Saturday, February 12, 2011

Praxis: Why route reconnaissance is so important.

Route Reconnaissance is the intelligence assessment of the operational environment in reconnaissance operations of routes for military use, including methods of reconnoitering and classifying them for other troops. In a Tactical Area of Responsibility during combat operations the primary purpose of conducting route reconnaissance is to find and report all enemy forces that can interfere with movement along a route, and to identify the limit of direct-fire range and terrain that dominates the route. Route reconnaissance includes creation of reconnaissance overlays to identify land and water features, bridge reconnaissance and classification, road reconnaissance and classification, special terrain reconnaissance such as that used during cross-country movement, at the landing areas, on the inland waterways, or when using footpaths and trails, engineer reconnaissance, and use of military route signs (standard signs, sign lighting, bridge signs). A significant part of route reconnaissance is the ability to identify choke points that prohibit military traffic by using conversion factors and tables to identify non-standard surfaces or inadequate load bearing in structure. To do so, military load classifications are used for standard vehicles of a given armed force. Route reconnaissance is typically conducted by a foot, horse or vehicle-mounted route reconnaissance patrol, sometimes with aid of aerial reconnaissance aircraft. The patrol would include regular reconnaissance elements and a combat engineering team. -- Wikipedia.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Proper planning prevents being pantsless

Anonymous said...

Gimme that old time rigorous route reconnaissance, etc., etc.

Anonymous said...

Route reconnaissance...

I used to do this stuff for a living in my Army days. A good reference is FM 17-98- Scout Platoon.

A lot goes into route recon, and RR can be used in prep for both offense and defense...ways to bypass obstacles are good for using a route, while denying access and making natural obstacles worse are good for denying a route to the enemy.

I could blabber on and on, but instead I'd say to head to scribd and get a copy.

Anonymous said...

Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Anonymous said...

To Anon 1:28 --
It's Prior PROPER Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

B Woodman
III-per

Anonymous said...

Agreed AP, as well as its companion, FM17-98-1 Scout Leader's Handbook. My grubby well-worn copies lived in my ruck and I won't part with them. The leader's handbook is hard to find, unfortunately....I referred to it a lot more frequently. If you can find it, get it.

BoarHawg