Considering the fact that by far 80% of our sensory information is received through our eyes - working in low to no light conditions is pretty much stretching out our human capabilities – especially when it comes down to tracking / identifying targets or orientation in and around obstacles in CQB settings. In this short article we will highlight several important points from the video above which was taken during one of the first Low light run of our students.
This video is composed of #training drills and tactics which were taken during some of our CQB #courses this year. The #video gives a glimpse into the students level, and the approach that we take towards #CQB.
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Check the upcoming dates below..
May
6. - 8. focused Entry, at Ilmenau
June
03. - 05. CQB level 1 at Airsofthalle Ilmenau DE
10. - 12. CQB level 1 at Wolfsburg DE
24. - 26. CQB LF in Poland w/ Stronghold Group
July
01. - 03. CQB Live fire in Prague, CZ
14. - 16. CQB level 1 in Denmark
22. - 24. CQB level 2 in Ilmenau Germany
29. - 31. CQB level 1 in England
August
12. - 14. CQB level 1 Belgium
19. - 21 Focused Entry course Ilmenau Germany
During one of our Rifle courses in Czech Republic, we were given the opportunity to put to the test one of BRISTOL's ceramic plates (the IV protection level). In total we shot 6 5.56 .223 Rem FMJs by a PROARMs MK3 AR platform.
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With that being said, we educate our students to fully understand that tactics, are not (in most cases) a one man show.A team, is a necessary constellation of skills,experience and perception - all migrated into a collaborative work.
In this video Eli, lead instructor of Project Gecko - highlights :
1. The proper use of the wing-man constellation (formation) in relative to the frame (POE)
2. PG's method regarding frame check for IED's \ Obstacles, and few other important remarks.
3. Stack up & informationtips
If you are LEO \ MIL and would like to use it to your active personal feel free to contact us via : http://www.projectgecko.info/contakt/
- READ FIRST -
We know that people will try to copy or steal our intellectual knowledge - keep in mind that what you see, is a result of a dedicated service, and years of experience and \ is ran by only several israel instructors - So before copying and adding this knowledge to your training company, think twice, its easy to spot.
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Okay, we understand the room layout, the placement of the opening to get into the room and the parts of the room we have to and use to clear, and why and how enemies may use it to their advantage – the tactical significance of the anatomy. Let’s discuss things that will catch you off guard. What tactical obstacles are we faced with?
Tactical obstacles are usually seen as physical objects that diminish the capabilities of the entry team. They usually increase the risk of an entry team member becoming injured or killed. There are a few obstacles that I am going to note. And I am only going to keep it in-line with the physical anatomy of the room, no psychological obstacles or human barriers. The first obstacle is a half-wall.
Above: A half-wall on the left-side/left structural wall, in a box-shaped center-fed room.
A half-wall is a partition dividing one segment of a room from another – ordinarily dividing a smaller segment from the larger area of the room. It tends to protrude out from a main structural walls causing a visual obstruction as to what is around it. This is an issue. You cannot clear the room without clearing the half-wall. It may be short or tall. You may be able to clear it from above or have to go around it to clear it.
Next: furniture. Activities of daily living or working are not taken place in an empty room like you see in basic “shoot houses”. In fact this form of “empty room syndrome” trains bad habits. Prepare yourselves for rooms filled with furniture and household objects. They’ll trip you up, you will slide, fall and get hurt. Furniture is also a visual obstruction – you can’t see what is behind it. When you’re working around the room you need to take this into account. Think up and down. Under beds, above you in ceiling shafts.
Furthering this, furniture is often flammable – flash bangs, live rounds (especially tracer) and other combat applications can set a room alight. Furniture can “trap” flashbangs negating their best effect, furniture can “hide” explosives and boobytraps. An enemy combatant can hide in deep angles of the room so once entry occurs they can engage when friendly forces are deeper within the room, creating an ambush/kill zone. Furniture can be used to block and obstruct entry, allowing effective door ambushes against the entry team. Furniture is a tactical obstacle.
How do you take this obstacle? Low height obstacles can be bypassed or jumped over. High height obstacles can be ducked under. Medium height obstacles can be passed under, over, around but usually are bypassed. Full height obstacles tend be bypassed by going around them. You make a targeted approach depending on the size and shape of the object. If it’s low, I can come from above it and shoot down. I can drop a grenade over the top. I’m safer in this position than jumping around it where someone will be expecting me. Either way I’m going to try and get multiple angles on threat, including backup angles in case I lose the fight initially. Si?
