IR activeMax Velocity Tactical

Let’s talk about night operations. This is a topic that often comes up, particularly with regards to modern night vision equipment. There was a string of comments about this in my recent post ‘Out In the woods’, which took on the form of a mini forum. There are multiple aspects to discuss about night operations, so my intent will be to give a broad brush of the various aspects in order to clarify, and then open it up to comment and discussion.

This blog is primarily concerned with the armed civilian in an SHTF environment. Thus, you will only have the equipment that you purchased or acquired. We can certainly take pointers from practices within the military, and that is part of the intent of this article, but we must also be realistic and realize that we are not going to be issued all the latest gear. The gear you have is often a function of what you can afford.   Continue reading “Considerations for Night Operations”

bunker blownMax Velocity Tactical

It turned out to be a great weekend, despite some challenges getting everyone up to the site on the Saturday morning. Here are some far from professional photos, to give you a flavor, taken on phones. We can, and will, train in bad weather!

As usual, a great group, several of whom were returning students.   Continue reading “Dec 14/15 CRCD Photos – Snowmageddon!”

Max Velocity Tactical

I posted HERE about ‘The Squad – Size & Organization‘. I advocated for a squad size of twelve or thirteen, with three four man teams. This generated a healthy discussion in comments. I am following up with this post in order to give you more depth on the WHY.

There is a method to the squad size and organization that I am advocating. It is not simply an arbitrary number. The three team squad of either 12 or 13 individuals allows a great deal of flexibility in deployment. What I’m effectively giving you is a half platoon size squad that can operate in the assault cycle just like a platoon does.   Continue reading “More on The Squad & the Assault Cycle”

Max Velocity Tactical

Here is the difference between a terrorist and a freedom/resistance fighter, in my opinion:

A terrorist engages in indiscriminate killing in order create fear and further his agenda, which will include the killing of innocents, children, with tactics such as bombs/attacks in crowded public places.

A Freedom/Resistance fighter will engage legitimate targets, whether military or enemy facilitators. They will not target innocents or children.   Continue reading “Terrorist Vs. Freedom Fighter”

formationMax Velocity Tactical

This in via email, from SP:

“I posed a question in the SWAT Threat thread concerning if/how/when/should someone that has just escaped a no-knock raid thus taking to the hills, and whether at some point the person is going to have to put their position forward to the media justifying their actions (MSM or alternative media), and if so how important would it be.

Chuck replied to the question and posed the concept of the Information Operations will be just as important as Kinetic Operations.   Continue reading “Fugitive Media Management!”

Max Velocity Tactical

A reader sent me this link to a long thread at Small Wars Council. Honestly, I groaned inwardly: I haven’t read the thread in its entirety. However I’m going to take the opportunity to comment on squad size and organization.

The topic of squad size and organization is a big one, with lots of opinions, and we could go on forever and get wrapped around the axle. I will simply give a quick opinion, and what I think is a utilitarian approach.   Continue reading “The Squad – Size and Organization”

hqdefaultMax Velocity Tactical

I recently posted about ‘More on the SWAT Threat‘. I am enjoying the fact that my posts are generating some really good comments from a generally high quality of commenter right now. I am beginning to see myself as just the initiator of a discussion: Pose a post, step back: “Discuss!”

However, the SWAT post generated a bit of doom and gloom and it was described as a realistic but gloomy post. Well, not one to give you problems without solutions, that is why I am writing today. Here is one comment that just came in, with my response:   Continue reading “Doom, Defeat & Solutions”

Max Velocity Tactical

I wrote previously on the threat from ‘HIT Teams’ initially in the post ‘The Home Invasion Dilemma – Discussion & Scenarios‘ and then the follow up post ‘Solutions – Follow Up to The Home Invasion Dilemma‘.  Those posts were over at the old blog site but have been copied to this one. Links in those posts may take you back to the old blog.

In the comment section on my recent post ‘Sailing Away – Comment’ Matt Bracken added a comment that made me want to revisit the whole home invasion team (HIT)/ SWAT attack thing. This is added to the fact that I am currently reading Matt’s book ‘Enemies Foreign and Domestic’ and that has a bit of SWAT action from the bad guys in the story. Great book. Here is part of Matt’s comment:   Continue reading “More on the SWAT Threat”

Inspired-InsanityMax Velocity Tactical

I interrupt my regularly scheduled programming of old-school tactics and tacti-cool bashing for the following:

I am writing tonight to comment on Matt Bracken’ s recent essay about getting on a sail boat and sailing away. H/T to WRSA, HERE.

Grrrr. Bracken! You know how to hit low! This comes for me just as I am reading Matt’s ‘Enemies Foreign and Domestic’ and the main character has just raised the mast on his sailboat, in preparation to flee the States, which I am sure is not actually going to be allowed to happen as part of the plot….   Continue reading “Sailing Away – Comment”

tacticaltraning6Max Velocity Tactical

As a blogger it is interesting to me that the topics that generate the most interest include gear. That is understandable, and don’t get me wrong – I get it. I love gear! I think a healthy interest in gear shows a professionalism to be better prepared to get the job done.

The same goes for guns. Well, guns and gear are related. They are related because they are the things that equip an individual. They are the things that an individual can concentrate on in order to better equip himself for the fight. An individual can control his gear and weapon set-up, given the cash to pay for it.   Continue reading “Gear, Guns….What’s Missing?”

Patriot Dawn: The Resistance RisesMax Velocity Tactical

‘Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises’ will be available for FREE download on Kindle this weekend November 23/24.

H/T to Matt Bracken for the tip on how to do this – and for telling me that it does make sense to give my book out for free!

According to the Amazon Kindle information, the free download should be available from approximately midnight pacific time (Friday night) through midnight on the Sunday night.   Continue reading “Patriot Dawn: Free Kindle Download – Sat/Sun Nov 23/24”

smock mtpMax Velocity Tactical

The ‘SAS Windproof Smock;’ is an excellent piece of equipment. The ‘smock’ concept does not seen to have penetrated the US military world as thoroughly as it should. There have been many times that I have wished I had my smock with me.

The SAS windproof was made of tightly woven cotton material, making it windproof.  It is used as an outer layer, and it really helps to keep the windchill out and it also keeps showers out. The smock concept is best utilized in colder weather while using a battle belt. It is really best as an ‘old school’ method using battle belt and patrol pack/ruck. You can wear a plate carrier  (PC) with it or not. In fact, we often (as in the photo below) used to wear the smock over our body armor.   Continue reading “The Windproof Smock Concept”

Ex Active EagleMax Velocity Tactical

Back to basics.

Good solid basics.

There are so many reasons for this!

In some sort of collapse situation, you may not have any electrical power, and most likely not any modern forms of communication, save perhaps battery powered radios. Internet? Forget it. You are not likely to be printing operations orders off your laptop.   Continue reading “Get Your Notebook Out”

Tacticool square rangeMax Velocity Tactical

I recently wrote my post ‘Taking Down the Tacticool Transition Dogma‘. Those of you who have read it will know that it involved an excursion into the world of the ‘preparedsociety’ forum.

When I first wrote ‘Contact‘ and was getting into this game, before I had my own blog, I frequented a few forums with mixed results. It was due in large part to a lot of effort blogging on forums that I initially got the word out about ‘Contact‘. One of the forums that I found fairly decent was ‘American Preppers Network‘. Continue reading “Commentary on the Prepper/Forum/Tacti-cool problem”