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Spike

@spikesguides

Dec 22, 2025

You’re moving through the woods. It’s quiet. Too quiet.

Would you recognize the signs of an enemy lying in wait, or stroll straight into their kill zone? 🧵

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance, or recon for short, is the deliberate collection of information relating to hostile forces, terrain, and the environment that forces will be operating within. Recon’s central objective is to gather intelligence, not to engage in kinetic actions. The intelligence gained from recon operations can give smaller fighting units the tactical edge that they need to leverage against a larger, hostile force. Without recon, forces are operating blindly in an area, working against the whims of the battlespace, but when teams are operating with the intelligence gained from proper recon, they can set the terms of their fights.

Purpose of Reconnaissance.

There are five primary objectives of the recon mission and the use of recon in general. They are: gathering information on the enemy, learning the area’s terrain, providing an early warning against enemy activity, supporting operational planning, and giving a psychological edge.

When gathering information on enemy personnel, recon teams can quantify and note things such as the number of enemy personnel, their uniforms, units, weapons, locate supply lines, and even estimate morale. Recon teams also observe and note movement patterns, keeping eyes on when guard shifts change, patrol timings, and convoy schedules.
Teams that are performing terrain study, also known as area study, are identifying potential choke points, highlighting natural cover and concealment, obstacles, and defensible terrain. Teams also take note of important local resources such as water, shelter, escape routes, and in some cases even food sources.

With regards to early warnings, recon teams sweep areas to detect likely ambush locations, or even identify actively manned ambush positions, IEDs, land mines, or enemy troop concentrations prior to contact. Recon teams identifying threats before the rest of the element enters the area can save lives by having maneuver elements avoid ambushes entirely or maneuvering around area denial assets.

Operations that are planned with good area intelligence are doomed to fail. The intelligence gained by recon teams can be the difference between a successful raid or ambush or total failure. Teams that identify and locate defensive positions based on avenues of approach are spotted during recon operations. While ambushes can be conducted in an ad-hoc way, an ambush planned around good area intelligence will almost always go better than the one without.

The mind is as important of a battlefield as the physical one, the status and soundness of it influence every facet of operations from the command level to the individual. Units that know the ground they are working on and the basics about their enemy in the area will operate more confidently and effectively than those who are working in the dark, giving them a psychological boost. At the same time, an enemy that knows they’re being scouted are likely to be more paranoid and apprehensive when working in the field. Finally, leaders that are equipped with quality intelligence will make faster, and better decisions.

Recon operations are conducting much more analysis than squinting on top of a hill at an enemy base (despite what Guntubers will tell you). Proper recon is as integral to the planning and conducting of operations as well as the overall proper functioning of a unit as equipment and supplies. Reconnaissance is how the intelligence that makes or breaks plans is gathered.

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Spike

@spikesguides

Dec 21, 2025

A lot of people prepare for contact. Fewer prepare for the part that happens first: being detected.

This thread is a tour of the specialized threats that make that gap costly. 🧵

Specialized Threats and Countermeasures.

“You can't say that civilization don't advance, for in every war they kill you a new way.”
-Will Rogers

The postmodern battlefield is radically different from the battlefields of the Second World War or even those of the Global War on Terror. It brings with it unique and specialized threats that riflemen should be keenly aware of in order to avoid meeting an untimely end. While a number of the threats that are encountered in the battlespace today are the same as they were 100 years ago, the tactics used by the threat actor and those countering it have changed. Snipers, IEDs, ISR assets, and landmines have all adapted to the 21st century in various ways while threats such as peers using NVGs and thermal observation equipment and drones are relatively new to the western battlespace.

It should be noted that this is not a be-all-end-all guide to identify and mitigate these threats perfectly. There are entire books dedicated to each subject. The goal is to familiarize yourself with them and understand the basics of them. Not everyone is going to encounter the same threats and some may never encounter any of them. Having a basic understanding, at the very least, puts you in a space that allows you to more proactively approach situations where they may be present or react to them in a more level headed way. Every threat encountered in the battlespace is unique in its own way and not every strategy is perfect to engage it, use common sense and discretion in the field.

Snipers.

Snipers exist to operate as force multipliers, appliers of psychological pressure, disruptors of command and control, or are used for targeting and eliminating specific personnel. They are usually identified by their telltale signatures of single-round fire, precision of hits, and their firing from heavy concealment followed by movement. Snipers can operate in any environment and make use of their terrain in various and unique ways.

In rural settings, snipers are more likely to engage in long-range overwatch of strategic or key areas, likely from elevated natural terrain such as ridges, treelines, and rock formations. They employ the use of natural camouflage and hand-made ghillie suits. They may have hide sites dug into the earth or concealed by foliage such as bushes.

Some potential detection cues for these snipers are unnatural terrain disruption in the area (flattened bushes, cut branches, trimmed brush), reflection or glint from sunlight hitting scopes, particularly during sunrise or sunset, local civilians may entirely avoid areas that are known sniper-dominated zones, and intermittent single-shot fire with long intervals between shots.