Righteo, now let’s look at some linear layouts. A fourway intersection is an area which divides itself into four linear subareas or a hallway with two linear subareas branching horizontal to it. It is basically a crossroad. Tactical problems are apparent – you can potentially occupied space to your left and right and you have space to cover to your front. Do I hear “Da%$”? I certainly think I do. I hate these intersections. They’re trouble.
Above : a four way intersection
There are plenty of methods to take them. I might end up rambling on about that in a future topic. I might not. But you see that they’re a problem, have a plan and don’t let them catch you off guard. Be prepared.
The next linear layout is a T-intersection. There are many arcs to cover but they only come from the left and right. That’s good news. This also means you can have near-simultaneous coverage of both sides of the corridor, galley or hallway. A tactic called cross-covering is often employed for this. However, this technique as with a fourway carries great risk. You are put into a small space where multiple people can be injured from little action – for example the enemy putting a few rounds down the hallway and taking out multiple people, a grenade landing in the middle of you or a suicide vest (SVIED) deciding to go bang. Problems.
Above : a T section
And now to recap.
Obstacles
Half-wall – A half-wall is a partition dividing one segment of a room from another, ordinarily dividing a smaller segment from the larger area of the room and protruding from the main structural walls.
Furniture- Furniture are objects that fill a room, which are used for daily living/working and household purposes. Furniture is also movable so may be used to obstruct entry.
Fourway Intersection – Four offshoots from a central point. This usually creates a crossroad-like intersection.
T-Intersection – A horizontal linear area off-shooting from a central structure/layout. This forms the shape of an alphabetical “T” letter.
There are many more obstacles out there. These are just common ones that catch people off guard. Look around, see if you can find some! Think of solutions as to how you would deal with them.
And finally, it has been a blast writing the Anatomy of the Room. Thank you for reading. The next series will be Entry Philosophy. We will be looking at the entry process of getting into a room, the thinking behind it and the reasoning behind where it can go wrong, and right, including what we’re teaching wrong and what we’re doing wrong globally.
By Rye
CQB-TEAM
Close Quarters Battle
Tactical Education and Motivation
Google anything Close Quarter Battle – You’ll find us!
For the previous parts simply scroll down HERE
The corners are our main areas to clear in a bog-standard “traditional” entry as discussed in the last article. This part of the series will look into the tactical significance of the room anatomy in relation to humans, as well as a few more minor structural concepts that are not “concrete anatomy.” To start off we will further discuss corners. Are your ears bleeding yet? Get used to it.
Corners are the areas we clear in our primary sweep. We know that. So what? Well… Corners in relation to human beings are areas people tend to “hug” in certain circumstances. If they are under immediate danger, in a firefight under fire, they feel they cannot defend the room effectively, threatened or they feel they will gain surprise by being in a corner they will “hug” it. It makes them feel safer – solid walls either side of them with only one area to look at. Cosy. It’s bad news for us. We enter against someone trained on the entrypoint who may feel safe, even confident, in the most vulnerable position. A d*#head with an AK can kill a million-dollar super soldier from this position. You see that I am trying to project importance in clearing the corners. Clear them effectively.
HardcornersCenter-Fed during on of our courses
They may hug the corner with the biggest field of view of the entrypoint – the soft corner. They may use cover and barricade themselves in this way using deep angles within the room. They may want to stay out of sight, relying on surprise from the hard corner. From this position they may not be barricaded, they may be sitting “exposed” in the corner with no cover. If you clear the soft corners from outside then you can conduct a targeted approach to the hard corners. Now you see why understanding these differences in corners becomes significant. At least I should hope you do.
Well you have a few more areas to think about – the first being the immediate threat area and from there on usually the corners and then the rest of the room. This is known as a “center-corner-center” approach. We’ve already discussed corners so let’s take it back a step… The immediate threat area.
The immediate threat area can be seen as the an area close to the entrypoint where an enemy may engage the entry team or obstruct the entry. If an enemy is within this area or looks to obstruct your entry they are known as immediate threats. The definition of the immediate threat is:
– A person armed and prepared to fire upon entry team; and,
– If not eliminated or subdued they will cause harm to the entry team or entry process.
