Terms, Techniques, Tactics and Strategies

Parachute Assault. During an parachute assault the paratroopers jump out of an aircraft with a parachute in order to secure an object of area.

Parrot. Slang for a person who has not yet been identified as a friendly or a bad guy. Hence, he is an unknown.

Plink. A single discriminating shot, usually a bullet to the head.

Pseudo Operations. Operations in which a person or unit perpetrates or pretends to be someone or something he or they are not.

Psychological Operations or Psyops. The spreading of mis-information or causing moral problems in the enemy forces.

Raid. Usually a small-scale operation, involving a swift penetration of hostile territory to secure information, confuse the enemy, or destroy his installations. It ends with a planned withdrawal upon completion of the assigned mission.

Rapid Dominance. The aim of Rapid Dominance is to reduce an enemy's understanding, ability, and will to respond to an attack, to create sufficient "shock and awe" to render the enemy impotent.

Rappelling. A mountaineering term used for the technique of descending a steep face with a climbing rope. A person on rappel uses friction or mechanical breaking devices to control the descent.

Reconnaissance. A mission undertaken to obtain, by visual observation or other detection methods, information about the activities and resources of an enemy or potential enemy; or to secure data concerning the meteorological, hydrographical, or geographical characteristics of a particular area.

Recovery. Recovery is the last phase of an operation. It consists of the unit's return to the operations base, debriefing, equipment maintenance and turn-in, and stand-down.

Re-Org. Another expression for the post-mission debriefing. See also Debriefing >>

Route. When the subunits move up to the FAP, each will move along a designated route. This is part of the briefing and will include possible rally points.

Rules of Engagement or ROE. Rules an assault goes by. Part of the briefing and comes from the C2. ROE will be different for each team.

Safeguard. The use of military forces to evacuate citizens or allies from a hostile or potentially hostile area, or to safeguard personnel or property.

Scorched Earth. A military tactic which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy whilst withdrawing from an area.

Seizure. As an operational purpose, the capture of a voluntarily restricted portion of an enemy-controlled territory. Capture of an isolated land mass such as an island is usually categorized as a seizure.

Seize Key Facility. An attack on an installation with the intent of holding it for a short period. Normally, specialised forces would make the assault to seize and secure an installation for follow-on forces.

Search and Rescue or SAR. The use of aircraft, surface craft, submarines, specialized rescue teams, and equipment to search for and rescue personnel in distress on land or at sea.

Sensitive Site Exploitation or SSE.

Service Component. Each service component commander is responsible for recommending the proper use of his forces and for accomplishing operational tasks assigned by the joint commander. He is also responsible for his service in matters of internal administration and discipline; training in own service doctrine, techniques, and tactics; designation of specific units to meet joint requirements; logistics functions normal to the component; tactical employment of service component forces; and service intelligence matters.

Shell. A shell is often an invisible ring of operators around an AO. They may be observers on a surveillance team around a drug house or a half-dozen people in plain clothes around a distinguished visitor. One of the shell will be called a "shadow" man, an officer who will stick close to the VIP, and another officer will cover him or her, the whole shell providing mutual cover in a discreet way.

Shock and Awe. A military doctrine similar to the guerrilla terror doctrine that calls for attempting to directly influence your adversary's will, perception, and understanding of events by inducing a state of shock and awe. This doctrine is part of the Rapid Dominance doctrine.

Shooter. Nickname for the members of an assault team who are responsible for shooting hostiles.

Sky Hook Extraction. See Surface to Air Recovery or STAR.

Sling Loading. During sling loading, supplies, vehicles or other equipment are moved underneath a helicopter to a designated area.

Show of Force. A mission carried out to demonstrate US resolve, whereby US forces are deployed to defuse a situation that may be harmful to US interests or national objectives.

Signal Intelligence or SIGINT. A generic term that includes COMINT and ELINT. Activities concerned with the collection and processing of foreign electromagnetic emissions for the purpose of producing intelligence information.

Situational Training Exercise or STX. An STX is a short, mission-oriented exercise in which a group of closely-related collective tasks are trained, using a doctrinally preferred method of executing these tasks to established standards. An STX is drill-like in nature, but it is more complex and flexible than a drill. It usually involves a larger unit than a drill.

Special Operations. Military operations conducted by specially trained, equipped, and organised forces against strategic or tactical targets in pursuit of national, military, political, economic, or psychological objectives. Special operations may support conventional military operations, or they may occur independently when the use of conventional forces is either inappropriate or infeasible. Sensitive peacetime operations, except for training, are normally authorized by a (authorised part of a) government and conducted under the direction of this government or designated commander. Special operations may include unconventional warfare, counter-terrorist operations, collective security, psychological operations, and civil affairs measures.

Special Operations Forces. Special Operations Forces or Special Forces are personnel that fight unconventional battles that ordinary line infantry is incapable of. It requires a special type of warrior, a professional soldier who is intelligent, dedicated, and motivated. When the military has difficult and dangerous missions to perform, they call upon special operations teams. These elite combat forces stay in a constant state of readiness to strike anywhere in the world on a moment's notice.

Special Operations Group or SOG. Special unit which is responsible for covert intelligence gathering or that deploys to high-risk situations, such as escorting terrorists to and from federal courts.

Special Operations Missions. Missions performed by Special Operations Forces.

STABO extraction. For a STABO extraction no special skill are required. A STABO Extraction is similar to a sling loading in air assault except the cargo is people that are being sling loaded under the VTOL.

Strategic Reconnaissance (SR). These are reconnaissance and surveillance actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments to collect or verify information of strategic or operational significance, employing military capabilities not normally found in conventional forces.

Strategic Level of War. Military strategy uses the armed forces of a nation to secure the objectives of national policy by applying force or the threat of force. Military strategy sets the fundamental conditions for operations.

Strategic Reconnaissance or SR. Intelligence gathering missions with no direct action.

Strike. An attack that is intended to inflict damage on, seize, or destroy an objective. Sometimes referred to as direct action missions.

Surface To Air Recovery System or STAR. For a Surface To Air Recovery or STAR (also known as a Sky Hook Extraction) an operator is snatched from the surface by an aircraft.

Surveillance. The systematic observation of aerospace, surface or subsurface areas, places, persons, or things by visual, aural, electronic, photographic, or other means.

Tactical. Pertaining to the employment of units in combat.

Tactical Air land Operation or TALO. A Tactical Air land Operation or TALO involves the use of up to four transport aircraft in a 'coup de main' style.

Tactical Command Post or TCP. The location where the operation is launched and commanded, situated away from the ACP where the news media and crowds of curious bystanders usually congregate.

Tactical Combat Intelligence. That knowledge of the enemy, weather, and geographical features needed by a commander in the planning and conduct of combat operations. It is derived from the interpretation of information on the enemy and the environment.

Takedown. An assault on a target.

Tango. Slang for a terrorist. So named after the military's designation for the letter "T" (Tango) in the phonetic alphabet.

Target Analysis. A detailed and systematic examination of processed intelligence to identify and locate targets.