SURVIVAL PLANS.
This survival scenario is wide spread over the net
on various survival sites & blogs. Where it originated I can not say, but
Mr Jeff T. has obviously put a lot of thought into this article. I would like
to thank the author Mr Jeff T. for allowing this article to be used in the
public domain.
Keith.
Retreat Security: I Am Your Worst Nightmare
by Jeff T.
I am the leader of a band of 8-to-12 looters. I have
some basic military training. We move from place to place like locusts
devouring everything in our path. My group is armed with light weapons and can
develop and follow simple plans of attack. We take what we want by force of
arms. We prefer none of our victims survive because that could cause problems
for us in the future.
It has been six months since the grid went down. You
and the other five members of your party have settled into what may be a long
grinding existence. The every day tasks of growing and gathering have now
become routine. The news from the outside is extremely limited but you don’t
really miss it much. Life is simple but physically demanding.
Although things may seem stable you will need to
keep your team focused and alert. This is your first and most important layer
of defence. You should hold an immediate reaction drill once per week. Keep
things simple. Practice a specific response to such threats as injury, fire,
attack and evacuation. Despite the challenges you must maintain contact with
those around you such as neighbours for vital clues that trouble is brewing.
Regular monitoring the radio will be critical in providing an early warning of
trouble. You may be able to safely interview refugees without risking your
party. Keep in mind the information you get from them may not always be
reliable.
While you have been farming I have been learning the
best tactics to employ to seize your property and your goods. I have been
refining them since we hit the road right after the lights went out. I have
conducted eight “hits” so far and have been successful seven times. Here are
some of my “lessons learned”.
Intelligence gathering and target selection is
critical to my success. Targets include those who have large quantities of
fuel, food and other valuable supplies. My posse is constantly questioning
anyone and everyone we contact searching for our next victim. Anyone who has
ever had knowledge, even second hand, of your preparations is someone of
interest to me. I may approach them directly or indirectly. If anyone knows
something I will find out about it. Who seems well-fed? Who still has
transportation? Who has lights? Who was prepared? Where are they exactly?
Somebody talks, either in person or on the radio. They always do.
We search for victims night and day. During the day
we are listening for the sounds of machinery, cars, tractors, gunfire or
generators. Day or night without a lot of wind those sounds can carry for
miles. At night I look for any sort of light. Even a small flash indicates
somebody with electricity and that means a rich target. I always have somebody
listening to the scanner for any news, leads or insecure chatter.
Operational Security is an important concept for
your entire group to understand and maintain. If somebody outside your circle
doesn’t have a real need to know about your plans, preparations or procedures
then they shouldn’t know period. Develop a cover story and live it like was a
bulletproof vest. It is no less important to your protection and survival.
During an event you need to blend in with the surrounding environment. Carefully
observe noise (such as generators and other engines) and light discipline
especially at night. If you need to test fire weapons do it in one sequence to
avoid a prolonged noise signature.
Once I find and target you reconnaissance of your
retreat is my next step. Only a fool would try to rush in and try to overwhelm
a group of “survivalists”. We had a bad experience with that during our second
hit. Now we spend at least a day or two trying to size up a large opportunity
and the best way to take it down. I will observe retreat activity from a
nearby-concealed position. I will get an idea of your numbers, weapons,
routines and so much more by careful surreptitious observation. If your group
seems alert, I will try and trigger a false alarm with a dog or child to watch
your reaction to a threat. That helps me know how you respond, where you are
strong and how to attack. I may also obtain a topographical map of the area to
identify likely avenues of approach and potential escape routes you will try to
use. I may coerce your neighbours into uncovering a weak spot or access point
or other important intelligence. I also have a Bearcat handheld scanner. I will
be listening for any insecure chatter from your radios.
