Battle Tracking Basics

[Music] [Music] we all know the scene Krusty General's stand hunched over a map table contemplating their next move while their team buzzes about shoving the latest Telegram in their hand and constantly updating the little Flags marching across the battlefield much like the concept of the Tactical Operations Center Hollywood has put these images in our minds to demonstrate a very important task of a higher headquarters element battle tracking so what is battle tracking and is this something that might be helpful for the average citizen living in today's strange and confusing world let's find out at its simplest battle tracking is simply putting information on a map mostly pertaining to tracking military units as they move across the battlefield going back as far as Antiquity to the origins of warfare itself battle tracking was quite literally done in person from a Hilltop adjacent to the battlefield the generals could use to visually see the battle space below of course as time went on and we moved through the generations of warfare commanders who might have been at a disadvantage in numbers began to use terrain to even the odds the cunning use of terrain is one of the major reason ommanders who might have been at a disadvantage in numbers began to use terrain to even the odds the cunning use of terrain is one of the major reasons why Alexander the Great was able to conquer most of the ancient world terrain was also the main reason that Wellington outfoxed the emperor himself in defeating Napoleon Bonaparte at the infamous Battle of Waterloo so terrain is very important but from a command and control perspective using terrain can lead to a lot of problems in short if your general cannot sit on a hill and directly see your unit's Penance your general does not know where you are or how things are going so what else is therefore a general to do but use Ford observers to find out where his own troops are where the enemy is and plot all of this information on a map over time as more and more battles began being fought in terrain that restricts direct view of troops Maps were used to show where everything was on the battlefield as the technology of warfare developed and World War One brought strange new Horrors to modern war maps increasingly took a much larger role over over the direct observation of troops and thus the concept of the General's camp on a Hilltop s ern war maps increasingly took a much larger role over over the direct observation of troops and thus the concept of the General's camp on a Hilltop shifted more to an underground or fortified Dugout from which generals could use maps and telephones to conduct the war away from artillery from this we can see the beginnings of the Tactical operations center and really starting with World War one we can see the battle staff emerge with various staff members being tasked with updating the General's map constantly as the front lines shifted during battle though this is certainly more of a military subject as we have seen over the past few years of riots and actual open Warfare in the streets the concept of battle tracking is desperately important for local citizens to understand this is something that every prepared citizen needs to be capable of Because by the time the average person needs to battle track life-changing events in their area it will already be too late to learn these skills as such one might think that the first step to modern day battle tracking is to get a map which is actually the Second Step the the first step is to memorize a lot of boring stuff mostly the symbols dern day battle tracking is to get a map which is actually the Second Step the the first step is to memorize a lot of boring stuff mostly the symbols you're going to put on the map right up front before the crisis know your symbology this is the hardest part because you basically have to memorize a lot of different shapes markers and icons but as boring as it is you need to know at least the general outline of how things work your battle tracking skills are of no use if no one can understand the information on your map generally speaking here are the basics of the American Mill standard 2525 this is the most common set of standard shapes and markers that are used throughout the world this standard has been in place for many many years generally speaking blue rectangles are friendly units red diamonds are enemy units green squares are neutral units and yellow Clover shapes are unknown or sometimes civilian units as we can see there's a few things going on here we've got the shape and the color and they both matter this is important to remember as we move along because even though this is a rigid standard in practice there is a lot of variation to these symbols within the shape insid remember as we move along because even though this is a rigid standard in practice there is a lot of variation to these symbols within the shape inside the shape we have indicators of what kind of unit this is the most common are infantry units which are designated with a large x in the middle of the shape and of course this can change this is what a medical unit looks like and here is an armored Cavalry unit and so on it's up to you to memorize these on your own which is why I would highly recommend purchasing a physical copy of the battle staff smart book this book has all of the major symbols within it and it's very easy to study but anyway we can see that the interior shapes whatever they are do not change based on Allegiance for instance here is a friendly mechanized infantry unit and here is an enemy mechanized infantry unit same symbol on the inside but the exterior shape and the color has changed now here's something that complicates things a bit more that shape that that rectangle that we've been talking about that is meant to designate Ground Forces but what about aircraft or naval ships or spacecraft well the shape changes for that too so here are a few examples as we ca o designate Ground Forces but what about aircraft or naval ships or spacecraft well the shape changes for that too so here are a few examples as we can see the top of the shape reminds us of whether the unit is hostile or not and the bottom of the symbol helps us remember whether or not it's a ground force Aviation navel or whatever and of course remember the interior symbols remain the same no matter how the exterior shape or the color changes this takes a while to get kind of used to but it's pretty simple once you understand the basics of it but let me throw another wrench into the engine here and we'll confuse you a little bit more speaking of that exterior shape sometimes military battle trackers break the rules and confuse things so let me explain in case you happen to see something different we already know that a blue rectangle with an X in the middle is a friendly ground infantry unit pretty easy right now what about this unit what's going on here well in practice it's sometimes easier or it's usually easier to draw a rectangle instead of a diamond so throughout many military Publications and throughout a lot of historical Maps as we can see you will find all ground units le instead of a diamond so throughout many military Publications and throughout a lot of historical Maps as we can see you will find all ground units being designated by rectangles with their color designating Allegiance therefore the rule of thumb is no matter the shape the color always takes precedent if it's red it's bad guys if it's blue it's friendly I personally always try to go by color and shape the way you're supposed to based on the standard but a lot of US Army Publications don't do this so just be advised that if everything on your map is a rectangle you have to go by color so let's practice a little bit you can pause the video now and we'll begin talking about each of these symbols so first up we've got kind of a familiar shape right we've got the the blue rectangle with an X in the middle so we already know that this is going to be some kind of infantry unit net that's friendly but down here in the center uh center of the shape at the bottom we have what's called a modifier so we know that this is a friendly infantry unit but what kind of infantry in this case we have the little uh seagull shape a little bird shape right so we know that this is going to be a friendly t but what kind of infantry in this case we have the little uh seagull shape a little bird shape right so we know that this is going to be a friendly Airborne infantry unit and if we're looking for size we can look at the very top and see the echelon modifier which tells how big this unit is in this case uh the two vertical lines there dictate a battalion so this is a friendly Airborne infantry battalion up next is a little bit of an easier one uh this one we have a square which is green so we know that this is going to be a neutral unit and the symbol in the middle is just the letters MP so this one we can kind of easily remember as military police so this is a neutral military police unit of ununknown size because we don't have an Echelon modifier moving on down the line the next one is a little bit more difficult we know that this is hostile right because we have the diamond shape and the color red so we know that this is a hostile unit of some kind but what is this symbol what is this this large m shape or a zigzag line however you want to describe it this one you're really just kind of have to memorize this is a pack animal like a mule or a horse or something that's going to b u want to describe it this one you're really just kind of have to memorize this is a pack animal like a mule or a horse or something that's going to be transporting cargo so this is a hostile pack animal and finally we have another kind of confusing one that ordinarily you would never be able to really see but if you followed our briefings on a recent incident of geopolitical Interest this one might be a little bit more familiar to you so we know for instance right up front that this is a hostile unit because it's red so it's going to be hostile no matter what right but it's not a diamond shape or rather the diamond shape is on the top so we know it's not a ground unit from the vertical lines going down to the bottom of the shape and the lack of a line on the bottom just kind of like an open bottom we know that this is going to be an aerial unit so this is an enemy aerial unit and you might have guessed from the symbol on the inside this is a lighter than aircraft a a balloon so this is a hostile aerial balloon pretty neat little symbols that uh have gotten a lot of use slightly once you practice this a bit it will become second nature of course keeping a guidebook on hand is impor ols that uh have gotten a lot of use slightly once you practice this a bit it will become second nature of course keeping a guidebook on hand is important just in case you stumble upon a really weird or rare symbol that you haven't memorized yet as a side note if you happen to use really rare or obscure symbology I would recommend writing a note in plain English next to the symbol helping people know what it is combat is not the time to be playing Stomp the chomp and nobody is going to be impressed with you for knowing an obscure symbol the goal is to have a transparent view of the battle space with no confusion and you don't want your commander to have to break out a book and look flip through pictures to figure out what the symbol means so if you have to bend the standardized rules a bit by placing a few labels so be it but now we can move on to the map which is how we're going to start tracking now we can can see why having good maps is important we need maps of a scale appropriate to the area that we're trying to battle track in if there's a riot in a city we need to have a map of the whole city if there's an invasion of some kind or some kind of lockdown scenario throughout a f there's a riot in a city we need to have a map of the whole city if there's an invasion of some kind or some kind of lockdown scenario throughout a region