Potential mitigation strategies for rural area snipers are the use of terrain masking, having units move behind hills, rocks, trees, low ridges, and reverse slopes to cover themselves from potential sniper fire in certain directions. Avoiding open fields and roads and making use of bounding movement is a solid way to avoid easy detection while providing security while moving through areas that may have snipers. The use of smoke or other obscurants while crossing danger areas like roads or clear areas can make target acquisition harder. Finally the use of decoy targets such as mannequins and helmets on sticks, or use of decoy heat sources can draw fire.

Snipers operating in suburban areas will make use of abandoned homes, attics, and other multi-story buildings as hide sites. They are likely to employ shoot-and-scoot style tactics where they set up in a hide, take a few shots, and then rapidly leave the area. They may operate alone or with spotters in nearby structures or even local civilian populations. They are likely to engage at shorter distances than rural snipers but will exploit longer sightlines such as long and open roadways.

Potential detection cues include (but once again are not limited to) curtains or blinds being out of place or shifted in an unnatural manner, rooftop access doors being left open or having signs of being pried open, flat top roofs with singular bricks pushed out to create murderholes, improvised holes in fences, hedges, building walls, garages, or other areas for firing, and flash reports that will be more visible at night if the sniper does not have a flash suppression device.

Suburban snipers are tricky to engage because of their shoot-and-scoot tactics. Prior to any units holding a building or ground, dismounted clearing of potential sniper hides is a must. Units should avoid any obvious danger zones that funnel them into neat lines such as roads, alleyways, hedgerows, or anything of the sort. When crossing open terrain, units should use vehicle armor, hasty cover, or even soft-skinned vehicles such as civilian cars for concealment when rapidly crossing. Finally the use of thermal imaging devices will make spotting sniper threats much easier, but remember that they may also be utilizing thermal optics.

Urban sniper threats are likely to come from higher angles, that is to say, elevated terrain inside of skyscrapers and other multistory buildings, similar to that during the siege of Sarajevo. The use of pre-cut murderholes and coordination with spotters is likely to be conducted in a similar manner as suburban snipers. They are likely to use shorter engagement distances, sometimes as close as 50 meters away.

Detection of these snipers is done first and foremost from gunshots coming from rooftops or from behind defilade on elevated levels of buildings. Snipers are going to leave behind murderholes that can indicate to units that a sniper has been in an area. Interrupted civilian patterns, such as avoiding streets, blocks, or even crosswalks, can indicate snipers in an area. Finally the audiovisual report of their weapons may be identifiable as buildings are likely to reflect and carry more sound.

Avoiding and mitigating the threat of these snipers is similar to that of suburban snipers with the added threat of the increased height of buildings in urban centers. Roofline overwatch is a necessity when crossing in these areas and the use of the heavy corners of buildings as cover is a must. Suppressive fire on suspected positions can force snipers into cover while units cross danger areas. Finally the use of mirrors or optics on poles (including trench periscopes) to check blind spots around corners has been employed by units such as the IDF in Israel and the Russian military in Grozny.

Some additional comments are that sniper calibers are likely to vary. Snipers in rural environments are engaging at long distances, likely with heavy duty calibers such as .338 Lapua, .300 Winchester Magnum, or even 7.62x54R. Snipers in more suburban or urban areas may use 5.56 or even as small as .22 LR caliber weapons with suppressors to hide themselves better. Snipers with thermal scopes and rangefinders are also becoming increasingly common, especially during state-backed and proxy forces as seen in Ukraine, Syria, and Israel. Civilian defenders and riflemen are likely to lack the resources for precision counter-sniper work and may more effectively focus their efforts on avoidance and detection than engagement.

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Spike

@spikesguides

Dec 19, 2025

Obstacles don’t stop you. Poor planning does.

Breaching is more than door kicking. It’s a battlefield art. Here’s how real fighters clear the way under fire.🧵

Breaching and SOSRA

Breaching is the act of creating lanes through enemy obstacles to allow assault forces to pass. In the zeitgeist, breaching is just when tier 1 guys blow up doors with C2 charges, but breaching is a very broad action and the drill of breaching a mined wire obstacle is actually one of the 14 primary drills taught by the US Army for infantry to be competent in the performance of. Breaching can be conducted on minefields, razor wire fields, walls and roofs of buildings, vehicle based obstacles like dragon’s teeth and tank ditches, and even the clearing of trees or crossing rivers. Breaching at its core follows the doctrinal sequence of SOSRA, where no matter what the application may be, the team can follow the steps and achieve a positive outcome when performing breaching tasks.

Breaching.

As previously stated, breaching is the act of clearing an enemy obstacle to create a lane of passage for assault or friendly forces to pass through safely. Breaching is often conducted under fire and almost certainly covered by enemy observation. To put it succinctly, breaching is conducted to restore mobility for friendly forces while minimizing casualties.

