Terms, Techniques, Tactics and Strategies

Keep. 1. A secured location where people who have been pulled out of a location can be debriefed without distractions. The people kept at this location might be hostages or hostage takers who can provide information about who and what is still inside or still a threat to the officers conducting the operation.
2. When a team has a distinguished VIP mission, a keep will be specified. Then, if something happens, a designated member of the team will take the VIP to the keep and will guard him or her, controlling access to the location, until a code word is transmitted indicating "all clear." Until then, nobody gets access to the keep.

Kicker. Nickname for someone on an assault team who is responsible for kicking open a closed door. Might also be the demolition man.

Last Cover and Concealment or LCC. Last station where the assault team is fully covered and concealed.

Liaison. That personal contact or communication maintained between elements of military forces to ensure mutual understanding and unity of purpose and effort.

Line of Communications. All routes (land, water, and air) that connect an operating military force with one or more bases of operations and along which supplies and military forces move.

Listening Post/Observation Post or LP/OP. The classic stake-out, surveillance situation where operators collect information without ever intending to make "hard" contact.

Low Altitude Low Opening insertion or LALO. For A Low Altitude Low Opening or LALO insertion parachute skills required.

Low Altitude No Opening insertion or LANO. For Low Altitude No Opening or LANO insertion special skills are required. This technique can be performed in any soft sand desert or even in soft packed snow.

Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System insertion or LAPES. For an insertion with a Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System no special skills are required. This is kind of a cross between LANO and LALO with a twist.

Low-Intensity Conflict. Limited politico-military operations conducted to achieve political, social, economic, or psychological objectives. It is generally confined to a specific geographic area and is often characterized by operational constraints imposed on ranger units by political and economic considerations. It may involve intermittent combat against regular threat military forces, but it more often involves conflict with irregular, security, or paramilitary forces of a country or group involved in an operation that is counter to the best interests and national security of a country. It is characterised by relatively low levels of combat and constraints placed on the weaponry, tactics, and movements of the ranger force. It may involve counterterrorist or antiterrorist operations and generally occurs before a pro forma declaration of war.

Long Distance Combat.

Medical Evacuation or Medevac.

Mid Intensity Conflict. War, declared or undeclared, between regular forces of two or more nations and their respective allies, if any, in which the belligerents use the most modern technology and all resources in intelligence, mobility, firepower (excluding nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons), command, communications and control, and support. They are used for limited objectives under definitive policy limitations as to the extent of destructive power that can be used or the extent of geographical area that might be involved.

Military Strategy. Art and science of using the armed forces of a nation to secure the objectives of national policy by application of force or the threat of force. Military strategy sets the fundamental conditions for operations.

Memorandum of Understanding or MOU. A formal (though not always written) set of instructions, guidelines and conditions for the roles of an individual, a team, or an entire SOF unit. Essential for good team integration on an operation is to define the duties, responsibilities, and limits for each team member, particularly when people from different organizations participate on the same op.

Mousehole. Nickname for a small, round-shaped breach made into walls and/or doorways with explosives. SOF assault teams use mouseholes to move from room to room in a building to avoid hallways (which can be booby-trapped or covered by weapons fire), as well as to surprise hostiles.

Mozambique. Slang for firing two bullets to the chest of a terrorist and one to the head. This ensures that the tango is permanently out of the picture.

Non-Lethal Weapons. Weapons designed to injure, stun, distract, confuse, etc., rather than kill a human being.

Open Box Formation.

Operation plan or Op plan. A mission statement, normally written, that defines the operation's objectives and methods-a product of the team leader, team sergeant/supervisor. The operation plan follows the classic five-paragraph order format used by the military.

Operational Command/Control. Operational command (OPCOM) and operational control in joint force terminology both refer to the authority exercised by joint commanders over subordinate service components. Those terms are not interchangeable in joint operations. OPCOM applies to the authority exercised by commanders of unified commands. OPCON is the authority that subordinate joint task force commanders exercise in the conduct of specific operations. The authority that military departments exercise over their respective components is commonly referred to as command less operational command.

Operational level of War. The operational level of war uses available military resources to attain strategic goals within a theatre of war. It is the theory of larger unit operations. It also involves planning and conducting campaigns. Campaigns are sustained operations designed to defeat an enemy force in a specified space and time with simultaneous and sequential battles. The disposition of forces, selection of objectives, and actions taken to weaken or to outmanoeuvre the enemy all set the terms of the next battle and exploit tactical gains. They are all part of the operational level of war. In AirLand Battle doctrine, this level includes the marshalling of forces and logistical support, providing direction to ground and air manoeuvre, applying conventional and nuclear fires in depth, and employing unconventional and psychological warfare.

Operations Security. Those measures designed to protect information concerning planned, ongoing, and completed operations from unauthorized disclosure. It includes all actions a command takes to deny the enemy information about friendly units and their operations.

Operator. Member of a SOF team, a sworn officer participating in the tactical (not administrative) phase of the mission.

Order of Battle or OB. The identification, strength, command structure, and disposition of the personnel, units, and equipment of any military force.