant to expedite with the fires process so hey I need a fire for effect on target zero two I got ten men in the open all right they're gonna shoot that target if I see people out here okay I don't have a target there but I can still do a call for fire mission from this Opie on that element okay so you can fire on more this is just an expert the fires process in those engagement areas and where I think that's support by fire is gonna be okay so I got my fire is in place okay now I want to integrate some more control measures I already got my sections labeled okay but something that really really helps with defense really helps is what's called trigger lines okay and sometimes it's hard to find this in certain doctrines but trigger lines are really really help and what I mean by that is let's just let's go cut through a scenario let's say back here there's a tree line all right and I've got some enemy forces that move past this tree line okay I got enemy forces that moved past that tree line and all of a sudden I mean my machine gunner here who my alpha machine gunner he wants to kill someone he wants to shoot right obviously so he sees them come out that tree line and he immediately starts firing is that a good thing probably not probably he might get one or two kills but the rest of this element let's get back in the tree line grab cover and then now they gonna Ricans are gonna consolidate and reorganize they're gonna try and hit from in their angle okay the point is is we need to wait until this element is in that engaging area before we start shooting at them okay now if they identify us and they're shooting at us early maybe we need to fire back but the point is is we not want to open up we're trying to kill them in that engaging area so we don't we don't want to discourage them from getting in okay so when I talk about that is different trigger lines for different weapon systems okay so leading my weapon squad they're not allowed to start firing okay this is their direct fire what that's their direct fire trigger line and there now I would start firing until they see that you might m4 s-- they can start firing a little bit earlier I am for trigger line for direct fire okay whatever it is but I'm picking points I'm demonstrating this to everyone okay and a key way to identify something is pick a piece of terrain out there okay so maybe I got like a tree this is my terrible excuse for a tree here but maybe I got a tree right here that the weapons squad can be like okay you guys see that tree when the enemy forces get to that tree now you can start shooting okay and we need to do the same thing on this side we got trigger lines over here for different weapon systems right whether it's a machine gun or m4 or two four nine whatever we got okay the other trigger line we need to put in there is our indirect fire let's have you got an indirect fire truck online and the reason we got to do this is because we need to know when a call for fire on our targets okay what happens often is we wait until the enemy is almost at this engagement area take off for fire if they somehow get through here and the fire is landing there now it wasn't effective we need that fire to land when the enemy is in that engagement area okay so what we gotta do is we gotta do some time distance analysis and say hey when the enemy hits this trigger line which maybe it's a big boulder or whatever the terrain feature is we're gonna call the target so right by the time they get to that engaging area that's when the rounds are impacting and we're getting effects okay so we got to include all that and in this plan those trigger lines will help keep us disciplined and will help keep us putting the mass and concentrating fires on that engagement area at the right time okay it doesn't matter if you're doing it if you're not doing it correctly at the correct time okay the last thing I want to mention with our terrain features here our sorry our bow positions okay so right now everyone's in their primary bow positions alright and we need to be prepared to move to other types of Al positions in a perimeter defense the big ones that we're gonna focus on are our primary and our supplementary okay so primary is where we're starting focused on certain avenues of approach and alternate is a different position oriented on the same Avenue probe so basically if alpha team of alpha to squad moved down here but we're still oriented on this seventh approach that would be the definition of an alternate Val position however now we are supplementary a supplementary battle position is when let's say the enemy does attack - AOA - and we have a supplemental tier for this weapon squad if they were to move down here and now start firing on this Avenue approach and alternate having an approach that is their sub meri bow position okay so what we got to do is we got to build these battle positions throughout all right so everyone's in their primary now but we come up with a plan where if the enemy comes to AOA - this weapons team moves down and takes position right there and maybe this team moves down and takes position down here and they're putting fires now on this ei and we just leave one team with still security in this direction okay if they come on anyway three maybe we got two teams from each side moving up here - supplementary politicians along this line if they come on anyway one maybe this a alpha team a one stays here but the Bravo team from the machine gun squad moves there to help put fires line the a the point is is we got different sets for what the enemy wants to do okay so something that I like to do just call them code names call this one gold call this one black the black gold and thanks silver or something all right and so based on what I say hey black black black that means the enemy is coming from this direction move to the positions that are associated with this having approached down here but I say gold gold gold the enemy is coming from this position I move to the battle position that is oriented correctly okay and that's how we do it okay so we're gonna brief these primary and erase all this that doesn't get that stuff but we're gonna brief these primary and alternate positions are these primary and supplementary positions in our order okay and now how do we confirm that everyone's tracking because that's a lot that's a lot hey if they're going silver my team's over here they're going gold I'm over here if they're going black I'm over here okay that's a lot so how do we do it okay yes we spot-check yes we back briefed rehearsals rehearse probably the biggest part of EI development we are going to rehearse rehearse rehearse as much as we can okay so the PL is literally