THE GREAT ADVANTAGE OF USING COMBAT TRACKING TODAY.

All levels of Command, regardless of their size, have a fundamental requirement for first-hand, up-to-date information on enemy activity in order to counter it with the most appropriate measures and tactics.

In recent times, diverse and continually changing battlefield needs have renewed the interest in a wide range of Combat Tracking applications, the better to meet the demands of numerous mission types and operational tasks.

The ability to read the ground provides trackers with a large amount of timely information, that is also first-hand and accurate. Although technology is extremely important in today’s combat operations, neither electronic devices such as cameras, drones, robots, etc., nor even dogs, can provide information such as:

The enemy’s
• direction of travel,
• start line,
• movement speed,
• training state (e.g., regular soldiers or insurgents),
• timings (age of tracks),
• physical fitness,
• local knowledge,
• possible objectives,
• technical capabilities,
• numbers (strengths),
• support of the local population,
• tactical awareness,
• health state,
• heights / weights, or
• analyses of incident sites (overnight halts, ambush positions, etc).

The above elements constitute the type of information about the enemy that can be obtained by trackers. Combat Tracking provides information of immediate operational utility to those seeking the best solutions to fight the enemy.

Enemy personnel are human beings; they cannot fly. They move across the ground by walking and, whilst walking, they touch the ground and, as a result, they leave tracks and signs of passage.
All of these tracks and signs and all other disturbances affecting the terrain’s natural base-line can be found, interpreted and followed by soldiers trained in Combat Tracking.

Mantracking does not replace standard search procedures; it is an additional tool to supplement and complement those assets already in use, providing troops with an excellent means of acquiring information directly from the terrain on which they are deployed.

COMBAT TRACKING STANDARD COURSE

DURATION
15 days / 120 hours

METHODS
This course is taught using 15% theory and 85% practical exercises. Theory lectures are conducted in a classroom using PowerPoint. Practical exercises are held in the appropriate countryside near the military base or other designated area.

Our teaching methods have been developed and tested in numerous armed conflicts and wars on battlefields all around the world, including, most recently, Iraq and Afghanistan.

PRE-COURSE SKILL REQUIREMENTS
This course is restricted to military personnel.

SUBJECT HEADINGS (week 1)
Origins of mantracking
Modern applications
Mantracking tactics, techniques & procedures (TTP)
Combat tracking formations
Following the enemy
Sign discovery procedures
Rules of Combat mantracking
Offensive vs. Defensive Mantracking

SUBJECT HEADINGS (week 2)
Dynamics of a footstep
Identifying the enemy
Ageing track and sign
Night tracking
Lost spoor procedures
Pressure releases

SUBJECT HEADINGS (week 3)
Ground sign awareness (Mines and explosive devices)
Urban tracking
Tracking medium changes
Anti-tracking
Tracking and surveillance
Hasty Combat Tracking with Drones

This course can be conducted anywhere but, after a thorough analysis of the Unit’s specific needs, it can be adjusted and developed to provide custom-made training tailored to the organisation’s specific needs.

WHY USE MANTRACKING IN MODERN LAW-ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS?

Nowadays, police and law-enforcement agencies around the world need to be able to respond with flexibility and adaptability to all sorts of dangerous situations, ranging from petty crime to terrorism, kidnappings to human trafficking, missing persons, burglary or whatever. 

 

All of these situations require high levels of skill and knowledge from the police officers initially responding to the crime scene. Unfortunately, a lack of proper training sometimes means that officers are forced to rely only on their own personal experience and courage to deal with complex situations. Where, however, officers have received police/tactical Mantracking training, they may be able to use these skills to bridge the gap between the initial situation and its subsequent solution.

Although technological assets are fundamental for modern law-enforcement agencies, some types of information just cannot be obtained directly from technology, so, even today, the Human Factor remains a cornerstone of police tactics.

By using Police/Tactical Tracking procedures, officers can obtain further information such as:

  • Finding bodies in rural areas
  • Finding clandestine burial sites
  • Finding illegal immigration routes
  • Finding stolen goods caches
  • Locating satanic ritual sites
  • Finding kidnappers’s victims
  • Finding drug smuggling routes and caches
  • Identifying accessories to crimes

The ability to read the ground provides police and frontier patrol officers with a large amount of timely, first-hand, detailed and unprejudiced information.

Obviously there can be many variables but information derived from track and sign is real, not deduced, since it is collected from the very path taken by the fugitive(s). In addition, if the terrain allows it, law-enforcement trackers can work up profiles of fugitive criminals from a study of their walking dynamics. By analysing the six specific stride characteristics below, trackers will obtain a profile of the subject’s physiology:

  • Stride length
  • Straddle
  • Pitch Angle
  • Pressures
  • Rhythm
  • Balance

After studying just 3-4 successive strides, trackers can start to build up a very accurate analysis of the subject’s specific physiological state.

POLICE/TACTICAL TRACKING STANDARD COURSE

DURATION

10 days / 80 hours

METHODS

This course is taught using 15% theory and 85% practical exercises. Theory lectures are conducted in a classroom using PowerPoint. Practical exercises are held in the appropriate countryside or other designated area.

Our teaching methods have been developed and tested in numerous armed conflicts, police operations and manhunts for dangerous criminals all around the world.

PRE-COURSE SKILL REQUIREMENTS

This course is restricted to Law Enforcement and Security personnel.

SUBJECT HEADINGS (week 1)

Origins of mantracking

Modern applications

Mantracking tactics, techniques & procedures (TTP)

Combat tracking formations

Following criminals

Sign discovery procedures

Rules of tactical mantracking

Offensive vs. Defensive Mantracking

SUBJECT HEADINGS (week 2)

Dynamics of a footstep

Identifying the fugitive

Ageing track and sign

Night tracking

Lost spoor procedures

Pressure releases

Urban tracking

Tracking medium changes

This course can be conducted anywhere but, after a thorough analysis of the organisation’s specific needs, it can be modified and developed in order to provide custom-made training tailored to the agency’s specific needs.