Doctrinally, breaches come in three forms. The deliberate breach, the hasty breach, and the in-stride breach.

The deliberate breach is a pre-planned operation and is generally very resource heavy in nature. The team plans ahead of time where to approach a well prepared obstacle and how to remove it. These types of breaches are used against strong defenses and obstacles that are covered by direct or indirect fire. For example, the D-Day sea wall obstacle breaches as seen in films like Saving Private Ryan depict a preplanned breach. They knew the obstacles were there, engineers brought charges, and the SOSRA sequence (which we will cover shortly) was followed.

Hasty breaches are rapidly conducted breaches when an unexpected obstacle is encountered and while contact with hostile forces has been made. Hasty breaches are used when momentum is critical and planning is not a reasonable option. Hasty breaches make use of the assets available to the team at the time. If it is an armored division they may have tank plows, if it is an infantry team they may have to manually cut wire, whatever the situation may demand, the team employs what they have and acts as fast as possible. Hasty breaches put more men at risk due to the limited planning associated with them. Examples of hasty breaches include infantry in a CQB environment blowing open a door with a shotgun or a sledgehammer, or an infantry team cutting barbed wire that they encounter while crossing a field under fire.

An in-stride breach is performed while the team is on the move as part of an offensive maneuver, often with mechanized forces. In-stride breaches are very similar to pre-planned breaches but conducted as part of a greater maneuver and done while forces are already on the move. They are deliberate breaches but done while still on the move. This type of breach was common in Soviet doctrine for decades. During Desert Storm, 1st Infantry breached Iraqi minefields with prepositioned mine clearing vehicles while the rest of the brigade flowed through behind them without a major slowdown to operational tempo. In-stride breaches are best described as “deliberate-lite.”

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Spike

@spikesguides

Dec 17, 2025

If your buddy took a GSW RIGHT NOW, could you actually keep them alive until help arrived? Or would your lack of basic combat medicine skills get them killed? 🧵

Combat medicine saves lives yet many shooters have no idea how to do it in a calm setting, much less under pressure...

Quick disclaimer. I AM NOT A DOCTOR. THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE. SEEK ALL MEDICAL TREATMENT FROM A PROFESSIONAL! This article provides basic educational information only and does not substitute professional medical training or advice. Always seek proper medical training from qualified instructors. The author is not liable for any actions taken based on the information provided.

Basic Combat Medicine for the Every(rifle)man

Combat medicine is a topic that is rarely discussed despite it being lifesaving at its core. It is often ignored or forgotten in favor of trusting that a medic will be nearby when the unthinkable happens. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case and sometimes the basic actions taken by non-medical teammates can save the life of someone in dire need. Thankfully in recent years tourniquets have clamped their way down into the zeitgeist but as we’ll discuss, there are other basic measures that should be known, understood, and practiced by the average rifleman so they have the skills to save the lives of their comrades or even themselves.

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Spike

@spikesguides

Dec 16, 2025

If you think night fighting is just ‘buy NVGs and you’re good,’ you’re setting yourself up for a bad surprise.

Night ops are discipline, navigation, ID, and control. Gear is secondary. 🧵

Squad Night Operations

While fighting during the day is something that is well documented, covered, and explained by not only myself but many other people, night fighting is often neglected. While many of the same tactics carry over, owning the night is much more than just wearing NODs or buying LAMs. There are counters to every tactic and not knowing how to respond to threats is what gets good men killed. In this piece, night fighting will be covered from both the perspective of units with NODs and units without them.

As usual, little disclaimer right here. THIS IS NOT ADVICE TO GO DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL. DO NOT BREAK THE LAW. DO NOT CONSIDER BREAKING THE LAW. I DO NOT SUPPORT ANY EXTREMIST ORGANIZATIONS OR MOVEMENTS. I DO NOT SUPPORT ANY INSURRECTIONIST MOVEMENTS. I DO NOT ADVOCATE FOR ANY EXTREMIST ORGANIZATIONS, MOVEMENTS, OR IDEAOLOGIES. PLEASE DON’T DRONE STRIKE ME.

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Spike

@spikesguides

Dec 16, 2025

If you think ‘bugging out’ means hiking all day and sleeping wherever you collapse, you’re missing a critical skill.

Patrol bases are how people actually operate when they need to stay hidden and functional. 🧵

Patrol Bases – An Introduction

When platoon sized elements or smaller (roughly under 50 personnel) need to temporarily stop while operating in the field, whether it be to rest, reorganize after an engagement, hide during a long reconnaissance mission, perform maintenance on equipment, or run a basic base for planning and executing their next operations, a Patrol Base (PB) is formed. The PB exists as a concealed and secure location for units to rest, resupply, and perform mission planning. The PB exists for less than 24 hours and the area is never reused by the same unit twice. The strength of these bases lies in their stealth and mobility. The unit is concealed and is never truly hunkered down, so they can leave at a moment’s notice.

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