Other definitions further describe an immediate threat as:
– A person who blocks movement of the entry team; and,
– Are within an arm’s reach of the entrypoint.
Above: Immediate Threat Area (estimated) and an Immediate Threat.
They are not imminent threats. An imminent threat is impending or likely danger that is separated by space or time. An immediate threat does not have this luxury, it is actively happening in real-time. It is a present danger that is next in order, without delay. For example an imminent threat may be running across the room to grab his rifle. That is meters away and a few vital seconds. Imminent. Whereas an immediate threat has the rifle in hand and is ready to operate it. A potential threat, furthering this point, is someone who may potentially become dangerous in the future and thus is treated as a threat for the short-duration until defined.
Now an immediate threat area is not the “base anatomy” or “concrete anatomy” of the room. It is a tactical concept superimposed on the anatomy. The immediate threat area is concept of how humans use the anatomy. It is equally as important to know as understanding the “base” or “concrete anatomy.” Hence it has tactical significance. Eliminate immediate threats, if you can, as soon as possible. Even before the hard corners.
We understand that the immediate threat area and hard corners are our initial targets. Usually the first two men entering will clear into these areas first. But how do we do this without hurting one another? How do we use the anatomy to prevent risk, especially if we have to engage somebody in front of us?
To prevent any mishap with the third and fourth man entering after first and second or the pointman and secondman progressing too far into the room, there is a key fundamental: the strongwall. “Sticking to the strongwall”, or strongwalling, minimizes the risk of friendly fire (blue-on-blue), allows for a co-ordinated entry into the room and maximizes the visible area in the room.
The strongwall, or the common wall, is the wall along the entrypoint. In a corner-fed this may include both walls connecting to the door but under normal circumstances it is one individual wall. Example – in some entries you run along both known walls and only the walls attaching to the original entrypoint wall. If this is done correctly there should be safe firing lanes as to avoid each other. You may have seen some of the “Special Forces Room Clearing” videos on Youtube. One of them examples this perfectly. You see comments on it saying, “Wow I’m like sooo amazed they like didn’t like shoot each other.” Well. That’s why. Pretty simple concept, huh?
Now the strongwall is a dynamic process and hence why I have not included it as apart of the “concrete” anatomy but as an area of the anatomy we mentally visualize and use to our advantage. The strongwall may be going to the left, going to the right, one wall, two walls. It all depends on what the room anatomy is telling us. The purpose is that you remain on the same wall as the entrypoint, lock down and engaging threats within that room without leaving the wall. This is the concept of strongwalling.
Basic Concepts
Immediate threat area – An area which can be close to the entrypoint but definitely has access of which to visualize and engage the entrypoint.
Immediate threat – A person prepared and capable of causing immediate harm to the entry team, usually within seconds, or as, the entry team enters the room.
Imminent threat – A person not yet capable of causing immediate harm but is actively seeking the capability to do so. For example moving towards a weapon or from the other side of the room towards the entry team.
Potential threat – A person who may have the capacity to cause harm, they are potentially dangerous. This is why all hostages get the zippy and a hostage controller looking over them, folks.
Strongwall – The wall running along the entrypoint. “Strongwalling” is a tactic in which all members of the entry team stay along the strongwall to lock down and engage threats.
We get out we use the anatomy now and how the room anatomy relates to human beings. The next article will cover some of the further obstacles we may face that encompass the anatomy of the room. These obstacles might catch you by surprise.
By Rye
CQB-TEAM
Close Quarters Battle
Tactical Education and Motivation
Where did we leave off? Oh yeah… Not all rooms are made equal. There’s different shapes and sizes. Some are small, some medium, some large. This is termed short rooms and large rooms. That’s so easy I’m not even going to show you a diagram of it. In places like Afghanistan there are a lot of short rooms – both in size and height – therefore it’s a key consideration when working within that environment.
A short room is small, entries usually only permit around two people… so call it if you come across a short room. An example might be a small outhouse or outbuilding – a shed, an out-house toilet, a storage building or a barn. Get it? Back to heavy and weak side. Let me explain further.
So as you can see, in a box-shaped, corner-fed room that “runs” or “feeds” to the right, the heavy side is situated on the right. It has the largest unknown area left to clear. Teams usually clear from known to unknown so the right side would be their target area to clear.
