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Surviving Vehicle Ambush

Over 10% of all global terrorist incidents specifically target ‎Law Enforcement Officers (LEO)‬. LEO are targeted for practical and symbolic reasons by extremist organizations who openly incite terrorist action against officers. Maintain situation awareness and train to protect against threats like vehicle ambush. Semper in Via!

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Aaron Cunningham
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212 views3 pages

Surviving Vehicle Ambush

Over 10% of all global terrorist incidents specifically target ‎Law Enforcement Officers (LEO)‬. LEO are targeted for practical and symbolic reasons by extremist organizations who openly incite terrorist action against officers. Maintain situation awareness and train to protect against threats like vehicle ambush. Semper in Via!

Uploaded by

Aaron Cunningham
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Surviving Vehicle Ambush

Our experience in urban environments shows that many assaults occur in and around vehicles and
roadways. Roadways reduce visibility, channel and limit maneuverability and make vehicle
movement predictable, patterned, and easy to interdict for an adversary. The USDOJ-FBI study Law
Enforcement Killed and Assaulted (2004-2013) documents 111 ambushed officers many of which
involve vehicle related circumstances.

Hard offensive driving skills that enable driving away from a threat rapidly will increase survivability.
You must also be prepared to use your vehicle as an weapon under exigent circumstances. Training
these driving techniques and decision-making skills for driving is essential to operating in hostile
urban environments. When hard training is not available, the table-top evaluation of vehicle-based
threat scenarios develops judgment and courses of action for different situations.

If an adversary chooses to target you on a mobile route, your attackers will very well plan a vehicle
ambush to immobilize, breach, and get to the targeted victim. Organized vehicle ambushes, as seen
in Mexico, will often have the same structure or sequence of actions:
Stop the Vehicle in Kill Zone
Control the Driver.
Occupy Positions of Domination.
Establish Interlocking Fires and Cross-Cover
Remove Driver and Target(s) from Vehicle
Therefore, our priorities for survival are as follows:
1. Maintain superior situational awareness, third party awareness and practice vehicle-based
surveillance detection and anti-surveillance methods: Varying vehicle speeds, lane switching, and
rotating vehicle use from a pool, if possible. Always watch for use of PTT radios and evidence of
hostile communication.
2. Drive rapidly away from the attack to prevent immobilization.
Recognize opportunities to drive through or over obstacles that do not threaten to disable the
vehicle. Keep windows up but cracked to hear, and doors locked. Seat belts are restraints: Use them
when moving, unbuckle when stationary. Repeat: Drive rapidly away from the attack to prevent
immobilization.
3. Train evacuation drills in reaction to a vehicle breach attempt, when immobilized. Vehicles
disabled in a kill zone must obscure vision with smoke, evacuate, seek cover, and return fire.
4. Once evacuated, use force to break contact, escape, and evade. Move rapidly away from the
location of attack in a direction perpendicular to your original route.
5. If mired in a kill zone, move directly to contact with the ambushing force and reduce the threat.
Follow by breaking contact with fire and movement until the adversary can no longer target you.

Other hard skills and training considerations involve the studied use of cover, concealment, and
barricade when in and around vehicles. Know and thoroughly understand the effects of shooting
through glass and other intermediate barriers. Always expect the unexpected and be
prepared. Semper In Via!
About the Author: Aaron Cunningham is the acting President of the International Tactical Training
Association (ITTA)

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