we need a map of you guessed it the whole region even if we're in a small observation post we can use a spare range card to battle track if need be but at this small level we probably should be focused on observation and security but again it depends on the mission at hand this is why I like to have maps of varying scales available like clockwork Murphy's Law strikes win least desirable so whenever you need a map you either won't have one or my personal favorite it will be at the wrong scale so we've got our map but before we get into the meat and potatoes of battle tracking a quick note on ipv or intelligence preparation of the battle space A lot of times I would say probably most of the time an event is going to go down somewhere in the world that's going to require you to battle track it and you're not going to have any ipv products pre-made for that area you can get your map set up but you are probably not going to have studied this area before so quite literally all you have is a blank map if you have that that's okay we c et up but you are probably not going to have studied this area before so quite literally all you have is a blank map if you have that that's okay we can build this out as we get familiar with the area we don't necessarily want to use the cop for our ipb work but we can make helpful additions as we find out information to the situation at hand but for now since we're probably in a hurry let's move right to Blue Force tracking this is exactly as simple as it sounds tracking blue forces tracking friendly forces it's just putting all of your friendly units on the map and constantly updating their positions as they move across the battle space back in the day this was done automatically on a completely dedicated system called a blue Force tracker basically a computer system installed in vehicles and command posts that allowed units to track each other this system is still very much in use today but back before the days of modern system items the bft was an impressive development in the field of warfare even if soldiers remember it being a constant headache to work with these days the high-speed low drag tactical solution is ATAC ATAC has replaced traditional bft systems in a lot of unit constant headache to work with these days the high-speed low drag tactical solution is ATAC ATAC has replaced traditional bft systems in a lot of units but a lot of units are still using old-school bft trackers for the most part but the future is definitely ATAC which automates Blue Force tracking so that nobody has to physically move an icon across the map so Blue Force tracking sounds pretty simple just put your guys on the map right well in the real world it gets a bit more difficult than that which we'll get into in a moment the other side of the coin is red Force tracking This Is The Stuff Intel guys should be doing this is why having an intelligence function is important and by default why it's important to have reliable information sources think about how many people on the internet have been battle tracking the Ukrainian war and how many of them have been incorrect myself included that's because open source intelligence can only get you so far and that is the only type of intelligence that is going to be available to the general public so battle tracking an event where you don't have reliable information is kind of a farce I get it it's not easy especially in a world where al public so battle tracking an event where you don't have reliable information is kind of a farce I get it it's not easy especially in a world where most open source Intel is heavily skewed if not outright faults no matter the case sometimes our best simply isn't good enough so we have to account for that when battle tracking when battle tracking more local events things that you have you know more of a stake in things don't necessarily become easier but the ability to collect information yourself it's on the table now collecting your own information via radio scanner software-defined radios or sdrs or even small quadcopters or other drones or even just a straight up observation post this organized intelligence collection is usually a lot more accurate than anything you'll find on the internet again in every single operations center I've worked in both Blue Force tracking and red Force tracking fell on the S2 shop because Ops didn't want to do it since Intel is regrettably sometimes a redheaded stepchild of the the battle staff the S2 guys get saddled with work that isn't technically their job but anyway though my team constantly grumbled about it I never really minded this person 2 guys get saddled with work that isn't technically their job but anyway though my team constantly grumbled about it I never really minded this personally because if the S2 shop didn't track everyone all at once the S3 would task a random soldier with it who probably wouldn't do it right so tracking everyone all at once was pretty much what I've had to do in the past this is important to mention because tracking red forces is not easy the bad guys don't radio in their position to your talk you have to go find them or at least guess where they're at or what they're doing that's why that big purple K tends to get slapped everywhere on maps the icon for key terrain though key terrain gets way overused and used improperly it's a very quick way to say hey this would be a great spot for activities either for the bad guys or for us this terrain is key now let's break this down a bit further when it comes to physically putting things on the map there are a couple of ways you can do this what we do not want to do however is draw directly on the map for many reasons I guess technically you could use a pencil and just erase your markings if you need to move something around this is historical e map for many reasons I guess technically you could use a pencil and just erase your markings if you need to move something around this is historically what has been done many many years ago before we had the invention of things like Plastics right historically using a pencil to write on a paper map has been done however we've got better ways of doing things today usually what we want to do is use an overlay of a thin sheet of plastic like I mentioned earlier this is mostly what the military does overlays the map with a clear sheet of plastic so that your nodes and scribbles can be erased and it allows you to use colored markers as opposed to using just a pencil which is going to be you know just one color if you're going to draw on an overlay there are a couple of things that can help for one you can get yourself one or two of these kinds of stencils you can find these online rather overpriced but they are quite handy for drawing neat little boxes this one right here even has the features of a goo horse stick for all of you old school folks out there who remember those one thing to remember when buying a lot of this stuff is that terrain model gear tends to be Chinese made and in ol folks out there who remember those one thing to remember when buying a lot of this stuff is that terrain model gear tends to be Chinese made and in classic fashion the Communist manufacturing sector is almost entirely based on stealing other people's designs this becomes hilarious because they don't often know or understand what something is used for when they copy things so for instance sometimes the stencil shapes will be backwards or the labels will be on the wrong side so you've got to constantly flip back and forth if you're trying to make everything be correct a lot of times the proportions will be wrong or the stencil holes will be too small for any riding Implement because remember they are making these off of bootleg photos from products that were originally issued by the government or sold in the PX on base so just be aware of that when you're looking around you might have to buy several of these until you find one that actually works as for me my bootleg Chinese grade stencils work okay enough for me another helpful thing you will obviously need are markers for battle tracking purposes I prefer wet erase markers so that the riding is a bit more durable and just won't g you will obviously need are markers for battle tracking purposes I prefer wet erase markers so that the riding is a bit more durable and just won't wipe away I also like to either write on or use a label maker to label the colors of each marker so that I can pick them out under red light conditions speaking of red light conditions you might want to select a marker for red forces that is a bit off red or just use black because under red light red text is invisible right so if you're going to be switching back and forth between normal white light and red light your map icons disappearing can be pretty frustrating for flexibility purposes I usually prefer the other main way of putting icons on the map unless of course I've got to remain mobile if I'm working you know out of a vehicle and I've only just got my map board to work from of course I'm going to be drawing on that map board drawing on the Plexiglas you know like like you're supposed to right but for a fixed position where you can lay a map out on a table I like to use laminated icons that I print out myself any good S2 shop should have a shoebox full of these but you can easily make your own on the back of each little marke d icons that I print out myself any good S2 shop should have a shoebox full of these but you can easily make your own on the back of each little marker I like to glue either a penny or a small magnet the penny helps weigh down the small slip of paper so that it won't blow away easily in the wind or in case you know somebody walks by the map table and like their shirt catches the edge of the map or something you don't want all of your your symbols just you know kind of blowing away gluing a magnet on the back will do the same thing but also make it so that you can stick these symbols to a magnetic white board this is pretty helpful for wargaming or for practice or whatever the reason you might want to go with a penny instead the the non-magnetic option is if you have to place a lot of these symbols right next to each other the magnets might want to stick together and generally just might be kind of frustrating to use whatever you choose both the magnet or the penny help Elevate the symbol so that it's easier to grab and pick up off the table instead of laying flush on the surface seems like it's really not worth mentioning but man and this is frustrating and so really putting anythi table instead of laying flush on the surface seems like it's really not worth mentioning but man and this is frustrating and so really putting anything on the back of these pieces of paper adds a little bit of thickness so they're easier to to pick up I also keep a lot of plain symbols without anything on the back just in case I need to improvise something on the Fly it's easier to staple these to a popsicle stick and you know stick them in the ground rather than having to peel off a magnet or something I like to keep these stored in my map case which has a three ring binder to accept these sheet protectors that are meant to store like baseball cards I use a label maker to label each pocket so that if I have to yell across a talk for somebody to hand me a symbol they can find it easily it also helps me when I'm not thinking too clearly or are super tired you know the drill gross motor movements are key and labels help prevent any confusion you don't need to make thousands of symbols just a couple of sheets of the most common symbols will do you don't need to go absolutely crazy and print out all you know 50 000 of these symbols anything special can be improvised on the Fly by draw will do you don't need to go absolutely crazy and print out all you know 50 000 of these symbols anything special can be improvised on the Fly by drawing on blank symbology icons this is what I do most of the time anyway if I'm not making custom symbols myself I usually just use the blank ones and then fill in the interior as needed so