Smoke, flashbangs, and grenades are essential tactical consumables designed to mitigate risks and create opportunities. Among these, smoke grenades are unique due to their effect, duration, and how they alter the
operational environment. On the tactical level, smoke is often deployed at moments when full commitment to action hasn’t been made—whether preparing to cross a street, triggering a response or forcing an opponent to react. In contrast to bangs or frags, where commitment to the action is already at 100%.
During my time down range,I’ve noted key observations about the effective use of smoke grenades. While these points might seem familiar, they are often overlooked in practice:
1. Security
Deploying a smoke grenade requires solid security measures. The focus on the throw itself typically lead to dangerous exposure near windows or street corners. Always ensure security is established, allowing for threat detection and response during deployment. Security also means coordinating with nearby units to prevent friendly fire incidents and most importantly – before you throw, Chose the angle, and assess for threat.
2. Purpose
The use of smoke depends largely on its purpose. Are we trying to conceal our movement or alternatively deceive the opposing force? It is important to distinguish between the two. If we choose to use smoke to conceal our movement, several factors should be considered—such as the width of the space we need to obscure and whether we can still maintain security rather than just blind ourselves. Remember, a smoke grenade can act as a “beacon” that helps the enemy localize your position and, depending on how long you need it, also fix on your position. Alternatively, if we use smoke to deceive the enemy into revealing their position by opening fire, we must plan how to deploy the smoke in a way that allows us to localize and fix the opponent as they react, without telegraphing our position.
3. Enemy Perspective
Assess what is it you want to conceal, and than account for the opponent POV prior to the throw. The goal is to obscure their vision, not yours. Think like your opponent and place the smoke where it disrupts their ability to observe or engage, ensuring it doesn’t block your own movement path or the visibility of supporting friendly forces.
4. Coordination
Effective coordination between local adjacent forces is critical. Ensure communication about smoke deployment is clear before execution. Deploying smoke near unaware allies can lead to confusion and wasted time as they react to unexpected changes, leads to hesitation and all kind of C2 Task load.
5. Angle of Deployment
Account for the desired effect, assess for angle – prior to the throw while keeping yourself protected. Your angle of throw depends on what is it you want to conceal, opponent POV and the wind condition on where the smoke wil land. Example: you might not be able to account for the wind gusts in an intersection when you throw a nade from a alley way.
6.Maintaining Vision
While smoke can obscure enemy sightlines, it may also limit your own security’s line of sight. Position your security elements to maintain a view of potential enemy movements and reactions. This ensures any adversary response, such as movement or gunfire, is detected quickly and used to identify their positions. In
the same time, while bounding in small pairs
7. Timing
Plan your maneuvers in advance. Bounding or any tactical movement should be prepared before deploying smoke to ensure coordinated action and optimal use of the smoke’s duration. Deploying smoke without a clear plan risks wasting valuable seconds and losing the element of control.