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Stacking versus Covering
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| Raptor | Date: Saturday, 2013-11-30, 07:38 | Message # 1 |
Group: Commander
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| Imagine the following situation: you are part of the assault team of a dynamic operation. You bang a room, clear it properly and then cover an open door 12 oc. Now the team leader orders you already to proceed with a bang while the trailers fall in. You have basically 2 options:
- A) go to a normal stacking position at the wall before proceeding
- B) move up but stay in front of the door until the bang is in
If you ask me, A is a bad option. When a tango appears in the next room behind the door, he can open fire at your trailers. They might be busy (e.g. covering the back, restraining complied contacts, eating cookies) and hence not cover this door. And, as long as the tango doesn’t move through the doorway into your room, you are not in a position to cover them either.
Moreover the doorway is obviously a fatal funnel. Hence you have the tactical advantage when you are covering it. But while you stack, you allow tangos behind the door to take a covering position. Then you have the disadvantage during entering. You already controlled an area behind the door, but by stacking you leave it uncovered and allow the enemy to take a position there again.
Bottomline: if you are already covering an open door, it usually doesn’t make sense to stack at the wall before moving in.
"Teamwork is essential, it gives them someone else to shoot at."
Murphy's Laws of Combat #9
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| TheIceMan | Date: Saturday, 2013-11-30, 20:21 | Message # 2 |
Group: NCO
Messages: 596
Awards: 1
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| Well I would add it also depends on what is the angle of your covering. If you would cover the door in 90 degrees angle you would receive bigger advantage by better covering of your teammates than for example if you would cover in 130 or 135 as we usually do.The 90 degree covering has its also own disadvantage.One of the disadvantage is you have no cover (wall to stick to) to reach in short time. If you cover in 135 or 130 you can stick to wall in shorter time.
No Retreat No Surrender
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| Rye | Date: Monday, 2014-02-17, 13:55 | Message # 3 |
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Group: Registered
Messages: 61
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| If while observing inside you note it is clear, and a full-left corner-fed then stacking to that side would be fine because you would be taking up the strong ("tactical") side of the door anyhow with no compromise. But yes, if you are stacking automatically without any attentive reasoning then it is a compromise and therefore a risk. That leads to the same question, why stack?
Well stacking was originally developed by Counter-Terrorist teams during Explosive Methods of Entry (EMOEs) where they had to distance themselves close enough to react to the breach point but far enough away to not be disorientated and/or injury or killed from the blast, blast wave and associated fragmentation. Stacking therefore kept operators readied, in line and in a formation which repelled large quantities of the blast wave during formation. The distance they readied themselves at was called the Safe Stacking Distance (SSD) which can be based off a few factors, including calculations for explosive breaching.
This soon developed and developed... as with all things. It got passed down. Soon the regular infantry were stacking and entering - to keep tight formation, to lessen the gap of dispersion and to organize an entry. But this time they had no explosives, no tactical aids, nothing. So, what does it offer you - just that. Is this useful against immediate threats or potential threat areas that aren't covered? No! As they learnt in blood in the Iraq war. In Fallujah fireteams were wiped out, it's a sad fact. And they soon lessened up on stacking where it was not safe to the element doing so.
What did they do therefore instead of stacking on every opening? They firstly went with the flow, in close order. And secondly they employed dynamic roles of covermen who covered opening angles, upcoming threat areas and open doors or windows in situ while the rest of the team moved around them into position to enter.
TLDR: Employ covermen to do that job, make it dynamic and based off lightning fast tactical reasoning. Do not stack for every entry, there is no point.
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