you might ask okay where do I get these symbols hasn't somebody already done this the answer is yes uh active duty folks have access to what we call the moag the mother of all Graphics this is a rather Infamous PowerPoint file that has pretty much every battle tracking graphic pre-made this makes it easy to cut and paste into your own PowerPoints now if you search around the internet you will probably find various versions of this PowerPoint but it's not widely available to we lowly peasants you need to have a login to be able to get to get to this PowerPoint it's mostly just hosted on nippernet sites so unless you're you know in the military you're not gonna have access to this the good news is that we have something better I prefer to use this website spatial Illusions this comes from a soul developer who has created an online tool to generate symb have something better I prefer to use this website spatial Illusions this comes from a soul developer who has created an online tool to generate symbology icons all for free if you want you can support the developer by donating and if you donate 40 Euro you get a license code to run this entire website offline very handy for non-networked computers so that's basically where you can get your symbols to print out at home you can find or make your own version of the moag or you can use the free spatial Illusions tools it's up to you I use the spatial Illusions generator and just paste the icons into a PowerPoint slide so that it's easy to print out and so that I have it for the inevitable PowerPoint briefing anyway other stuff you might want to have in your terrain model kit includes the following like I mentioned earlier popsicle sticks are pretty handy mostly for terrain models so that you can stick them in the ground but you can also use them to outline roads show points of interest and so on various kinds of string or yarn can help delineate front lines key terrain fields of observation stuff like that usually you're going to need at least red or blue probably black as well to ou delineate front lines key terrain fields of observation stuff like that usually you're going to need at least red or blue probably black as well to outline stuff like roads and purple for key terrain sometimes you'll see yellow for fires kind of stuff you know for targeting sort of stuff and orange as well for stuff that are like obstacles but there's really no standard for what different kinds of colors mean other than kind of like the generic red and blue so just get a multi-pack of whatever kinds of yarn you want and just be clear to delineate what these are you can use Little slice of paper to to label what the yarn means once you have it on your map some kind of pointing device so that you don't have to you know lean all the way over a map and point with your finger at something I used to love laser pointers uh these used to be the industry standard when I was working professionally as an analyst everyone had a green laser pointer in their pocket nowadays and towards the end of my professional career I found that laser pointers are just too distracting for the masses these days uh basically I started having an entire audience of cats with zero attention spans so since then I h re just too distracting for the masses these days uh basically I started having an entire audience of cats with zero attention spans so since then I have switched back to the old standby and now use just regular collapsible pointers a map protractor is pretty helpful uh just because nobody tends to have an extra one on them when it comes time to make the map or make the terrain model so having an extra is always handy make sure you get the ones with dual scales for one to twenty four thousand and one to twenty five thousand uh so they work with civilian Maps as well as military Maps remember in the civilian World we're probably not going to be using military Maps we're going to be using like USGS maps which are one usually one to twenty four thousand various construction tools like nails screws push pins thumbtacks duct tape stuff like that all of this is very helpful to improvise various things on the fly or to help attach Maps or markers of some kind to a you know wall if you wanted to hang things vertically I also keep a stapler handy just because you're going to need one and even this tiny one is a little bit too bulky for my map case so it kind of lives in the terrain model st ndy just because you're going to need one and even this tiny one is a little bit too bulky for my map case so it kind of lives in the terrain model stuff it's also really handy for stapling icons to popsicle sticks if you wanted to do that for like a Terrain model spare range cards are pretty handy to have because you can ask your dudes to bring along their range cards for from their positions and you can copy down that information to your own range cards which makes it really helpful to be a lot more accurate when depicting fields of fire on your map a rather odd Edition are random blocks of wood these are basically squares of two by fours cut off to make blocks that represent buildings obviously this is for a large scale terrain model and not so much a map table so I personally do not use these often at all but we do have a box of these in the office just in case I need to make a larger scale terrain model on the ground or something like that this is really more of a special case thing that I keep separate from the rest of my small scale terrain model stuff and finally a lot of pre-made icons have usually found a home in my kit over the years you can buy terrain model kits online scale terrain model stuff and finally a lot of pre-made icons have usually found a home in my kit over the years you can buy terrain model kits online and for the military guys they are sold at every PX at least the small scale ones are these are way way overpriced and I do not recommend them it's better to just make your own but despite this I have found myself sometimes unprepared over the years and needing to buy a pre-made kit so I tend to have a lot of leftovers from Scavenging other kits you don't need to nerd out on this stuff too hard you'd be surprised at how little you need to battle track a small Ziploc bag of small laminated paper icons will get you a long way and it takes up almost no space or weight these are a great addition to pretty much any map case now we can see that a plan is coming together we should have a fairly full map that is constantly being updated by all parties involved a map showing where the good guys are and where the bad guys are likely to be but battle tracking is a little bit more than just that in addition to doing this stuff on a map you might want to consider having an event log if you have the time and Personnel to dedicate to this it would addition to doing this stuff on a map you might want to consider having an event log if you have the time and Personnel to dedicate to this it would be a really good idea to have a chronological log of events this is usually super simple it can be an Excel spreadsheet or it can be a physical paper log like a deck log or a staff duty log all that goes into this is the time of day and whatever event occurred you can be as in-depth or as simple as you like but really this event log is used for two purposes one so that commanders and people in leadership positions can at a glance see what has happened since they stepped out of the talk the other main use is to remind people in the talk of what time something happened it sounds stupid simple and it really is but you'd be surprised at how many people will forget when a Medevac call dropped or when an engagement happened in the Heat of the Moment nobody is looking at their watch so it's helpful to dedicate one person to write all this stuff down as it happens another use of an event log is more forensic in nature sometimes when things go sideways and there's going to be an investigation later we need to have a detailed down to the minute more forensic in nature sometimes when things go sideways and there's going to be an investigation later we need to have a detailed down to the minute log of exactly what happened we need to know what everyone knew at that time and how information flowed throughout the operation usually the person dedicated to do this will be the assistant to whomever is on radio watch usually you want at least two people manning the radio so that one can do the talking and another can do the riding so it's not too much extra work to just keep the log and a format that everyone finds useful not just for radio stuff however again in the real world this often doesn't get done and a lot of time the operations out of the house can't or won't spare an extra person to keep an event log so sometimes this job falls to the Intel dudes who usually have a lot of extra white boards and large format paper to display the data anyway so we can see that this is a very fluid process it's constantly changing and it is going to change a lot based on the skills of the people that you know you have around you right if people are just not really up to the task of doing certain things it doesn't matter what the manual sa ople that you know you have around you right if people are just not really up to the task of doing certain things it doesn't matter what the manual says it's got to get done somehow and sometimes the people who are not best suited for a job have to do the job anyway everyone has their own personal battle tracking habits but I will share some of mine in case it helps one of the major things that I do because very few other people do it is constantly search for hlz's or helicopter landing zones even though this is part of the mission planning process as part of met TC right I am always on the lookout for helicopter landing zones as close to the Ground Force as possible of course you need to have a lot of knowledge on this it's not as simple as finding a large open space that you think a helicopter can land at you need to consider altitude above sea level and know the general characteristics of your helicopter's engines to know if it's even possible to fly there with a certain amount of weight and fuel you need slope analysis of the potential hlz to determine if a bird can land there or if this is going to be a pinnacle Landing or even worse a hoist if it's a hoist Mission you need to ntial hlz to determine if a bird can land there or if this is going to be a pinnacle Landing or even worse a hoist if it's a hoist Mission you need to consider obstacles visual aids for the pilots to to look at as they're trying to hold hover and as an Intel guy you need to consider line of sight analysis from the altitude above ground that the helicopter is going to hover at so that you can tell if they're going to hover at this altitude at this location at this grid who's going to be able to see them or shoot at them if it's a small hlz you need to think about the security of the orbiting sister ship that's going to have to orbit are they going to get shot at because they're you know doing donuts in the sky up there and they're a fat juicy Target so are they going to have to hold station a couple miles away that adds in more fuel consumption adds in more time and it's another place wherever they're going to have to orbit that's a whole other place that you've got to do analysis for to figure out where the bad guys are at on the ground I'm constantly thinking okay once the ground force gets to this tree line here the only Medevac that can be done is Hoist if that but if they take nd I'm constantly thinking okay once the ground force gets to this tree line here the only Medevac that can be done is Hoist if that but if they take contact from this building over here that Medevac hlz that we plan for can't be used so we need another one like right now as we can see this is a very big thing to think about and it happens quite a lot this is a constant thought process and I personally tend to obsess over finding suitable hlz's it's just a habit that I've developed that probably isn't that useful