KOCOA: Terrain Analysis for Home Defense

[Music] [Music] hello again everyone and welcome back to the underground today we're going to take a look at terrain analysis so what is terrain analysis well if you dust off an old copy of everyone's favorite doctrine publication joint pub 2-03 also affectionately known as geospatial intelligence and joint operations the textbook definition reads the collection analysis evaluation and interpretation of geographic information on the natural and man-made features of the terrain combined with other relevant factors to predict the effect of the terrain on military operations this definition can be found in the exact same publication that we are reading this from gotta love it when the publication cites itself now since this definition was clearly written by a staff officer looking to get a promotion what does this actually mean in english well it's pretty simple terrain analysis is looking at the ground and figuring out how it's going to affect both your operations and those of an enemy force terrain analysis is actually part of a larger doctrine which many people might know as met tc this is yet another widely used acronym that is used to understand the mission planning process we can go over this another time but for now just know that terrain analysis is a very important step in planning operations as we all know the us military loves its extremely broad and rather unhelpful terminology but also loves its acronyms so we have a very mildly helpful acronym to help explain what terrain analysis actually looks like and this acronym comes from the crayon eaters over at the united states marine corps office of the deputy commandant for combat development and integration don't forget to add these guys to your christmas card list because they are responsible for producing the only true little red book that's worth reading the us marine corps reference publication 12-10 b.1 military operations on urbanized terrain in this literary gem we find the acronym coco which outlines all of the steps of terrain analysis so as we go down this acronym let's hop on over to the map to show what this actually looks like in practice alrighty then now that we've got a good map to work from let's go over the acronym that will help us work our way through the terrain analysis for this particular area but not so fast remember i mentioned that terrain analysis itself is actually a part of another process or technically part of several processes terrain analysis is part of intelligence preparation of the battle space which is part of met tc which is nestled under the doctrine of operations really so for this example let's set a few parameters so that we can actually make sense of the terrain analysis for this location firstly is our mission in this example the context of our mission is home defense during a time of civil unrest or during clearance operations or something like that on the map this house will be our home we are also going to assume that our defenses will be hasty in nature after all most of us do not live in a house that was prepared by kevin mcallister alright so let's finally get to it the acronym that we will be using to establish a hasty terrain analysis of our operational environment is coco and the first letter k stands for key terrain whipping out yet another publication adp 3-90 we can define key terrain as an identifiable characteristic whose seizure or retention affords a marked advantage to either combatant the classic examples of key terrain include things like airports stadiums parks sports fields schools public buildings road junctions bridges industrial facilities railways power substations and so much more if you really drill down to the micro train of a specific area you could include things like individual street lamps manhole covers security cameras and other very specific and insanely detailed items remember work expands to fill the time allotted so if we are smart and conduct our terrain analysis before it's actually needed we won't be rushing around in a panic when things go sideways but let's say that we didn't do that and civil unrest in our city is imminent if we had more time maybe we could put more things on the map but for now we're just going to have to do this very quickly i should also take a moment to mention that in addition to key terrain we also need to consider decisive terrain decisive terrain is a type of key terrain but it is a terrain feature that absolutely must be conquered in order for an engagement to be decisive or its terrain that if it were captured it would lead to a decisive engagement in this example the only decisive terrain that we would highlight is the house itself because if we lose control of the house if we seed that key terrain to the enemy we lose our mission has failed right so let's quickly drop some markers on the key terrain that we can see if you like you can pause the video and highlight all of the key terrain items that you can see and compare to what we have sketched out just here in a few seconds since public buildings or really all commercial buildings as well are very quick to be looted and set on fire we're going to go ahead and mark those these three buildings look like they're either some kind of government building or public building some kind of business so we're going to highlight those major intersections are often also targeted by rioters because they are choke points and blocking them can restrict movement through an area we're also going to locate any potential vantage points as rioters have been known to take advantage of these locations and if someone is going to take any high ground that can affect us we want to know about it and finally not pictured is the utility access points there isn't any example