The Basics of Battle Drills

Understanding the Importance of Battle Drills

Battle drills are vital in military operations. They are standardized, continuous practices that prepare units for combat scenarios. The primary objective is to instill quick, decisive responses to battlefield situations with minimal orders and/or planning, enhancing overall tactical performance. Battle drills are not just about repetition but about building muscle memory and fostering instinctive reactions under stress.

Battle drills serve as a critical component in the training of soldiers, ensuring they can function effectively as a cohesive unit. The importance of these exercises cannot be overstated as they form the bedrock of tactical excellence. By consistently practicing these drills, soldiers learn to react swiftly and efficiently, reducing the time to execute commands and ensuring that every team member knows their role in every scenario.

The 15 Second Fight

The first 15 seconds of any contact are critical to gaining momentum and minimizing casualties. React by gaining fire superiority and gaining the initiative, which enables us to instinctively dominate these first moments of the battle. Be aggressive, shoot, move, and communicate—the steps to dominating any engagement. Whoever has the initiative will be victorious.

React To Contact

Whenever we take contact, the first step is to return fire, take cover, and return accurate fire. When we return fire initially, it is quick and successive 3-5 rounds in known or suspected enemy positions. As we transition to taking cover, we need to look for micro terrain to provide us cover, and if there is none, look for concealment like vegetation. Returning accurate fire is essential, as we must maintain a high enough fire rate to gain fire superiority and allow us freedom of movement. This is on small unit leaders to give their team a rate of fire. When fire superiority is established, issues follow on orders like breaking contact or assaulting through the enemy position. 

Break Contact

When the unit leader issues the order to break contact, the squad leader needs to designate a distance and direction, or a terrain feature to move to. Then, two elements need to be immediately created: a maneuver element and a support element, with the support element beginning to suppress the enemy, allowing the maneuver element to create a smoke screen to mask their movement. Once the maneuver element has bounded backwards, they begin suppressing and will enable the support element to bound backwards. This step is repeated until they arrive at the designated location, and then the unit consolidates and reorganizes. 

React to Near Ambush

If you find yourself in a killzone, your only hope of survival is absolute violence of Action. You must break out of the ambush with high explosives, speed, and intensity. A near ambush is any distance from which you can throw a hand grenade, typically 35-50 meters. Immediately return fire, take cover, return accurate fire, throw as many high explosives as you can, and then assault through the enemy position. The assault cannot stop until the ambush is eliminated or contact is broken. Anyone not in the killzone must identify the enemy position, place accurate suppression, and shift fires as the people in the killzone assault through. 

React to Far Ambush

Like a near ambush, you need to maintain the violence of Action. The difference, however, is that you are outside hand grenade throwing distance, so you have more options. Those in the killzone need to follow the same steps of return fire, take cover, and return accurate fire. The unit not in the killzone has multiple options, as they can suppress the enemy, move along covered and concealed routes, and assault the enemy on the flank. The unit leader assesses the situation, establishes a course of Action, and issues orders. If the enemy fire is sporadic and/or ineffective, we can break contact and move to consolidate and reorganize. 

Conclusion: Vital to Tactical Operations

Mastering battle drills is an ongoing journey that requires commitment, consistency, and a willingness to adapt. These exercises form the foundation of tactical operations, preparing soldiers to face the complexities of modern warfare with confidence and precision.

These are the basic battle drills that we encounter most likely in operations, and as such, they need to be practiced most often—one component that will never change in any battle drill or operation: the violence of Action. We need to maintain this as much as we can, as it preserves our lives, ends our enemies, and gives us the initiative.