for me anymore but now I also do the same thing with eager address routes by land we've all heard the phrase never enter a room until you know how you're going to get out of it again same thing applies in the woods or really any place where World War III is currently being fought so this is always at the front of my mind to update as a ground force makes their way through an area always keep looking for a way out just in case you need it directly related to the previous bullet point always keep Medical on the line nobody keeps the medical folks updated on the mission as it goes on so if you are in a talk and you have dedicated medical personnel that need to be informed get s the medical folks updated on the mission as it goes on so if you are in a talk and you have dedicated medical personnel that need to be informed get your rear end out of your seat and go brief them intelligence and medical needs to be in lockstep with each other and I honestly don't know why this relationship always tends to get neglected in the military but it does many times I've had to run out to the parking pad to give dust off Pilots a heads up that the ground force is getting ready to go into a pretty hairy area they always appreciate the heads up because most of the time the Intel picture that the medical guys have can comes from monitoring the radio which is not even a fraction of the whole picture during an operation when the operations guys go to work the Intel guys for the most part are pretty much done except for battle tracking and stuff like that unless something goes sideways really badly Intel should really be just invested in monitoring changes because the bulk of the S2 Shop's work is done since this is the case it makes no sense to neglect medical these guys need to know what's going on which routes to take where the bad guys are at if helicopters have been a p makes no sense to neglect medical these guys need to know what's going on which routes to take where the bad guys are at if helicopters have been a priority for them do the bad guys do we think that they have night vision now or thermal or stuff like that and so on from my own experiences overseas many lives have been saved by simply an Intel guy walking out of the talk and out to the Medevac birds and casually chatting with the pilots and the crew chiefs for a minute or two it sounds like it wouldn't be that big of a deal but in the medical world seconds count and these guys can use all of the advanced warning they can get on the prepared citizen side of things this is even more important I don't know about anybody else but I don't have a Medevac Chopper on standby for when I go out into the woods so everything becomes more casual and simple but even more important if you are planning for a riot to break out in your city or even a major military action like a lockdown or something a key part of your team will be medical personnel and by that I mean anybody that isn't fighting but is otherwise physically capable is a stretcher Bearer again pointing to the importance of those whose d by that I mean anybody that isn't fighting but is otherwise physically capable is a stretcher Bearer again pointing to the importance of those whose role is not in combat friends and family who aren't physically able to fight or they have to care for children or otherwise are not on the front lines these people can certainly feel very important roles like medical as we can see this goes beyond the scope of battle tracking as medical personnel need to be kept in the loop regarding enemy tactics too if enemies in a local area are known to use certain kinds of weapons like chemical weapons white phosphorus red phosphorus or even incendiary Munitions cluster Munitions things like that the Medics need to know this so they can plan and equip themselves accordingly so that they have an idea of what kinds of wounds or injuries to expect so if you've got an improvised Clinic set up in your kitchen it would be a good idea to keep everyone including those tasks with medical needs on the same page moving back to the more battle tracking side of things it would be very very helpful to make notes reminding yourself to check positions of units if you don't have any way of tracking units automat things it would be very very helpful to make notes reminding yourself to check positions of units if you don't have any way of tracking units automatically a lot of times friendly units will not explicitly State their position and they get annoyed when some Pogue back in the talk asks them where they're at on the radio what they don't know is that Pogue in the talk is plotting their grid pre-planning a Medevac hlz for them as they move in case something happens a lot of times talk people look out for the ground force way more than the ground force realizes and all of this is dependent on the ground Force's location I've seen some pretty bad stuff happen to units who did not report their position for a while and suddenly they're in a troops in contact or a tick situation equation now back in the talk we've got to figure out where they are find them a Medevac route let the Medevac people know the Hasty situation and generally be more unprepared than we otherwise would have been if the dang Ground Force told us where they were considering most prepared citizen groups will not have blue Force trackers and probably will not be using ATAC in a network keeping the talk updated with posit ng most prepared citizen groups will not have blue Force trackers and probably will not be using ATAC in a network keeping the talk updated with position data is very important and since that probably won't happen anyway it's the Talk's job to pull that information whenever they can you don't need to annoy the ground force every 60 seconds asking for a position report but hey if you know 10 minutes goes by and they haven't said anything you need to figure out where they're at another thing to remember is to not forget other domains looking at a map of the Earth's surface it is easy to forget the air sea and even space some information relevant to battle tracking it cannot be tied to a specific GPS coordinate so having a supplementary information board off to the side of the main map this can help with a lot of pertinent but generalized information so you can have your main map and then off to one side you could have your event log and on the other side of the map you could have just like General stuff that people should probably know this is especially important for keeping tabs on what we call the enemy electronic order of battle or EOB unlike a traditional order of battle which i this is especially important for keeping tabs on what we call the enemy electronic order of battle or EOB unlike a traditional order of battle which is basically just a list of all of the equipment and forces a unit has and EOB is more capabilities focused jamming GPS spoofing and other electronic warfare capabilities they need to be accounted for here too even if we can't physically put them on the map another topic which is honestly more of a debate but it needs to be addressed when we talk about battle tracking and that is the idea of decentralization generally decentralization can help but be careful right up front I want to say the decentralizing battle tracking efforts is generally a bad idea and can lead to very very bad things happening but it happens anyway and it might not be all that bad in the end this is pretty confusing so what does this mean decentralizing a common operational picture into several different maps in different areas sometimes happens generally you want a common picture right literally everybody sharing one large map if you've got multiple tracking Maps one map for blue forces one map for red forces it is easy to get confused and for unit positions to b e large map if you've got multiple tracking Maps one map for blue forces one map for red forces it is easy to get confused and for unit positions to be out of date or be called into question it's just a horrifically bad mess but decentralizing the battle tracking happens anyway for instance people in different observation posts might be off the hook for what event is going on but they might start tracking the battle from their position I know that for me due to my role I battle track from wherever I am sometimes it's not effective but I do it anyway if I don't have a job to do if I'm stuck in the back of a vehicle away from the Talk's main Maps I'll battle track on my own map boards sometimes even a handheld GPS back in the day Garmin GPS unit served as my my team's own personal little battle tracking tool far more than I'd like to admit if you're going to decentralize battle tracking efforts to spread around the workload I would strongly recommend against splitting up red and blue forces this is something I saw in the Navy an awful lot and I understand why they do it it's just something that I personally just kind of Revolt at I always keep red and blue forces on the same map no m ot and I understand why they do it it's just something that I personally just kind of Revolt at I always keep red and blue forces on the same map no matter what if you split them up you're going to have a bad time if you're going to split things up here's how I would recommend you do it you can track operations at different levels for instance if your city if your whole city was being invaded or locked down or whatever the talk can track the entire city the keeping you know larger unit sizes on the map so the talk is not going to track anything lower than like a battalion maybe a company right but if your cop is the size of an entire city you're not going to be putting down icons of individual vehicles or individual tanks right but the Hasty talk that's being run from somebody's living room they might want to take note of that because at their level their map is going to Encompass probably just their street and maybe the immediate surrounding area this is where decentralizing can be helpful and why we have talks at multiple levels of command a higher level very high level talk is not going to have some of the smaller units and a talk at the very lowest levels of command they're goi command a higher level very high level talk is not going to have some of the smaller units and a talk at the very lowest levels of command they're going to have a smaller area of operations a smaller talk at a lower level even if it's just one guy like me in the back seat of a car that one-man talk or observation post can report back to the larger higher level operations center they can report back with anything pertinent while at the same time battle tracking their very small view of the world nowadays I've upgrade related to various map boards to help my effort in addition to computerized options this way I can walk into any sized Operation Center from a from a very large headquarters element with hundreds of people in the talk down to a small Squad level room in somebody's house right so I can Flex depending on which size of operation I'm going to be working with right most of the time nowadays you know as a ordinary citizen I really go with much smaller level operations but I'm always prepared for if somebody out there is more organized than me I can easily plug into their system like With Disaster Response or something so all in all we can see that this decentralization may ha anized than me I can easily plug into their system like With Disaster Response or something so all in all we can see that this decentralization may have a lot of use even if we don't want to admit it sometimes the people in the seat aren't the best people for the job and sometimes the talk the big headquarters talk just doesn't battle track very well water Finds Its Own level and I've seen people migrate to specific individuals offices because one guy in the back of the headquarters building was tracking the battle all better than the entire talk it sucks but it sometimes happens for me I tend to keep a sip a common intelligence picture separate from the main cop this is probably actually