Army Battle Drill 7
Mike Fowler
The platoon leader moves up with the forward observer, RTO, and second squad leader, while a machine gun team moves to the squad that initiated suppressive fires. The platoon leader can call up more squads if they cannot gain superiority over the enemy. The platoon sergeant moves and directs the vehicles attached to the platoon, moving and coordinating fires as needed.
Once the target is seized and all initial objectives are met, the platoon leader will rally the vehicles and base-of-fire personnel on target. Then soldiers are assigned new defensive positions, sectors of fire, pre-designated targets for the FO to call in ordinance on, and soldiers at observation points to warn of a counter-attack. The platoon leader will pick replacements if any critical positions within the platoon or squad are vacant due to injury or death.
Battle drill 2A: Conducting a squad assault is almost identical to the platoon assault approach, just at a squad level. At the squad level, gear is redistributed to key soldiers as needed. Once the assault concludes, situation reports (SITREP) are sent to the headquarters element of the unit.
Breaking contact is finalized when the main element is clear of the area or falls back to a superior firebase they can rally with to repel the enemy (if needed). Head counts are completed, gear is accounted for, and a SITREP is reported up the chain of command. Battle drill three is vital to train on, as it can be the difference between life and death.
Battle Drill 4 instructs soldiers to assault through the ambush while firing accurate suppressing fire to get out of the kill zone. But, if you are in armored or soft-sided vehicles, you have the same objective: fight through the enemy to get out of the kill zone.
Take what you know about battle drill one and apply it here. If an Army element runs into a bunker system, the unit leader establishes a base-of-fire for suppressing fires. Smoke grenades can provide concealment for adjusting positions or advancing on the bunker. The unit leader or FO may call in an indirect hit to take out the bunker as appropriate.
Trench warfare showed its ugly face on a major scale in WWI for the first time. Mustard gas and bloody fighting in the mud were common across the sprawling Western Front. But more recently, that same brand of trench warfare has erupted throughout Ukraine as they fight invading Russian forces.
Though technology has changed trench warfare, the tactics to take a trench from enemy forces remain similar and fall under Battle Drill 7: Enter a trench to secure a foothold. Approaching the enemy-held trench is covered under battle drills 1, 2, and 5.
After eliminating the threat, the soldiers will mark the entry point as cleared, so more teams can be safely brought in. The unit leaders will rally the soldiers and equipment before deciding to clear further into the trench system or hold a blocking position for the time being.
Smoke grenades are deployed to get the breaching fire team up to the mines and wire where they will attempt to break through, otherwise called the breach point. The base-of-fire and any indirect fires from the forward observer will shift away from the breach point as the fire team approaches.
That breaching fire team will probe the area for mines as they approach the obstacle, marking them for incoming forces to avoid. Battle Drill 8 calls for the deployment of Bangalore torpedos if available.
The element leaders can use a robot, Buffalo, optics, or other means to identify the threat. Once done, an EOD 9 Line is called up to the headquarters element. While maintaining a minimum safe distance of 300 meters, the element (or platoon) will clear the area while being mindful of snipers or secondary IEDs.
When the IED is confirmed, a minimum safe distance of at least 300 meters is established, along with a security cordon that keeps foot and vehicle traffic away from the IED. This protects civilians, denies any enemy fighters from triggering the IED as soldiers approach it, and prevents any close-up attacks on American soldiers if enemy fighters are positioned nearby.
Once a security cordon is established, only a few soldiers should carry out a varied secondary check to ensure there are no other IEDs in the area. The first check out to five meters happens from the vehicles. Check for disturbed earth, suspicious items, loose bricks in walls, and other items that are out of place.
Search from the ground up. If nothing is found, at least one but no more than a necessary number of shoulders exit their vehicle and search out to 25 meters. This can be done with optics and other detection technology before physically moving further out. The same is done for the 200-meter check. The whole time you are searching, keep an eye out for a triggerman, cameraman, or sniper.