Entrypoint placement is a tick. Room structure is a tick. Let’s look at the room again but this time with consideration towards the rest of the layout – starting with the corners. The corners that you can see from the entrypoint are called easy corners. The corners you cannot see from the entrypoint are called hard corners. Now looking at a consistently regular box-room with the same length walls on each face of the room, we can see that the easy corners would be the corners furthest away from the entrypoint. This is nearly always true – easy corners tend to be further away.
This is important because what we can see, we can examine and engage. From the entrypoint, if we can see the easy corners, we can engage into them before meeting threshold* and pulling into the hard corners. If we see bad news like a boobytrap, we can pull away. This gives you a time and space advantage to the entry. It also leaves you with the understanding that hard corners are rather significant because you cannot see them until you physically enter the room. They are essentially blind spots. Of course, that is unless you have an observation device** and so on, but you get the point.
*The threshold will be discussed in later articles. Google is your friend for now.
**For clarification… like a folding lightweight periscope or under-door camera. They can see into corners without a human physically entering the room.
Remember that you do not always come across regular and consistent walls. In some rooms there will be more hard corners than easy corners or vice versa. Think back to those L-shaped rooms. You do not know what’s around the bend!
Further so, remember back to center-fed and corner-fed rooms, you will note that a box-shaped center-fed room in the diagram above has two hardcorners whereas the box-shaped corner-fed room has one hardcorner. This is tactically significant. We see center-fed rooms as rooms that are therefore “harder” to clear in theory because there are more areas that we are “blind” to from the entrypoint.
All other corners that present themselves that could not be seen or were not expected are follow-on hard corners. They are secondary corners that are often not factored into the initial room entry. You may call them “unknowns” for unknown areas. “Unknown left”, it does not matter the terminology as long as you and your team understand it. Treat them as any corner, as I will show you in later articles.
So let me break this down for you as easily as possible before moving on.
Rooms
Center-fed room – A room whose entrypoint is situated in or closest to the center of the wall. This does not have to mean that both walls abreast to the door have to be of equal length. It usually means that the door opens into, reasonably, the center of the room.
Corner-fed room – A room whose entrypoint is situated on or closest to the corner of the wall, as opposed to the center of the wall.
Box-shaped room – A square-shaped room with four corners.
Linear room – A usually straight and elongated room. This may have easily visible corners within it. For example a hallway.
L-shaped room – A typically square-shaped room with elongated projection coming from it. This is seen in the the alphabetical “L” letter shape.
Heavy side of the room – From the entrypoint the heavy side is the biggest area of the room.
Weak side of the room – From the entrypoint the weak side is the smallest area of the room.
Corners
Hard corner – A corner that cannot be seen from the entrypoint. This may require you to physically enter the room to see into it. They may also be known as shallow, unseen, unknown corners.
Soft corner – A corner that can be seen from the entrypoint. They should be observed prior to or during entry. They may also be known as easy, deep, seen, known corners.
Primary corners – An expected corner one comes up against within the room entry. This includes the: Hard corner and Soft corner.
Secondary corners – A corner one comes across, ordinarily, post-entry. It may be unexpected and catch you off guard. This includes the: Follow-on hard corner.
The last part of the room that we shall cover for this part in the series is differentiating between the short wall and the long wall. Previously I told you that most rooms are not made equal, that is, among other things, that their walls differ in length.
This may not seem significant at first but there is something known as “running the long wall” or “running the short wall” depending on what wall you move along. You want to use these areas to your advantage. Distance is time and gaining distance from the entrypoint might bend the odds in your favour. In this case you might run the long wall. But that’s all to come in future editions, for now know there is a difference.
Walls
Short Wall – The shortest wall in the room, usually the one attached to and closest to the entrypoint of which the entry team can use.
Long Wall – The longest wall in the room, usually the one attached to and closest to the entrypoint of which the entry team can use.
Now that is it for the basic anatomy. We’re going to next learn how to use that anatomy and build on these concepts. Then we will explain obstacles that may be additional to the base anatomy.
There’s more you can learn about, don’t get me wrong. Window and windowless rooms, T-shaped and U-shaped rooms, opposing doors versus offset doors, open versus closed doors, strong versus weak side of the door, singular and successive rooms, open-top and closed-top areas, overhangs, primary versus secondary landings, balconies, switch-back versus quarter-back stairs, you name it. There’s far too much I could ramble on about that would be very scenario specific so let’s do with what we’ve got.