this is almost certainly a bad habit on my part but it's often necessary because I have so much information that is not necessary for the main tracking map my maps are a mess they tend to be quite cluttered I mean organized but still very cluttered with information and notes which isn't the best for a battle tracking map that should be as simple and accurate as possible but again you must remember that if you keep a separate tracking or planning map you cannot forget to update the main cop if you accurate as possible but again you must remember that if you keep a separate tracking or planning map you cannot forget to update the main cop if you have something operationally meaningful too many people have died because some Intel weenie forgot to share life-altering intelligence don't be that guy that knows about the machine gun on the ridge but doesn't put it on the map another big debate in the battle tracking world is the idea of analog versus digital battle tracking with all of the tools at our disposal in today's world the question often comes up can we do all of this on our computers or phones in fact a lot of modern battle tracking has to be done on a computer or a phone because of how constantly data is updated a great example of this like I already mentioned is ATAC which takes care of Blue Force tracking automatically this can't be done on a map with a marker I mean it can but it requires a human to do it you know every 60 seconds dropping a new PIN right the dod at large has spent a lot of your tax dollars investing in Technologies like the old school Geeks dcgs palantir Gotham or palantir uh spin-off Gaia all of these are used to battle track among other things the Technologies like the old school Geeks dcgs palantir Gotham or palantir uh spin-off Gaia all of these are used to battle track among other things the dod is trying to make paper maps a thing of the past which in today's world is perhaps not entirely a bad idea except that in today's world it is a very bad idea as technology becomes more of a component of War Fair it also becomes a vulnerability yes stuff like ATAC is a huge benefit on the modern counterinsurgency battlefield but in GPS denied environments or places where a radio signal results in an artillery strike these tools that have so much power in the counterinsurgency world might end up getting us all killed if the situation is a little different as always everything is a balance and we don't need to completely change our entire Doctrine based on a case study or two I personally prefer to use both methods if the battle space permits and most importantly if people are actually using it ATAC is a great option I can tie a whole team together and know where everyone is at a glance that makes it easier to automate Blue Force tracking so that I can just focus on where the bad guys are however I also keep my physical paper maps u e that makes it easier to automate Blue Force tracking so that I can just focus on where the bad guys are however I also keep my physical paper maps updated too that way if I have to ditch my phone for some reason or if I have to go into a controlled space where cell phones are not allowed or it would generally be a bad idea to bring one in paper maps allow me to take my data wherever I need to is this duplication of effort yes is it necessary also yes a lot of the time I prefer doing things the old school way if possible not really for Nostalgia reasons but for the reasons that look if there's an old tactic that you still know about and is still you know decently popular the reason that that tactic has remained a commonality for such a long period of time is because it's it works of course we can't let Nostalgia let us make bad tactical decisions or lose capabilities simply because we want to to use an older way of doing things that may not be the best but I found that on the civilian side of things on the prepared citizen side of things where everything is analog anyway battle tracking with a map and a marker is about the same Effectiveness as some of the more high-tech options a ings where everything is analog anyway battle tracking with a map and a marker is about the same Effectiveness as some of the more high-tech options and sometimes that's all you've got even in 2023 it is like pulling teeth to get any prepared citizen to buy a radio and if we add in stuff like meshtastic and ATAC which is a little little bit more advanced than just you know buying an FRS radio or something like that that's just a bridge too far for a lot of people for for many reasons that are perfectly understandable like you know stuff breaking or not really being easy to set up but some reasons are really just laziness either way it's a reality and tracking an incident using digital methods while obviously offering a lot of capability they're just sometimes not an option in the civilian world as much as we might want them to be as a prepared citizen we have to work at the level of the lowest common denominator and sometimes that requires giving up capabilities it sucks but until more people become serious about being a prepared citizen in today's world until more people start stepping up we have to accept that the tip of the spear is sometimes a lonely place as for me I would rec zen in today's world until more people start stepping up we have to accept that the tip of the spear is sometimes a lonely place as for me I would recommend using technology as much as you can but don't let it become a liability and of course always be prepared to revert back to simple tried and true methods in case you have to all right everyone let's take a look at what a lot of these processes and stuff might look like in the real world using a real world example in a more unfiltered and raw kind of way so many of you understand and kind of know about what's going on in Niger right now uh and uh really throughout the whole West African region but I wanted to take this as and use this as an example because it's something that people are very unlikely to care about and it's something that is a little bit easier for me to both learn myself and test some of my own skills but also it's an easier way to show what a lot of this looks like in real time basically this is also a great example because I myself know very little about Western Africa I'm not an Africa expert by any means I uh only barely know about the United States involvement in Niger from a counter Insurgency perspective y frica I'm not an Africa expert by any means I uh only barely know about the United States involvement in Niger from a counter Insurgency perspective you know a lot of counter Isis counter Boko Haram actions going on in the north of the country and we have a very large uh drone base there but other than that it's a foreign topic to me so again I thought it would be a very good exercise to see for me what this more organic battle tracking would look like and and uh see if we're going to give up any capabilities so as we can see this is really just a good exercise all around and one of the ways this is a really good exercise is that I don't have the resources I need in typical fashion we have to sometimes battle track with the with the resources that we have and I don't have even half of the gear that I need my maps are not correct I don't have a lot of the instruments that I need to be a little bit more professional looking so this is exactly what somebody like me might do if they just grab their map case out of their rucksack and they're forced to kind of sit down and battle track an event especially one that is as large if we're talking like an international kind of event like this re forced to kind of sit down and battle track an event especially one that is as large if we're talking like an international kind of event like this so so let me explain what I mean uh as we can see starting out fresh I have uh basically just my West African road map here now this is just as simple Michelin road map it's not the right scale this I don't even know what scale this is but it's in the millions I'm sure either way it's a very large scale map I need a much closer scale of a much smaller scale so that I'm not looking uh that this entire map is basically the battle space uh right now most of my icons and battle tracking efforts are going to be right here kind of clustered together it's going to make it harder to battle track because a lot of icons and and unit markers are going to be kind of overlapping a little bit but again this is raw this is the resources I have on hand right now so we've just kind of got to make do with what we've got I have however added an overlay so a lot of you might recognize this as the let's see here uh the piece of Plexiglas from a standard uh Battle Board system now ordinarily I would be battle tracking off of this like I mentioned by just here uh the piece of Plexiglas from a standard uh Battle Board system now ordinarily I would be battle tracking off of this like I mentioned by just drawing on the overlays all the overlaid icons onto the Plexiglas here but again I wanted to spread things out and do things a little bit more a little bit more professionally and show some of the some of the ways that I would do this if I had a tabletop at my disposal but again you can just battle track from a battle board that's what they're made for right now battle boards are becoming a lot more popular especially in the you know for people that have to battle track a lot they're extremely expensive for what you get but you can't really do much better if you're mobile however if you have the chance to sit down and to work off of a table like I'm doing here uh you can use some of the parts from a battleboard system uh to make an overlay here I don't have a sheet of acetate with me I don't have a clear sheet of flexible plastic that I can lay over this whole map so I have to use the resources I have again which is my Battle Board piece so we'll be using that one thing you have to remember with overlays however is that they're going sources I have again which is my Battle Board piece so we'll be using that one thing you have to remember with overlays however is that they're going to move unless you fix them down now ordinarily like I mentioned I would have a sheet of acetate a clear sheet of plastic some kind of cellophane or something and I will be able to clamp it using binder clips to the edge of the table so that it won't move and then I can write on on the plastic instead of riding directly on the map I don't have that luxury here again I have to use the tools that I have so what I've done is on this sheet of Plexiglas here is I've put key markers for cities that I can line up with the maps if somebody moves them out I can very easily take it and line it right back up where it's supposed to be kind of a jury rigged solution but it works and that's what I'm gonna have to use now like I mentioned this is just the early steps this is what somebody like me is going to do they're going to take this stuff out of their map case or out of their rucksack and go to work so what are we going to be doing first well in classic form like I've dedicated hours to talking about on YouTube and all over the Internet we need rk so what are we going to be doing first well in classic form like I've dedicated hours to talking about on YouTube and all over the Internet we need to stick to processes right we have the combat Intel cycle we have the intelligence preparation of the battle space steps we can work through we have um all kinds of different processes that we can work through uh to to get a better intelligence picture of what's going on on the ground and this applies to more operation stuff too not just Intel stuff but in classic form this is kind of the exception that proves the rule that we can talk about rigid Doctrine we can talk about uh really good processes to work from but in the real world sometimes you got to do a bunch of stuff at once and right now what I'm doing is starting to look around at all the different nations how they are aligned terrain features major rivers