Regular patrols at irregular intervals focused on
likely observation points and avenues of approach could keep me at bay. You
could put down sand or other soft soil in key choke points as a way of
“recording” if anyone has recently travelled through the land. Dogs, with their
advanced sense of hearing and smell are able to detect and alert you to
intruders well in advance of any human. Motion sensing IR video cameras as a
part of a security plan could play a part in your layered defence as long as
you have power. A 24 hour manned observation point equipped with high quality
optical tools is a must. It should be fortified and if possible concealed. It
should have a weapon capable of reaching to the edges of your vision. Seismic
intrusion devices, night vision and thermal imaging are phenomenal force
multiplying tools. They can give you critical intelligence and warning. You
should use them if you have them. Understand they are not fool proof and I can
often neutralize them if I know you have them.
These tools and techniques provide you reaction
time. Time to plan your response and time to execute that plan. Recognize that
a “defender” is always at a disadvantage. By definition a defender will be
reacting to my attack. Modern warfare has emphasized the ability of the
attacker to operate faster than opponents can react. This can be explained by
the OODA loop. Below are the four steps of the classic OODA loop. These are the
steps a defender goes through when under attack.
1. Observing or noticing the attack.
2. Orient to the direction, method and type of attack.
3. Deciding what the appropriate response will be.
4. Acting on that decision.
As an attacker I will try and operate at a pace
faster than you as a defender can adjust to. I will change my direction, pace,
timing and method to force you to continue to process through the OODA loop.
This creates confusion and wastes your precious reaction time. As a defender
you will need to disrupt or reset your attackers timing with a counter-attack.
When you are successful you become the attacker. Your defensive plans should
utilize and exploit this concept. Here are a few scenarios:
1. Snipe & Siege
I will begin the attack when I can engage at least
half of your party’s military age personnel in one coordinated effort. I will
infiltrate my team into concealed positions around your retreat within 50 to 75
yards. I will target any identified leadership with the first volley. Two
thirds of my people will be engaging personnel. The other group will target
communications antennas, surveillance cameras and any visible lighting assets.
I want your group unable to see, communicate or call for help. The members of
my band will each fire two magazines in the initial exchange. Two thirds of my
group will change to new concealed positions and wait. One third will fall back
into an ambush of the most likely avenue of escape. We will stay concealed and
wait until you come out to attend to your wounded and dead. We repeat the
attack as necessary until any resistance is crushed.
Ensure you adjust the landscape around your retreat
so that I don’t have anyplace offering cover or concealment within 100 yards of
your residence. You can create decorative masonry walls that can be used to
offer cover for personnel close to your residence. Fighting positions can be built
now and used as raised planting beds and then excavated for use in the future.
These can be extended or reinforced after any significant event. These
structures or other measures such as trenching must be sited carefully to avoid
allowing them to be used effectively by an attacker if they are overrun.
2. Trojan Horse
For one hit we used an old UPS truck. We forced a
refugee to drive it to the retreat gate. We concealed half our group inside the
truck. The truck was hardened on the inside with some sandbags around the
edges. The other half of our group formed an ambush concealed inside the tree
line along the driveway. We killed the driver to make it look good and had one
person run away. Those preppers almost waited us out. After nearly three hours
they all walked slowly down the driveway. They were bunched up in a group
intent on checking out the truck and driver. It was like shooting fish in a
barrel.
They could have worked together as group to sweep
the area 360 degrees around the truck and they would have surely found us. A
dog would have also alerted the residents to our presence. They could have
taken measures to eliminate the vegetation offering us concealment on the road
near the gate. They could have used CS gas or something similar to “deny” any suspicious
areas. Lastly they could have done a “reconnaissance by fire”. Shooting into
likely hiding spots, including the truck, trying to evoke a response. They
should have established an over watch position with the majority of their
group. This over watch group would have provided visual security and an
immediate response if there were an attack. They were not expecting any
additional threats. They didn’t consider that there might be additional danger
lurking nearby aside from the truck and they died.
3. Kidnap & Surrender
A few weeks ago we surprised and captured a couple
of women out tending a garden. It was totally by chance. We were travelling
through a very rural area on our way to another town when somebody heard a
tractor backfire. We immediately stopped and I sent a small team to recon the
noise. They bumped into a small party tending a field at the edge of their
retreat. They seized two women and immediately dragged them back to our
vehicles. We began negotiations by sending a finger from each one back to the
retreat under a white flag. The rest was easy.