Mounting or dismounting a Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) or an Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV) is about as simple as it sounds, with a couple of extra steps. Battle Drill 12 covers the process of dismounting BFVs and ICVs, while Battle Drill 13 breaks down the process of mounting BFVs and ICVs.
Joshua Skovlund is a contributor for Task & Purpose. He has reported around the world, from Minneapolis to Ukraine, documenting some of the most important world events to happen over the past five years. He served as a forward observer in the US Army, and after leaving the service, he worked for five years in paramedicine before transitioning to a career in multimedia journalism.
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A battle drill is a type of standard operating procedure used in the training of infantry. Based on commonly encountered scenarios, battle drills are used to establish standardized actions of a team, allowing for a quick collective response without the need for deliberate decision making. Platoons and squads apply fire and maneuver accordingly, requiring leaders to rapidly make decisions and quickly issue brief oral orders.[1] In 1944, Colonel Charles Stacey defined the practice of battle drill as "the reduction of military tactics to bare essentials which are taught to a platoon as a team drill, with clear explanations regarding the objects to be achieved, the principles involved and the individual task of each member of the team."[2]
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq - Maj. Scott Bryant, 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron, and Army Maj. John Silva, 76th Combat Infantry Brigade, work together to ensure civil engineer requirements are filled during a Joint Emergency Operations Center battle drill here, March 31. The drill was designed to test the capabilities of the JEOC. Major Bryant is deployed from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio and Major Silva is deployed from the Indiana National Guard. (U.S. Air Force photo /Staff Sgt. Mareshah Haynes)
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- Air Force and Army personnel teamed up to form the Joint Emergency Operations Center during a battle drill here, March 31. The drill was the first time the capabilities of the JEOC had been tested in Iraq. Several scenarios were acted out during the drill, including a simulated suicide bomber attack and a simulated unexploded rocket lodged in a fuel truck. (U.S. Air Force photo /Staff Sgt. Mareshah Haynes)
FORT RUCKER, Ala. (January 25, 2019) - "Dismount right!" It sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Well, that would depend on the level of detail and frequency of your battle drill rehearsals. In the following case, it wasn't that simple, and the resulting accident cost one noncommissioned officer his life.
In preparation for deployment, the infantry rifle company planned two weeks of live-fire training, progressing from team-level training through platoon-level training. It was during the platoon-level training that the accident occurred. After securing its first objective, the platoon received an order to continue the mission and assault a second objective, a change to their original plan. Upon arrival at the support-by-fire position for the second objective, the squad leader for the second Stryker vehicle in the platoon gave his squad the command to "dismount right." His squad did just that, dismounting to the driver's side of the vehicle, which is the right side of the vehicle if you exit to the rear of the vehicle.
This squad immediately suppressed the objective while the rest of the platoon maneuvered to the left of the objective. As the squad leader attempted to dismount with the squad, his gear tangled in the vehicle, and it took him a few minutes to get loose and off the vehicle. When he did dismount, he dismounted right, or out of the left rear (the passenger's side) of the vehicle. Once he cleared the right side of the vehicle (remember, his squad is on the left side of the vehicle, suppressing the objective), he saw the platoon assaulting the left flank of the objective. As he ran across to join the platoon, the squad leader ran in front of his squad's support-by-fire position and suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head. One of his team leaders fired the round that killed him.
When asked the question of which direction would you dismount the vehicle given the command of "dismount right," an investigation board got differing responses from the unit. Were their battle drills instinctive? Ask yourself, did something as simple as a poorly executed battle drill contribute to this Soldier's death?
Army doctrine states that a battle drill is a collective action executed by a platoon or smaller element without the application of a deliberate decision-making process. The action is vital to success in combat or critical to preserving life. Battle drills are the necessary building blocks for elements to conduct complex combat operations without loss of life from tactical or accidental hazards. These drills are the "fundamentals" that must be constantly rehearsed until they are second nature for all Soldiers.
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