Everyone probably remembers this 2013 video from the respected instructor Jason Falla.
Just recently, I had a chance to get some thoughts on this video from two Russian veterans of the Chechen wars. The first one was in the First Chechen war, and just simply said: this is silly, noone would be doing this alone during the daytime. If he had shown a quiet retreat at night it would be more realistic.
The second veteran, had taken part in the Second Chechen war, and then worked as a contractor for a South African company. During that time he took part in some African conflicts. He offered a more detailed analysis of the video above. Here are some points starting from the third minute of the video (he also covered the beginning but I'll post it later). Hope, everyone will find it beneficial to get the look from the "other" side.
3:14-3:17 - solo room entry through the doorway. It is a very risky business to be done alone. He made a crosscheck of the visible parts prior the room entry, but after that he didn't turn to the other side for about a second. Well... Ideally, when alone, one should have entered the room towards one side, followed by the turn to the other side and at the same time lowering himself. Or, first checking the dangerous parts of the room by turning his head, and then based on the situation presenting his weapon. The grenades are not mentioned, probably because of this exercise’s limitations.
3:19-3:33 – engaging threats through the window. It seems that this guy’s second specialty is not medic, but rather a sniper or a marksman. They are the ones who have a habit to shoot from the depth of structures. It makes sense to engage this way only, if you are not in the room with windows around you. Here he focuses on one window from almost the middle of the room, but at the same time becomes very vulnerable to a hypothetical enemy fire from at least three other windows. Very laid back target engagements.
3:41-3:42 - what’s he controlling here? Also - relaxed jogging…
3:48-3:54 – again target engagements from the room depth. And again, this could be ok, but who would want to be engaged through the other windows by enemy? My choice would be to shoot from the position near the wall or right from behind the doorway edges.
4:22-4:23 – doorway entry. Left corner of the room is not covered. Not even a quick look after the entry.
4:36 – there is no check of the open door. Here is his chosen position for engagement through the window: his back to the open, unchecked door.
4:37 – shooting from standing position. Why would we want to use walls as cover?
4:39-4:53 – again shooting from standing position, and the icing on the cake here later. The door on the right, behind his back has not been checked. That is the shooter enters the room, does not check the door and starts thoroughly engaging the target, and only 9 seconds later (4:45-4:54) he checks that door.
5:23-5:30 - the icing on the cake. Pay attention here, he engages the first target through one window, and then moves to the other window, through which he was exposed while shooting standing. And then starts engaging a target through that window too. You got it, right?
5:42-5:46 – lost his situational awareness while reloading completely.
5:52-6:03 – TRIPLE f@king icing on the cake! On top of previous layer! Now he starts shooting through the window that was behind his back all this time! Yes, the time that he was standing and shooting through the other windows.
6:51-6:58 – “nicely” thought through… Left at least three buildings behind, finished shooting and leisurely looked around. The “optimal” exit location has been picked…yeah…
7:24-7:52 – now comes another triple icing layer… You got it too, right? He sits down in the middle of the room and starts engaging through windows one by one. That position is too vulnerable.
7:57 – one needs to move the weapon to the other shoulder prior the door opening. OK, he got tired, we shouldn’t get too hard on him.
8:00-8:03 – again, standing by the window and shooting through it… Oh shit…
8:01-8:13 – reloading from the vulnerable position by the window, and no situational awareness.
8:23 – cool exit, wearily nodded his head.
Will add a few conclusions, to clarify the above.
1. The person can’t work alone. It is clear, based on his actions he got used to working with his team. That is, all of the mistakes of unchecked zones, relaxed jogging, and vulnerable positions by the and in front of the windows come particularly from the fact, that in his head he is not alone. But he is, and there is no help around.
2. He is not used to or cannot work covertly – that’s from the fact that almost everywhere he operates in standing positions. Even while sitting and reloading he is not trying to lower his head.
3. I’m not going to pick on his weapon grip and indexing – it looks like it is not comfortable and is not universally applicable. But that’s what he was taught and he uses it, trying his best. It becomes especially apparent during the shoulder swaps and working from behind the cover of building corners.
4. He has never operated alone.
5. He does not know what an intense machine gun fire is, or a gunfire that totally focuses on him, that’s why he does not use cover much.
6. He can’t use walls of the rooms as cover for target engagements.
7. He got used to work with the team, and that’s why he keeps looking through his optic sights, and most likely, does not see much through it. When working alone your head must be always on a swivel, not in a tacticool manner, but quickly and with full understanding why you’re doing it.
Individual operation in the urban environment is one of the hardest things to do. It is very hard for one person to keep his awareness as necessary. Try to find a video of someone without errors. While working alone one is forced to sacrifice some elements of the security for the benefit of the other ones. His main problem is he just took himself out of the group and went through the course of fire like he’d do it with his group and called it “individual movement techniques”.
I’ve used the word “discovery” regarding the targets. Because I was not sure, why he picked this particular path, considering that he always had huge unchecked zones behind. Here, most likely, the limitations of the exercise played the major role.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by ggammell
Bookmarks