major roads good portions of the Sahara Desert that are largely uninhabited or only inhabited by Bandits and stuff like that so just from the map alone we haven't cracked open a single resource we can start memorizing key cities key landmarks uh how the terrain looks if this is a sort of map that delineates terrain and it n a single resource we can start memorizing key cities key landmarks uh how the terrain looks if this is a sort of map that delineates terrain and it kind of does it shows uh some of the more rugged terrains in the Northern parts of Niger uh some of the parts of the great Sahara right so we can see the very first step for for us at least is just to kind of understand where things are at we can dedicate hours days weeks to studying this map and memorizing where every little thing is but really I'm just getting kind of an overview another thing to help you get an overview is again like I mentioned earlier is a good uh pocket Atlas so we have right here a good resource for learning a little bit of very basic information about the country for instance I can look and see that the total area is 489 188 square miles again it's really hard to get a feel for uh scale when you're looking at a map even if the skills listed it's really hard to say all right how big is this area of operations well by looking at the square mileage here I can tell you that neither is about twice the size of Texas so that gives you kind of an idea of how big this area of operations is it's fairly large however fro ou that neither is about twice the size of Texas so that gives you kind of an idea of how big this area of operations is it's fairly large however from the atlas we can also tell that there's not a whole lot of people there the population density as of the publication of this guide uh is 44 people per square mile now that population density of course flexes throughout the country we can tell just by looking at the map where the roads are people are and we can tell that along the southern part of the country is where most of the people uh in this nation are centered the Northern parts of the country are very open very sparse but there are highways and uh byways and things like that up in the Northern parts of the country we can also tell a little bit about the economy again it's going to be impossible to get culture and history from a map in most cases some maps will will actually be very helpful for that but an atlas and a history book really is going to be your best resource for that but I can read right here from the economy section in this book that there are vast uranium reserves throughout Niger they are an oil producer from 2011. they have frequent droughts and food shortages in this book that there are vast uranium reserves throughout Niger they are an oil producer from 2011. they have frequent droughts and food shortages and they are prone to mandatory they're also an expansion of the Sahara Desert so we get kind of an idea of this is your classic western African nation probably an extremely high poverty rate probably a lot of warlord situations going on which is going to probably play an impact on the political and Military situation throughout Niger so again we're just starting to get an idea of what this battle space is looking like now unfortunately we don't really have a great Avenue of approach for tracking what's going on in the country again we're trying to battle track remember we're trying to track the events that are going on throughout this crisis and unfortunately we don't really have good information sources to do that if you don't have good information sources your ability to battle track is not going to be that great basically you have to have information to put on the map and right now our main resources are going to be telegram Twitter Facebook uh alternative media sites basically if social media open sources right open source intel our main resources are going to be telegram Twitter Facebook uh alternative media sites basically if social media open sources right open source intelligence is really a has historically been a very good resource remember the old statistic that you know Bin Laden himself said that Al Qaeda can get you know 80 percent of their information from open sources however in today's fifth generation battle space open source intelligence has become very unreliable in some in some aspects it's still all we have so we have to use it but the huge chunk of the ocean world has become politicized so people ignoring information because they're trying to help their political allies or people pushing false information because they're trying to help their uh their their allies as well so so again that's something to think of you have to keep Source reliability in the Forefront of your mind when you're using ocean sources and a lot of the times we're not able to get those you know perfect A1 sources right we're having to to deal with really unreliable information most of the time but since this is our very uh the very start of this process let's take five ten minutes or so run through telegram run thro ormation most of the time but since this is our very uh the very start of this process let's take five ten minutes or so run through telegram run through Twitter and let's see what we can make of the situation on the ground at least halfway reliably right all right ladies and gentlemen so this is what you're going to be able to get after about five minutes worth of effort five ten minutes out worth of effort remember we're trying to run through the combat Intel cycle very very quickly we're not able to issue collection on our own uh so we're really having to do more of a quick and dirty ipb right get as much stuff on the map as we possibly can uh and then we can kind of figure out some of the back story and start building on what's actually going on but for right now since we're in the trenches where we're doing a quick and dirty process we need to know where the bad guys are at and where the good guys are at now right up front I want to stress that it's not quite as clear in Africa when you're talking a lot of these African conflicts as to who the good guys are and who the bad guys are I'm not saying that red forces are entirely bad and I'm not saying that blue forces are entirely as to who the good guys are and who the bad guys are I'm not saying that red forces are entirely bad and I'm not saying that blue forces are entirely good uh it's a very complex situation for now though since we have to work using something uh we're gonna go with the rebel forces that that uh have taken control of Niger are going to be red forces and uh the echo loss Nations that are supported by the United States are going to be blue forces and of course the United States uh soldiers are going to be blue forces just for simplicity's sake now when we start getting into other nations and other actors like Insurgent groups within Niger will have to depict them differently but for now this is what we're going with but again this is just the very very initial steps and here's what we've been able to find out so far in about 10 minutes or so scanning Twitter telegram stuff like that starting with the red forces we know that a huge concentration of forces has set up shop in Miami uh the capital obviously because that's where the military leadership is set up uh their their control there in the government quarter we also know that red forces I'm not able to depict them on the map just ye eadership is set up uh their their control there in the government quarter we also know that red forces I'm not able to depict them on the map just yet but we do know that there are red forces moving uh to the north of the uh Nigerian Army which is set up shop in the northern part of Nigeria in the sokoto district Nigeria is sending a lot of their forces up to the North in preparation for an impending Invasion again timing is critical as of right now the 5th of August Saturday the 5th of August we have an ultimatum that's been given by ecowas to reinstate the democratically elected president or else we're coming we're coming to invade it's going to be expiring uh tomorrow Sunday at midnight and we'll have to see uh what happens from that again since you're going to be watching this video in the future you're going to have the benefit of hindsight but for right now we're preparing for what looks to be like a fairly substantial military action if this all goes to plan one of the complicating aspects of that plan is the American forces and this is why uh people might be more concerned with what's going on in Niger because we have a substantial military force uh in a collection of base nd this is why uh people might be more concerned with what's going on in Niger because we have a substantial military force uh in a collection of bases really just uh space 201 up there just to the south of agonys but there's also a CIA presence there as well we'll get more into that as we get better and a better understanding of what we're talking about numbers wise but for right now I've grossly overestimated the number of U.S troops on the ground I've got templated which is again this is an overestimation I'd rather be safe than sorry but we've got the equivalent of a battalion of CIA Spooks operating uh in that area it's almost certainly vastly smaller than a company but who knows we also have a fixed Wing element there Army Aviation or really it should be Air Force Aviation who run drone Ops out there fixed Wing operations out of that area this that's really all I know and I'm templating uh just again another Battalion but again it's really hard to guess as to how many Americans are there right now the media is saying around 1100 so I've tempered I've templated a brigade which is much much larger than that but I wanted to again encapsulate all of the Americans that are potenti so I've tempered I've templated a brigade which is much much larger than that but I wanted to again encapsulate all of the Americans that are potentially in this area not just soldiers but also support personnel as well and I think that probably gives us a decently uh sized representation of what's going on as far as unit sizes for red forces and the blue forces from Nigeria don't know don't have a clue I've just templated a uh Brigade and we'll just kind of go from there as time moves on so again this is a real raw real-time ish look at what's going on so give me uh 10 more minutes or so and we'll be able to put a little bit more information on the map all right ladies and gentlemen so we've come back it's been about uh 10 to 15 more minutes and I've been able to use social media again very hesitantly but it's the only source I have uh use social media to figure out where a lot of these red forces are going to be located and and what's going on so in doing so I'm also starting to build a history a kind of a back history of what's going on throughout the area I'm able to pull up the offline copy of the CIA World Factbook and kind of understand a little bit more about the the recen ing on throughout the area I'm able to pull up the offline copy of the CIA World Factbook and kind of understand a little bit more about the the recent history of the area and I'm able to start getting a an actual map board put together so I'm actually about halfway through updating my map board here but this is uh the tool right here that I'm going to be using myself to kind of battle track what's going on and as we can see I'm starting to get a feel for some of the players in here I'm starting to get a feel for some of the the uh situational placement sit temp right the order of battle of niger's military what forces do they have to work with uh even very conservatively I was able to actually use my portable printer here to uh pull from kiwix the offline Wikipedia a very very old outdated uh overview of niger's military which is basically just a handful of battalions of I guess they're they're calling them combined arms forces but I think they're more along the lines of Irregulars but we'll get again we'll get into the Commander's two minute