The stuff that really matters for room anatomy has been covered. Let’s use it. Understood? Comprehende? Time to move on to Part 3.
By Rye
CQB-TEAM
Close Quarters Battle
Tactical Education and Motivation
CQB Room anatomy an in-depth overview of a room structure,layout and settings.
CQB Education part 4 - IED on the frame. How do we scan a frame ? What is the danger ? In this video we will take a quick look over the existence of IED's on frames. A frame is basically a a shape of an entrance or an hollow point. A frame could be found in door ways & windows. When we say Frame we refer to the texture and shape that marks the passage \ penetration point.
In our CQB system we focus a lot on fighting from the door - or limited penetration as some call it. While there are several ways to approach one problem - We believe in tactics that are behavior compliant or in simple words - tactics that you will follow & do when in contact.
With that being said, there are few ways of performing in limited penetration - we teach in the courses different procedures and way for each situation.
CQB Educational - Breacher Denies access. In this peice we are going to talk over some of the common problems with the breacher.
CQB Denied access educational video
We normally keep our training material disclosed - but this time we decided to release a small impression. In this small, quick collection of CQB videos we took during the previous courses. The intention of this video is to give you a short glimpse into how we at Project Gecko run our CQB courses.
We are running different types of techniques under different type of circumstances and layouts with a strong focus over our mentality & human behavior.
For the dates of the next CQB courses simply click HERE.
See you there !
This 4 days expedition will perform a non technical climb on the Tennengebirge. The tennen mountains is a small, but rugged, mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps, which lies in front of the Eastern Alps for its entire length.
The idea behind the Alps program is to deliver a difficult yet challenging form of training.
The training focuses on SUT aspects, such as how to co-exist, to perform and to understand the mountain environment.
There are currently only few places left in the crew....so hurry up and join !
For more information, how to join,what to bring..follow this link : http://www.projectgecko.info/alps-expeditions-2015
The alps Expeditions by Project Gecko. This 4 days expedition will perform a non technical climb on the Tennengebirge. The tennen mountains is a small, but rugged, mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps, which lies in front of the Eastern Alps for its entire length.
For more information regarding both expeditions, how to join & what to bring - check the links below !
➊June expedition - http://tinyurl.com/qehlsvd
➋ August expedition - http://tinyurl.com/nsud6rn
What is our expeditions concept, and how it will benefit your training :
http://www.projectgecko.info/expeditions
See you there !!
WWW.PROJECTGECKO.INFO
▲The mission.
The Alps expedition mission splits into two categories. Those two categories will ensure a clear & safe balance between education & physical challenges.
▶ Mission 1 - Challenge
Primary task : Tiroler Kogel, a 2322 meters ASL
Secondary task : Wieselstein a 2315M ASL
▶ Mission 2 – Learning.
The mission is to learn. And learning partially depends on experience.
During the expedition we will also go through different educational topics which are essential tools to the individual at the mountains or nature. For more information regarding the topics check out the expedition official flyer.
▶ Mission 3 – Protecting nature.
Primary task - Our focus will be on climbing in an Eco-sensitive manner, bringing all garbage and all human waste produced on the mountain to a local designated point or down the mountain for proper disposal.
Secondary task – Avoiding compromise \ corruption of landscape & wildlife.
Third task – Collecting garbage during the final descending down for proper disposal.
The expedition climb will greatly focus on the 'leave no trace' idea. We will relay on Eco solutions such as solar panels or other solutions which do not require compromise or violation of the environment – a 100% nature friendly existence.
▲Overview -
At 1900m asl awaits our expedition a small local hut. This hut will become our
base camp and from there we will go out to accomplish daily task.
Sleeping will be inside a small hut, without specially accessories or luxury. However you are required to remain prepared to an outdoor sleeping in case and our climb will go as scheduled (weather, etc). In an LZ next to the hut awaits our water supply drop which is prepared by PG. Sleeping is included within
your ticket price. There, expedition members will receive different type of tasks
And objectives....the rest awaits for you to experience.
![[TEST] Shooting a BRISTOL SK4 plate](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52b7145ae4b0af23bf047e39/1458216103535-5T0XY1VGNXNCKOV5RNGF/432423.jpg)
