Joint Patrol and Military Operations Urban Terrain
Patrolling is a military tactic.
Small groups or individual units are deployed from a larger formation to achieve a specific objective and then return.
The tactic of patrolling may be applied to ground troops, armored units, naval units, and combat aircraft.
The duration of a patrol will vary from a few hours to several weeks, depending on the nature of the objective and the type of units involved.
There are several different types of patrols, each with a different objective.
The most common is to collect information by carrying out a reconnaissance patrol.
Such a patrol may try to remain clandestine and observe an enemy without themselves being detected.
Other reconnaissance patrols are overt, especially those that interact with the civilian population.
Patrol Types;
A combat patrol is a group with sufficient size (usually a platoon or company) and resources to raid or ambush a specific enemy.
It primarily differs from an attack in that the aim is not to hold ground.
A clearing patrol is a brief patrol around a newly occupied defensive position in order to ensure that the immediate area is secure.
Clearing patrols are often undertaken during the occupation of a location, during the transition from the night to the day routine, and vice versa.
A standing patrol is a static patrol, probably known as an OP/LP (Observation Post/Listening Post) in US and NATO terminology.
Standing patrols are usually small (half-section) static patrols intended to provide early warning, security, or to guard some geographical feature, such as dead ground.
A reconnaissance (recce) patrol is a patrol, usually small, whose main mission is the gathering of information.
Generally speaking, recce patrols tend to avoid contact, although it is not unknown for recon patrols to "fight for information.".
A screening patrol combines a number of patrols to 'screen' a large area.
This type of patrol is used by armored formations in desert theaters and also by ground troops operating in urban areas.
A screen is generally composed of a number of static observation posts.
Urban warfare is warfare in urban areas, such as towns and cities.
Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both the operational and tactical levels.
Complicating factors in urban warfare include the presence of civilians and the complexity of the urban terrain.
Urban combat operations may be conducted to capitalize on strategic or tactical advantages associated with the possession or control of a particular urban area or to deny these advantages to the enemy.
It is considered to be arguably the most difficult form of warfare.
