Training - Convoys: Defensive Driving Techniques
Defensive driving techniques for a guerrilla convoy (2-6 vehicles, 4-12 members) focus on minimizing exposure to threats, maintaining mobility, and ensuring survival in high-risk environments.
These techniques, tailored to civilian vehicles and limited resources, emphasize evasion over engagement, with specific approaches for evasive maneuvers, speed control, and night driving to enhance stealth and adaptability.
Evasive Maneuvers
Evasive maneuvers are deliberate actions to avoid threats like ambushes, pursuits, or obstacles, prioritizing rapid escape to preserve the convoy. They require drivers to react quickly while maintaining vehicle control, critical for guerrilla convoys lacking armor or firepower.
These maneuvers leverage the agility of civilian vehicles (e.g., SUVs, pickups) to outmaneuver threats, aligning with guerrilla tactics of evasion and speed.
J-Turn
A 180-degree turn to reverse direction and escape an ambush or roadblock. The driver slows, turns sharply, and accelerates backward, then spins to face the opposite direction.
Use Case: Lead vehicle encounters a hostile checkpoint, performs a J-turn to retreat to an alternate route.
PIT Maneuver (Precision Immobilization Technique)
Used to disable a pursuing vehicle by nudging its rear quarter, causing it to spin out. Requires skill to avoid crashing the convoy vehicle.
Use Case: A hostile truck pursues the rear vehicle; the rear driver executes a PIT to disable the pursuer, allowing the convoy to escape.
Ramming Obstacles
In extreme cases, the lead vehicle may ram lightweight barriers (e.g., wooden barricades) to clear a path, used only when bypass routes are unavailable.
Use Case: A makeshift roadblock of crates blocks a narrow road; the lead SUV rams through to maintain momentum.
Speed Control
Speed control balances haste with vehicle stability to navigate varied terrain and threats. It ensures the convoy moves quickly through danger zones while avoiding accidents or detection, critical for small teams reliant on mobility.
Proper speed control minimizes time in kill zones while ensuring drivers can react to sudden threats, supporting the guerrilla principle of rapid, unpredictable movement.
Open Terrain
Maintain higher speeds (e.g., 50-70 mph on highways) to reduce exposure to long-range threats (e.g., snipers), but adjust for vehicle handling and road conditions.
Example: Accelerate through an open field to escape a distant ambush, keeping 50-meter spacing to maintain formation.
Dense Terrain
Reduce speed (e.g., 20-40 mph in urban areas) to navigate obstacles (e.g., debris, tight corners) and maintain control during potential ambushes.
Example: Slow to 25 mph in a city to avoid a suspicious pile of rubble that could hide an IED.
Dynamic Adjustment
Vary speed unpredictably to confuse pursuers or surveillance, such as slowing briefly then accelerating to break line-of-sight.
Example: Alternate between 40 and 60 mph on a rural road to disrupt a trailing vehicle’s tracking.
Night Driving
Night driving enhances stealth by reducing visibility to enemies but increases risks of navigation errors or detection via lights. It requires minimal lighting and, if available, night vision to maintain a low profile while ensuring safety.
Night driving aligns with guerrilla tactics of low profile and evasion, leveraging darkness to avoid surveillance or ambushes in a SHTF scenario, while careful light management prevents betrayal of position.
Minimal Lighting
Use low beams or parking lights to reduce detection, or drive with lights off if terrain allows (e.g., moonlight, known roads). Blackout tape on headlights can narrow light spread.
Example: Cover headlights with slitted tape to limit light emission while navigating a forested trail.
Night Vision (if any)
Use basic night vision goggles (e.g., consumer-grade monoculars) for the lead driver to spot obstacles or threats without lights.
Example: Lead driver uses night vision to detect a roadblock 200 meters ahead, signaling the convoy to halt.
Signal Discipline
Use infrared signals or brief light flashes (e.g., one-second taillight pulse) instead of constant lights to communicate, avoiding enemy detection.
Example: Rear vehicle flashes taillights twice to signal “clear” after passing a danger area.
These defensive driving techniques ensure a guerrilla convoy can navigate threats effectively, using agility and stealth to compensate for limited resources.