This didn’t need to happen. Better noise discipline
would have kept us from discovering their retreat. Some simple boundary fencing
or tangle foot could have delayed us. The women should have been armed and aware
of such a threat. If they had established an over watch for the garden they
could have engaged us before we took our hostages or at least alerted the
others that there was a problem. They also could have had a quick reaction SOP
developed prior to this incident. That Quick Reaction (QR) force could have
followed the kidnappers back to our vehicles and set up an ambush of their own.
Rural retreat security is a full time job. If you snooze you may lose
everything.
4. Fire and Manoeuvre.
I don’t like this option but sometimes the prize is
just too tempting. We typically infiltrate quietly at night to prearranged
start points. We begin our attack just before dawn when your senses are dulled
by a long night watch or from sleep. Based on our reconnaissance we divided
your retreat into positions or zones that need specific attention. We prepare
for battle by using an air rifle to target any lights or cameras. Our first
priority is to engage any LP/OP site and destroy or degrade them as much as possible.
I split my forces into two supporting groups. One group keeps the target
position under constant fire. The other group also fires and manoeuvres’,
closing on the target and destroying it with gunfire or improvised weapons.
Many times these positions only have one occupant and the task is relatively
easy. Often these positions are easy to spot and are too far from each other to
provide any effective mutual support. We will work from one position to the
next. In the darkness and confusion most of the defenders are disoriented and
ineffective. They fall like dominos. We have also used motorcycles to negotiate
obstacles and speed through cuts in the perimeter fence. Then throw Molotov
Cocktails into any defensive position as they roar past. If you fall back into
your residence we will set up a siege. If we can manoeuvre close enough,
perhaps by using a distraction, we will pump concentrated insecticide into your
building or we may introduce LP gas from a portable tank into the house and
ignite it with tracer fire.
If there was enough warning time from your OP you
could execute a pre-planned response. Your planned response should be simple,
easy to understand and execute. Half your group occupies your fighting
positions, two to a position. The rest of your party establishes an over watch
and concentrate its fire at the enemies trying to fix your positions. If you
had more than enough prepared positions the enemy might not know where to
attack. It would also provide more flexibility in your defence based on the
direction of attack. I would use Night Vision if available or illumination from
flares or lights as a last resort. Rats hate light.
Usually people keep main access points blocked from
high-speed approach. Likely avenues of approach should also be blocked or
choked and kept under observation. Remember though what keeps me out keeps you
in. Typically the common techniques of parking vehicles in roadways will only
delay my approach not stop it altogether. An ordinary 12-gauge shotgun,
shooting slugs, can stop most types of non-military vehicles at close range.
Don’t forget the threat of fire or other
non-traditional weapons in your defensive plans.
You could create the illusion of a “dead end” for
your main access road by positioning a burned out trailer home or a couple of
burned out cars at the false “end” of the road. Concealing the fact that the
road actually continues to your residence.
Lastly, develop a plan to evacuate and evade
capture. When faced with a significantly superior force it may be the only
viable option. This should include simple, reliable communications or signals
such as three blasts on a dog whistle. Your fighting positions and barriers
need to be constructed to allow coordinated withdrawal in an emergency. You
should establish a rally point and time limit to assemble. I believe this
should be a priority in your practice drills. During a real emergency you may
be able to rally, rearm and plan your own version of the “snipe and siege” to
retake your retreat.
Key messages:
Your rural retreat defence can be visualized as a set of concentric rings:
Location – Location – Location: High and remote are
best
OPSEC – Think of it as a form of armour or shield: Practice it and protect it.
Observation Post / Listening Post: Your first best chance to counter attack
Gates / Fences / other barriers: May slow me down. Might keep you in.
Fighting positions: Must provide mutual support and allow for evacuation.
Residence: Last line. Don’t become trapped
People, Planning and Practice
Remember:
An aggressive and unexpected counter strike can win
the battle.
Stay alert for multiple threats or diversionary tactics.
Criminals excel at feigning weakness to lower your guard.
Don’t underestimate me.
