Quote:
Originally Posted by Tripper
Here's a top-o-the-head idea for target practice: What if one of the troopers in a squad was a designated RTO? Not that there's any special equipment involved, but the designated player is on the TS command channel, not the 1IC and 2IC. Orders from the platoon commanders are given to the RTO, who then informs the NCOs of the situation via squad channels.
This will lighten the commo load for NCOs, still keep the grunts' channels mostly clear, and perhaps make comms more efficient/less confusing.
Fire away!
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I can see several concerns with such a system:
1) Transmission of orders would be slowed down by a 'middle man'
2) Response time to orders would be increased due to #1
3) There is no capacity (unless developed via SOP) to have the section leader "take the radio" and start talking, to cut the middle man out, when time is of the essence. This is surmountable, of course.
4) Significant possibility of translation errors/miswording/etc
5) Necessity of having another leader-level player who is capable of listening to orders, picking out the important stuff, still doing his job as a squad member, and conveying (without misinterpretation) said orders to his section leader. Leader-level player capability is necessary in the RTO to try to minimize these concerns - even then, the other points are still major concerns.
6) Adds another point of failure all around insofar as orders go. You basically pull one person partway (or entirely) out of their combat responsibility (lessening combat power), then rely on them not dying to keep the information properly flowing.
This is not to say that it's not worth experimenting with - it certainly is. However, I think that the core problem is more likely to be a lack of experience in operating via the TS leader method, as opposed to a flaw in the system that would need resolution via the suggested RTO concept. I think you will get more 'bang for your buck' from trying to evolve as a leader and gain more experience with regards to TS usage and platoon-level comms than you will from trying to put an RTO SOP together.
There are some other things that could be said here regarding organization (beta's Canadian-style organization with squads in one big group, vs something like what you see in BASf/ST PLT where you have groups per fireteam and a group for the SL/PltHQ elements), but they're side issues and while interesting, they're not critical to the topic at hand.
