The Basic Drill

Author: SovietOnion

This is the bare bones necessity for every player in a firefight. This is in supplement to the SOP and will be added into it ASAP.

The Basic Drill

A trained response an infantryman is to use when coming under effective enemy fire. He is to perform this until ordered otherwise by his team/squad leader. The Basic Drill is made up of seven steps. 1. Return Fire 2. Call Contact 3. Go to Ground 4. Move to Cover 5. Observe 6. Aim 7. Fire So lets break that down. Steps 1-3 should happen all around the same time but are ordered in form of priority. We're talking a couple seconds, max. 5-7 take place once the firefight is established and continue until further orders. Step 4 should be done whenever you need to adjust to new threats.

1. Return fire

You are not trying to be accurate. Stop wasting time. Identify the cardinal direction and open fire. This is so we can start putting fire down ASAP, and can start the battle for fire superiority in earnest.

2. Call Contact

Each member of the team calls out vocally their contact. Range, bearing, detail. By collecting these reports, it helps team leads/squad build a picture of the battle and relay it up. EVERYONE should be doing this. You have a microphone? Call contact. The TL/Senior member(s) of the team call it over squad net and leadership carries it up to platoon. If you get through ~20 rounds and haven't called contact, you're doing it wrong. It doesn't matter if your range is off by 50m. Or if your angle is off by 3. Just get some sort of report out there.

3. Go to Ground

You are a smaller target prone. Fact. Don't worry about cover in the first few seconds. Your job is to find where they are shooting from and return fire while reporting contacts. 4. Move to Cover.

As time permits, move to cover. DO NOT ALL MOVE AT ONCE. Keep the fire up. Move in small bounds. Remember, this is all to be done without orders. Communicate as needed. If there is a rock five feet away grab it. If there is a stone wall twenty feet away, call it out, wait for orders. Your job is to be shooting not running.

5. Observe

When in a safe(er) position, you can be afforded the chance to step out of the fight, observe the enemy. Keep the fire up though, that is still important. AARs should be using their scopes while shooting, TLs make use of your binocs. Find the bad guys. Watch your flanks and rear.

6. Aim

Seems simple, right? No. Aim covers more than just you. It means AARs guiding in the ARs. TL's controlling the teams rate, angle and distribution of fire. At this stage in the fight, assistants and TLs can take themselves out of the fight to get others aimed in.

7. Fire

General term. Once aimed in, fire, kill the bad guys. Steps 6&7 can be handled for individual targets on a repeating basis until orders come in. Keep observing. Keep aiming. Keep kiling.