of these access points on this example map but i did want to mention that it's one of the first things we look for particularly in the context of defense against civil unrest rioters have been known to disrupt public utilities during their fiery but mostly peaceful protests electrical substations transformer boxes manholes water access points fire hydrants all of these things would be critical to drop on a map because they have been historically primary targets for malign actors up next is observation and fields of fire as the amount handbook so eloquently puts it urbanized terrain is characterized by restrictive observation and fields of fire in other words in the urban landscape most of the time you're going to have a piss-poor view from your position and there's not much you can do about it the urban landscape also severely restricts the ranges of most weapon systems and even if you aren't planning on utilizing particularly long-range weapons for your defense most military doctrine does not separate observation from fields of fire in most cases it's essentially the same thing so let's drop some sectors of fire around our house here remember just because you're sketching out sectors of fire from your bedroom does not mean that you're planning for world war iii to break out even though it couldn't hurt in that case simply preparing range cards for each observation port or window in your home would be very helpful in the event that you have to hunker down for a civil unrest event obviously it would be handy to have overlapping fields of view so that each position can cover the one next to it again this sounds like overkill but in this simple exercise it's very handy for determining blind spots and places where an adversary can sneak up on you like this area highlighted in orange blind spots present vulnerabilities and the first step in mitigating those vulnerabilities is finding out that they exist which is why sketching out your limits of observation is quite handy up next is cover and concealment cover provides a physical barrier between oneself and an adversary offering some protection from incoming fire concealment on the other hand instead of relying on a physical barrier to keep one safe concealment relies on camouflage to hide your location in other words an enemy can't hit what they can't see cover can be concealed think of a hidden bunker underground but concealment itself doesn't provide cover from hostile attacks in the urban environment cover is everywhere but pure concealment not so much we have talked about the difficulties of urban camouflage efforts in a previous video but the short version is that the urban landscape is not conducive to the fundamentals of camouflage almost all warfare doctrine that talks about the urban landscape relies heavily on using cover as concealment walls structures parked vehicles or even subterranean features like sewage drainage ditches are really the primary things that we think of when we think of cover in the urban landscape but again we're not just marking down where we could hide but where an adversary could hide or take cover if they decide to engage us so we'll mark a couple of points on the map here that provide good cover and good line of sight to our position and if we were really slick we could number these points or give them code names so that if we had to yell over the radio contact small arms from point delta everyone who is participating in our home defense plan would know exactly what we mean and anyone listening in on the radio wouldn't know what we're talking about up next is obstacles with this one we can get quite creative in a traditional textbook military operation obstacles are anything that restricts movement this can be for people or for vehicles normally when we think of obstacles we think of things like landmines and tank hedgehogs but for most of us we don't live on omaha beach and there is not a lot of concertina wire in most residential neighborhoods so for our citizen-based defense plan we can think of things that could be used as obstacles for instance we all remember the pallets of bricks that mysteriously showed up in a lot of cities the night before a major riot was scheduled so we can apply this real world experience to our own plans think of things that can be used to immobilize first responders remember during the riots of 2020 many rioters in many locations from portland to minneapolis were observed setting up barricades for the sole purpose of preventing fire trucks and medical vehicles from getting close to arson activities so for our map here we're not so much concerned with what obstacles are currently in place but where barricades could be set up to do the most damage to ourselves or our community and fortunately if we identified the key terrain correctly in the first step we've got a pretty good idea as to where an enemy would in place their obstacles in this step we can also highlight what we call canalizing terrain also called choke points canalizing terrain is a location that restricts travel from many different routes down to really just one path canalizing terrain is a massive force multiplier if you recognize it and take advantage of it but the inverse is also true catalyzing terrain is the number one requirement for any ambush to be set up so being able to recognize canalizing terrain is crucial for not just home defense but for so many other things as well also we can keep in mind where we ourselves would place obstacles to mitigate our vulnerabilities in this case we already know that the orange circle there designates a blind spot so we could simply park a vehicle right here which would at least provide some barrier to entry but remember you don't want your own obstacles to provide a barrier to you if you