update here in just a moment what I wanted to show you here is again a pitfall that you need to be aware of is that looking at these two map wo minute update here in just a moment what I wanted to show you here is again a pitfall that you need to be aware of is that looking at these two maps you can see that the information is different so which one's correct usually for what I like to do is put in the corner take a marker and right in the corner of the map the last time it was updated so anytime anything gets moved on the map we write the time so that we're able to determine again which map is accurate like I mentioned you don't want to split your Maps up you really never want to do that but sometimes you have to and I've done it more often than not you shouldn't do that you should have a common operating picture right but in the real world sometimes you just gotta work on your own little space over there whereas the commander is looking at something like this in this case I already know that this map's the most accurate so I need to transpose what is on this map over to my actual portable map board so that I can walk into my boss's office lay it down on his desk and give a two-minute briefing speaking of that two minute briefing let's actually go through some of the information and what I've been able to find out agai a two-minute briefing speaking of that two minute briefing let's actually go through some of the information and what I've been able to find out again we're not really focusing so much on the briefing of what's going on in the country that's not really what we're talking about uh we really want to focus on how I'm able to do all of this stuff so a two-minute briefing on a country where no one can even find it on a map nobody knows what's going on there you're not going to be able to encapsulate the entire situation in two minutes but we can do it as quickly as we possibly can so really most of this Crisis began on July 26th when Abdul rahmane tachani one of the military leaders of Niger seized power and deposed the democratically elected and heavy air quotes uh president Muhammad bassoon bazoom remains fortunately alive for now uh he is alive in uh his house in the capital of niami and he's under house arrest he still has access to the internet so we're able to still get statements from him allegedly from him there hasn't been a real solid proof of life but again that's kind of what we're working with for now tachani is running the country first of all we'll start with blue forces solid proof of life but again that's kind of what we're working with for now tachani is running the country first of all we'll start with blue forces because it's a little bit simpler Nigeria has partnered with ecowas the economic community of West African States it's it's a mostly a trade Coalition but in this case it's being used as a military Coalition uh ecowas has imposed an ultimatum of reinstate bazoom stop the coup or we're going to invade tomorrow night so far we have seen mobilization from a couple of countries but mostly Nigeria who has pushed a substantial amount of forces uh to the north again in the sokoto district right now they've set up screening operations to kind of monitor the border on that on the other side now again in Africa national International borders are basically just a dirt road okay there's really very few hard-packed very few uh msrs you know main supply routes that go across the country but one of the biggest borders in the region is through sakota so that's where Nigeria has four deployed us uh I'm templating here because I don't know an estimate of a brigades worth of troops again when we're talking unit sizes uh you can't really think of these templating here because I don't know an estimate of a brigades worth of troops again when we're talking unit sizes uh you can't really think of these in terms of American unit sizes because you know an American Brigade is fairly large whereas a Nigerian Brigade it's probably half that size so it's kind of the same story with the Russians like a Russian division is much smaller than an American Division so we have to keep that in mind when we're talking about numbers here other blue forces in the area that kind of complicate things are the Americans again at the bases uh the United Nigerian military base uh just south of agony's Base 201 no real developments on that front we'll have to get back to them later I know it's an important feature but we just don't have any information uh regarding Force protection other than the Americans at that base are confined to the base we don't know if that's voluntarily confined to the base or if they're just kind of uh taking precautions and sort of waiting things out to see what ecowas does in the next few days either way they're kind of hanging tight sitting tight and uh we'll have to come back to them in a moment so moving forward the most lik next few days either way they're kind of hanging tight sitting tight and uh we'll have to come back to them in a moment so moving forward the most likely chance for a conflict to erupt is right here just across the border from the sakota district uh in how long basically just any kind of pathway that leads into Niger from Nigeria we have what I think is the 24th combined arms infantry battalion uh it's hard to again gauge the unit size because most of niger's military is technical based right up armored Land Cruisers and your classic uh you know dishka in the back of a pickup truck kind of set up so uh Niger does have some old school t-62s but we don't know where they are they're probably a lot of them are probably at the American base uh or outside the the base uh outside the capital of Miami or at the Nami Airport we'll have to get a better Fidelity on Armor but again t62s are such an ancient system that there's really not that much of a threat they pose uh far more likely to cause some serious damage are the shoot and Scoot technicals with discus in the back but again that's where uh the majority of conflict is going to break out if it does break out this is where a good flash p als with discus in the back but again that's where uh the majority of conflict is going to break out if it does break out this is where a good flash point can occur because we have uh Nigerian and Nigerian forces uh really close proximity to each other we also have very very limited reporting and this is purely an estimate on my part that there's probably also another battalion-ish sized element to the east here defending the crossing there but again that's just a template on my part what we're a little bit more certain of is what's going on in the capital region again unit sizes are hard to determine but we know that the presidential District the government quarter of uh Naomi is under lockdown uh from the majority of the Niger military we also know that they have some sort of second capability so I've templated that uh there on the map just to keep keep aware of um there is an airspace restriction over the entirety of Niger or the uh it hasn't happened yet but I would be willing to bet the FAA is probably going to issue a no-tem closing niger's airspace but they haven't done it yet because the ultimatum has not expired yet so we're not really sure as to what's going on another un sing niger's airspace but they haven't done it yet because the ultimatum has not expired yet so we're not really sure as to what's going on another uncertainty and yet another complication for this conflict is outside influence so outside the country of Niger we have a lot of political players first of all Burkina Faso is a similar uh situation the reason that uh Burkina Faso is taking the side of Niger along with Mali and sword of the nation of Guinea here off to off to the left uh is because all of these nations have had military coups and they're currently being run by military juntas so actually statistically the youngest president in the world right now is a a captain actually who's basically just taking control of Burkina Faso and he is the leader of that Nation so um we're templating them as red forces because they have pledged military allegiance to Mali to help them defend against a potential ecowas Invasion but again it's really hard to say what's going on because they're probably a very very small military I've templated them as being a division and strength but I don't know if that's an accurate representation that might be the entirety of their military so again we'll em as being a division and strength but I don't know if that's an accurate representation that might be the entirety of their military so again we'll need more Fidelity on that as we go on one of the more interesting complicating factors is what's going on uh to the northwest of the country on the border between Mali and Niger which is Wagner so there's been limited reporting that has been confirmed by French intelligence if that's you know trustworthy source for you that Wagner has been summoned and requested by the uh military leadership of Niger to come in and provide protection so dipping just a little bit into the back story right now the reasons for the coup are unclear but it seems to be like the reason the main reason for the coup is the President of Niger uh was fairly unpopular taking advantage of the people allegedly uh enriching himself instead of his nation and uh you know the Winds of Change came and now we have a coup very similar story is to you know most of of Africa to be honest but it seems to be the classic uh warlord taking control uh situation now from that uh there are also anti-colonial elements to this right there are a lot of uh anti-American Sentiments of ord taking control uh situation now from that uh there are also anti-colonial elements to this right there are a lot of uh anti-American Sentiments of very strong anti-fringe sentiments throughout the entire region to be honest but right now uh it seems like people in Niger are much more of a fan of Russia than of America or France so for instance there have been rallies on the capital city of Miami um with Russian flags being waived as people support that Nation so again Russian influences is very much a factor in this in this coup situation and because of that the military leadership the the Junta in Niger has requested the presence of Wagner the infamous PMC group uh that has you know gained notoriety worldwide interestingly enough uh we do have confirmation that there are there's a small team of advisors on the ground again reliability hard to say but it's almost certain I would I would you know Venture an analytical guess that there are uh Wagner forces on the ground in the capital probably of the day the coup happened to be honest but uh there's reports that they're bringing in forces through Mali and there's again a follow-on information that suggests that Al Qaeda militants st but uh there's reports that they're bringing in forces through Mali and there's again a follow-on information that suggests that Al Qaeda militants uh in the Northwestern part of Niger have been combating uh Wagner forces one report says that uh it's very unconfirmed one report says that Al Qaeda had surrounded Wagner and not let them enter the nation of Niger I think that's bogus I think that's not really true we know how Al Qaeda reports tend to be but again this is yet another party another force that the middle another military force in the region that is exhibiting power over the areas that they control so again that's going to be interesting to see as time goes on so that's pretty much a good overview of what we're able to kind of improvise on the fly in just 20 or 30 minutes uh with maybe 10 to 15 minutes tacked onto that for prep time so certainly in less than an hour you can do all of this it doesn't require substantial really good uh Google Foo or anything like that you don't have to be a rock star analyst to put this together you can spend maybe an hour or so and get something like this uh improvised really really easily like I mentioned a lot of this is just purely g ether you can spend maybe an hour or so