gonna call out black and he's gonna ensure that everyone goes to their correct pal position on black all right if the enemy was to come on anyway to y'all's goal does the same thing okay rehearse this and make sure you correct efficiencies you know what when you rehearse you're gonna identify plans and your security or sorry plan your identify holes in your security you're gonna die no if I holes with the communication from these Opie's okay again as these Opie's retrograde back to you now they can join in this Strikeforce okay and now comes in the Strikeforce all right we always want to have a Strikeforce prepared and ready to maneuver on the enemy okay and the reason is is we want to basically defeat the enemy in their attack so I did ideally the enemy is moving down let's say a oa1 they get bogged down in the engagement area they get fixed we're destroying them and they're at a very vulnerable moment we take the strike force and we envelop right right I mean move and we destroy with them okay we gotta use control measures though when we employ that strike force so right now I have it as one team but something like to do is when these Opie's withdraw in I have them join the strike force and build combat power that way so let's say they wanted to move to the right and attack the enemy or assault the enemy as he's pushing through and velop him there okay they can do so but now I got to make sure everyone knows hey section two is now cold section two is now cold and I make sure that this team knows they can't push past this TRP one because I need section one to stay hot okay all this needs to be rehearsed we're rehearsing this strike force going to the right rehearsing the Strikeforce going to left and making different sections hot and cold okay it can get complex but if you rehearse it well it can work it really can okay the other great thing to rehearse as well is these trigger lines all right a great technique is send a soldier out there with a radio and have him start at this tree line and start walking in all right he's got that a VF trigger line it telling the stop and whoever is responsible for calling that IDF target in the engaging area said you talk to them you say hey do you see what that soldier is right now when the enemy gets past that position when they hit that position call the target now they can visually see it it's a better representation then they move forward and they hit these trigger lines and they're talking to those different weapons systems hey do you see what that soldiers that right now he's next to that big tree when the enemy gets there that's when I want you to open up that's when I want you to initiate fire makes sense so again the most rehearsal the more rehearsals you can do to confirm everyone knows what's going on and understands their role whether it's the black it's gold it's silver whether they're attacking this way or this way is key okay one suggestion I want to bring up is I I think it's a good SOP that only the PIA the peel and only the PL is the one that calls the direction of where the enemy is coming from gold black silver because what could easily happen is down here one of these soldiers that say in Alpha Team Alpha one squad for assault one he's looking at his engaging area and all of a sudden he sees four soldiers four enemy soldiers in his view and his limited scope of what's going on because all he's seen is he's he thinks the attacks coming right he thinks the attacks coming now all of a sudden he yells out black black black and everyone starts shifting okay when really the enemy was just doing a feint hitting with a four man team there and then hitting with you know a squad plus and actually assaulting the objective there okay we got to be careful about committing to one of the other and that's what we have security spread out until we absolutely confirm that the enemy is moving to having an approach then we can move to those actual plants so the PL he's the one that's looking at all three side he's getting reports from everywhere he's the one that needs to make that call and for me if I was facing against another enemy platoon if I saw a squad plus all right so now I'm in a squad or higher coming at me from a certain direction I can probably I have you know ninety percent certainty that's most likely to assault and maybe then I'll be ready to make that call okay but your point is is do not do not commit to black gold or silver one of your plans too early okay and don't commit your Strikeforce too early as well commit that only when you're confident that they're gonna have easy access and be able to destroy that enemy position okay okay so I know this looks like a lot here but I think I talked through it you know step by step as best I could but the point is is this is a good example of how to plan a perimeter defense okay there are so many variables when you go into terrain and obviously the mentee see there are so many variables that make every perimeter defense and every defensive operation different all right but these are the fundamentals you gotta do and every time you got to do that initial recon and you've got to do your EA development you got it okay and you've got to use these different battle positions to build and flexibility to your plan flexibility and you've got to have the strike force to maneuver all those pieces are key to making a very successful defense an aggressive defense all right if you just basically take up a hasty 360 security and wait for the enemy to come to you it's gonna be bad all right and these Opie's are key disruption is gonna be huge all right as they disrupt they're gonna throw the enemy off their game again we're trying to limit them from recon the objective but also if this support by fire actually gets established here all right and now this o P puts direct fire contact in this enemy I we're delaying him we're disrupting his movement in and now his coordination between him and the support are off all right maybe they're expecting an attack here this disruption happened and now they got to swing around and come this way all right the coordination and the timing is off we want to do that as much as possible and make the enemy feel uncomfortable moving in okay so I hope you learned something for today again this is just one type of defensive operation but it was good to go over and again thanks for listening in

Channel: Captain DeLeon

Views: 33,171

Rating: 4.9559364 out of 5

Keywords: University of Iowa, Army ROTC, Army Training, Tactical Training, Platoon Tactics, Defense, Deleon, perimeter defense, platoon defense, area

Id: ngvL9sC9heg

Length: 33min 15sec (1995 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 25 2019