need to abandon your house and escape in a hurry in this example i myself would love to string up some razor wire all around the house leaving small hidden gaps for emergency egress but in the modern world this presents a gargantuan legal risk so if you're considering placing obstacles to prevent your position from being overrun please be mindful that our court system does not currently look favorably on things like defense and a good general rule of thumb for all obstacles is to never leave an obstacle unattended and as always check your local laws and finally we have avenues of approach again in the urban environment finding the key terrain earlier will help with this process quite significantly really what we are looking for with this step is what we call high speed avenues of approach in this example we're talking about major roads this is something that people really have a hard time grasping the importance of speed is a massive force multiplier think about it this way how quickly can a swat team drive from their headquarters right to your door how long would that take in most cities mere minutes if they were so motivated now think about the same question but in a different location if you lived in extremely rugged terrain high up in the rocky mountains how long would it take for a raiding force to physically get to you then probably a lot longer when it comes to specifically urban unrest rioting and looting a huge factor is public transportation many fiery but peaceful protests have begun with malign actors using public transportation to ingress into the operational area sounds a lot more like a legit military operation once we start using operational terms to describe things huh but anyway knowing where the bus routes are and what times the buses run would be very important information to know and this final step is where things can expand quite significantly beyond the borders of this small map that we are showing here when we annotate these high speed avenues of approach we really want to extend these routes out to the outskirts of a city so what we want to know is if an adversarial force were to travel from another city how long would it take for them to transit from the outskirts to our front door and what routes would they most likely take again we also need to do this for our own team what routes can we take to emergency egress from our house to outside the city remember the rioting from last year a lot of people were stuck in traffic trying to egress from urban centers in the wake of a riot being announced and people were also stuck in traffic trying to escape cities to relatives in rural locations when the lockdowns began in various cities and states around the country these escape routes do not have to be the same as the high speed approach routes in fact they will most likely vary widely based on time of day traffic weather and actions by the adversary we also do not want to neglect the low-speed approach routes a person traveling on foot can physically move over a lot more rugged terrain or difficult terrain than a vehicle can so it is very important to be mindful of those blind spots foot traffic routes and places where a person could exploit your weaknesses to gain entry now we see how this is all coming together do these avenues of approach go near any of the cover and concealment options that we highlighted earlier or do these approaches pass through a blind spot that we discovered when sketching out our fields of observation or do these avenues of approach go through any canalizing terrain that we discovered previously terrain that maybe we can take advantage of if we need to shift out of a defensive role so that's the coco process now there are a few caveats first off one of the most if not the most important mission planning factor is weather weather is such a limiting factor that it is usually the number one go no-go criteria for mission planning which is why we have dedicated a few videos already to this important topic and why we will continue to do so weather can quite literally change all of the analysis that you have already done avenues of approach can flood fields of observation can be limited by smog concealment can be blown away by the wind or cover can be eroded away by rainstorms weather can create obstacles such as fallen trees and key terrain can be restricted from being occupied due to ground freezing or flooding or storms or any other number of weather factors time of day is also a huge factor the same route that is traversable during the day might not be so during the night time and concealment that works at night might stick out like a sore thumb during the daytime so we cannot forget the impact that weather and time of day can have on this process we also have to remember that even though we can plan things down to the tiniest level the enemy also has a say in how the battle goes no plan however well thought out survives first contact so when the rioting starts or the door-to-door operations begin most of your plans will have to be adapted on the fly which is a lot easier than starting the planning process from scratch it's not very productive to sit down and have a well-planned brainstorming session when a rioter is throwing molotovs at your house or there is a boot on your door of course this process is not an exact science in fact most branches of the military have this process in a different order or worded slightly differently or using a different acronym so even the entity that we are getting this process from the us military cannot agree on one succinct doctrine so take a look around and start thinking about this process even just beginning to think about this stuff is a great way to make sure that you're prepared no matter what happens [Music] [Music] you