and get something like this uh improvised really really easily like I mentioned a lot of this is just purely guesswork we're templating things we're estimating we're projecting we can use whatever words we want to say but we're basically just going off of our best guess for a lot of this stuff and unfortunately as slip shot is the same as as kind of janky as this seems this is what real battle tracking looks like when you have very little resources I would honestly expect to walk into a military talk and see something of course better than this but not much better uh but if they have their own organic intelligence collection you should see a lot more icons a lot more uh templating of the situation but again things that you can't template on the map culture history the geopolitical stuff that stuff you've got to read about uh using whatever resources you have and if we have very little internet access if we're just using telegram or Twitter on like a local you know phone that's using the local cell network and you just have garbage service you're going to have to get most of your knowledge from offline resources yeah I thought it would be a go ll network and you just have garbage service you're going to have to get most of your knowledge from offline resources yeah I thought it would be a good idea to kind of template this stuff and and see how this goes I'm going to follow this casually just to see how the situation works out but again you know we're kind of at a Crossroads here where we're just kind of in a hurry up and wait for that ultimatum to expire as far as what I think is going to happen I don't know I think that it's probably likely for some kind of military force to to um uh invade Niger however at the same time you've got a case of Nigeria citizens and even as far away as Senegal Senegalese citizens voicing their outrage that their their military leadership wants to invade another Nation so again it's just a pure and utter mess and I hope that even though this has been a disorganized way of showing things this shows the chaos this shows how little information you're going to have and how helpless you can be or how helpless you're going to feel uh sometimes and this is just a commonality unfortunately it's far more common than you might think me personally I want to get on the ground I want to get my resources his is just a commonality unfortunately it's far more common than you might think me personally I want to get on the ground I want to get my resources out there I want to start working through the combat Intel cycle I want to start you know getting a team spun up to uh to to go talk to other agencies and see uh what kind of collection resources we have we need to get Eyes On Target we need to start downloading maps of the whole region we need to start getting our geoet guys on board with downloading uh terrain data and satellite imagery and so we need to start plugging into higher level commands to get more you know better imagery we need to talk to the second guys to see what kind of units they're templating in the area do you see how chaotic and just insane this gets a lot of times uh hopefully hopefully we can calm down we can take a very slow look at things and just start with what we know because that's really what we're trying to do we don't need to get absolutely spun out of control over stuff like this we want to do the best job that we can using the resources we have most of the time it's not going to be good enough and we have to be okay with that or if we're if we can't ob that we can using the resources we have most of the time it's not going to be good enough and we have to be okay with that or if we're if we can't be okay with that then we have to at least try to do the best that we can we can only do our best and sometimes we're Limited in this case we're limited by the flow of information and since we're limited by the flow of information now we can work back and we can start looking at history culture and see what we think is likely to happen as we start learning more about this region earlier today before I started this whole process I had very little understanding of the of the country of the history of the place of even where the country's at right I had very little understanding of that but now I have a much clearer picture even after just a couple of hours of working through this kind of stuff and you know maybe an hour or so of research so again I'll keep plugging away at this and we'll see how far we're able to get how how accurate we're able to get unfortunately again like this like I mentioned this maps of the wrong scale so we're going to have a lot of um a lot of information that that's not the greatest so I'm going to have to bas entioned this maps of the wrong scale so we're going to have a lot of um a lot of information that that's not the greatest so I'm going to have to basically print out some more of my own maps that I've uh basically just very basic template maps that I've created of the region and work off of those for more smaller smaller level stuff at the end of the day that's really what it's all about being hard to kill and making it another day battle tracking is an essential part of that in today's world right now battle tracking helps everyday citizens be more prepared by keeping one step ahead of the bad guys whoever they may be in the World of Tomorrow these skills are going to be mandatory just to break even and one more thing to remember do not forget that the little slips of paper you are pushing around a map these are people people with families that they want to come home to this is not some expensive board game or Dungeons and Dragons this is people's lives you are depicting when an icon gets removed from the board they don't get to play again the military is one of the last institutions in society which forces respect to some degree We Salute each other and follow basic customs and y again the military is one of the last institutions in society which forces respect to some degree We Salute each other and follow basic customs and courtesies but today when a lot of the younger crowd looks at their seniors they don't really understand what those ribbons on their chest mean granted after a few Decades of senior military leadership just giving them themselves Awards it's it's not something that uh is unexpected but even the respect has truly been earned it's sometimes not reflected by the actions of the younger soldiers simply because they have no understanding what war is like they look at a ribbon and they see their General who gave himself that ribbon and they don't understand what somebody who actually really did earn that went through this affects battle tracking like you would not believe it's easy to forget the human factor in training even on the military side of things it's just not possible to replicate in a training environment the shock of almost an entire unit being killed we can cross-train and make sure that everyone knows how to do each other's job for tactical practicality but we simply cannot train for the psychological impact of this this is a h e that everyone knows how to do each other's job for tactical practicality but we simply cannot train for the psychological impact of this this is a huge point of friction between Grunts and fathers like us back in our talk we're moving a piece of paper half an inch in the real world people are struggling to make that movement happen from a command and control perspective this is a touchy subject the idea of how much an officer should know their troops has been debated since the early days of warfare it's obviously not possible for an officer to know each and every one of their soldiers personally and there is a lot of debate as to whether or not this is a good idea anyway seeing as that officer is probably going to be sending these people to their death at some point I personally take no position on this because I don't have that experience and I haven't had to make that difficult choice but I can definitely warn against a few things like smoking and joking when consolidating icons on the map after a while things get monotonous in the talk and your guys are likely to crack jokes complain about the food moan about the weather or whatever that's fine it's a soldier's right to compla e talk and your guys are likely to crack jokes complain about the food moan about the weather or whatever that's fine it's a soldier's right to complain and even so a lot of times in the the more difficult jobs a sense of morbid humor kind of pops up that's inevitable with a lot of very very stressful jobs but be aware of your surroundings and have some reverence when battle tracking I know that I I would be livid if I walked into the talk and found a bunch of snot-nosed kids who haven't seen combat treating my guys like their slips of paper on a board game I don't wish to create a divide between soldiers who have seen combat and those who haven't yet but that divide was already created long before I was born so I'll just say this for the combat vets out there who are leading younger inexperienced guys in This Strange New World either in the military or in serving your community don't let them forget what you already learned the hard way more often than not the new guys may understand the textbook stuff but the culture of the combat services will probably be a point of friction guide them in the right direction and know that in today's world you will probably have to be more of a p ervices will probably be a point of friction guide them in the right direction and know that in today's world you will probably have to be more of a parent than anything else to a lot of folks even people who may be older than you and for the guys who are new or inexperienced trying to do the right thing in or out of the military those who haven't had the unfortunate opportunity to test yourselves in battle yet keep an open mind and don't bring yourself down everyone was a new guy at some point and everyone has to learn in their own way tried to do this by keeping the wisdom learned the hard way in mind that old guy that's about to retire or rotate home sit down with him if he has time just to talk and more importantly to listen you may not like it and you may think that you are on the right path already and honestly you might do this and find out that you know this person is not exactly a good resource but more often than not you will realize how valuable this simple task is once that person is gone the same thing applies to the entire battle staff organization to include battle tracking ask people why they do the things they do people being afraid to ask questions has killed more re battle staff organization to include battle tracking ask people why they do the things they do people being afraid to ask questions has killed more people than we like to remember so don't be embarrassed because you don't know something battle tracking is one of those things where you can play stump the chump all day long because somebody can know more symbols than you somebody can know more about the environment than you and you can generally be made to feel really bad because you you feel like you just don't know anything don't let this happen but rather if you're in that situation take it as a point to learn some more simply memorizing a bunch of shapes on a map is not going to be very useful when you've got artillery rounds landing around you so always keep things in perspective and try to learn as best you can battle tracking may seem like it's a simple task but it really is a skill that requires a lot of critical thinking flexibility and it's a task that is constantly changing if you do it poorly and if you are not invested in bettering yourself you are wasting your time but if you practice and improve your skills you'll find that this is a fundamental part of remaining as n bettering yourself you are wasting your time but if you practice and improve your skills you'll find that this is a fundamental part of remaining as prepared as you can be especially if you have to fight in the shade