Asymmetric III.

This is coolbert:

Conclusion!

Here with a give and take conversation with a combat arms veteran, that amount of gear and equipment as needed by the tunnel rat. Those Israeli troops at this very instant penetrating those Hamas tunnels with the objective of denial!

American tunnel rats from that Vietnam era quite often operating on an ad hoc basis, sans gear for the most part and sans gear specifically designed and intended for counter-tunnel warfare.

What gear do you need to do the job right? A discussion.

1. Uniform to include:

* Goggles.

* A coverall type battledress without any web gear or straps to get caught on obstructions but having lots of big, capacious, bellowing and voluminous pockets.

* Gas mask.

* Knee pads and gloves the palm of which is reinforced.

2. Weapons to include:

* Sidearm with reduced report, recoil and muzzle flash and firing a flechette round. Maybe the .45 Long Colt revolver that fires the .410 shotgun round.

* Trench knife.

* Grenades, lots of them, to include concussion, flash-bang, fragmentation, tear gas.

3. Lighting/illumination/visibility to include:

* White light source. A flashlight or flare. Flashlight possessing a dazzle capability if possible.

* Infra red passive and active.

* Low light level "Starlight device" with chemical light glow stick illuminator if needed.

* A miners type helmet with attached propane light.

4. A cave explorer [spelunker] type of device that determines your course, distance, level of inclination, etc. A device that can be used to MAP the inside of a tunnel complex.

5. Explosives too? C4 plastic, detonating cord, blasting caps and fuse.

In response from the combat arms veteran. Believe me, this is a man that knows his stuff.

* "Too much gear if you are thinking of Vietnam tunnel rats, where the connecting tunnels were tiny--had to crawl through.  They wore shorts, carried a flashlight and .45 or .38, sometimes a knife.  Not much else--grenades cost them their eardrums, as did bigger weapons. They liked to leave tear gas (powder) grenades behind.  That would make the tunnel unusable for months." 

* "In the Hamas tunnels? Different story--bigger, lots more gear to carry.  Then you could consider most or all of what you said, including night vision devices, infra-red light source, etc. Cut the power off (if it had any in the tunnel) and use the night devices to gain a great advantage"

* "Might leave the gas mask--our military has never found use for them since WWI, and they've always added useless weight and volume to an already overloaded soldier's gear . . . Only if it turns out the other side is using some kind of gas (lethal or incapacitating) should you waste space/weight with that device."

* "Instead of revolvers with their limited six round capacity and reloading issues, use the US .45 with silencer.  Lots of rounds, fast reload, hard hitting with a subsonic round "

* "Not too sure about the grenades! Weight again, limited to areas where you can hide behind something--can't throw them as far in a tunnel because of the ceiling, so you have to have cover when it goes off.  Except for the not-noisy 'dazzle things to blind the opponent." [a flash grenade without the bang]

* "The newer flashlights have a dazzle and extreme bright feature, so that might do"

* "I'd like the passive light devices, but remember that in a cave, there are no passive light sources (stars or moon or reflected, residual light), so they don't work so well, hence the need for infra red devices, or other thermal vision devices." [that is where you use a chemical glow stick]

* "I like the mapping device idea, but wonder what there is that doesn't link to a satellite GPS--which wouldn't work in a cave/tunnel."

* "Explosives--yes, if there are several of you in the group exploring the tunnel."

* "Water, if it's going to be a long tunnel as in Gaza." 

* "Medical kit if more than two of you going into the tunnel." 

* "Flex-cuffs if you expect to find someone and not kill them."

Grenades as suggested by myself are a bad idea! That blast underground will destroy the eardrums of the tunnel rat possibly incapacitating the troop. Should have been obvious.

Devoted readers to the blog have further recommendations? Let me hear from you.

coolbert.