PSD Convoy

Taking a page out of the Contractors book

Contents –

1.1 Introduction
1.2 The X
1.3 The Principle
1.4 PSD Vehicles and their Roles
1.5 Who goes where?
- Contact Behind
- Contact Left/Right
1.6 Other things to consider
1.7 Conclusion

1.1 Introduction
I’ve always been fascinated with Private Military Contractors (as my name
suggests) and there are some tactics and formations that they use in their
everyday work that you can use as well. The following is a short article that i have
put together to allow people to broaden how they use convoys and how they can
better their chances as a mobilized force while maintaining order, no one likes to
see a full on rout as soon as a vehicle is engaged.

Any questions or comments are always welcome; I hope you enjoy this article. I
apologise in advance for the poor diagrams.

1.2 The X
"The X" is a term used by PSD teams regarding the initial contact area, if you are
driving down a road and you're attacked the X would be that initial zone, the zone
which you’re taking the most fire. Getting out of the X is easier said than done and
PSD teams in real life train nonstop for that moment when they may find
themselves in a situation where they must put that training into practice to protect
their principle. The easiest way to attempt to get out of the X is through driving as
fast as you can in a direction anywhere but where the enemy is, I have seen many
players on vanilla BF2 as well as PR attempt this, but it rarely works.

1.3 Principle
The Principle is the main person or object that you have been tasked on providing
security for, this can be anything from a medic, a squad leader or even your teams
commander, these three roles and classes are the most important aspects of any
team playing Project Reality and because of this there needs to be a well trained
and well educated force to protect them.

1.4 PSD Vehicles and their Roles

On to the juicy stuff. There are 4 main types of PSD vehicles, these work together
to perform the function of protecting the principle effectively and minimizing the
amount of damage that can be dealt in a single ambush by hostile forces on the
convoy itself.

The first vehicle is the lead vehicle, everyone has seen a convoy and everyone
knows that the lead vehicle is there to seek out enemy targets, engage them and
keep enough fire on them to allow the whole convoy to get out of the X. What many
people don’t know is that the lead vehicle is one of the least important vehicles
within the convoy, most ambushes on convoys happen in the middle or the rear of
the convoy, the lead vehicles then have to do a U turn to take out the threat, this
takes time and hostile forces use this little time they have to put as much fire as
they can on the target itself. The lead vehicle is also there to guide the convoy, in
some respects that makes it the most important but personally I don’t believe
that.

The second vehicle in any convoy should be the Principle Vehicle. This vehicle can
be anything from an engineer jeep to a main battle tank, it is important to the
people protecting it which means it is valuable to the war effort. The principle
vehicles role is to just go with the flow really, the principle vehicle should take its
directions from the lead vehicle or the leader of the convoy itself, moving where it is
told, stopping when its told etc.

The third vehicle is the Counter Assault Team (CAT) Vehicle or the Maneuver
Vehicle is the most important vehicle in the convoy, usually something fast such as
the FAV or the Humvee its sole purpose is to put down as much fire on the enemy
as possible, moving into position to absorb any rounds fired at the principle and if
the need arises, to engage hostile targets at a closer distance, it is the only vehicle
in the convoy that should be fully laden with soldiers.

The last vehicle in the convoy is the Rear Vehicle, or Tail End Charlie. It is one of
the more important vehicles in the convoy and is there to both engage hostile
targets and to provide rear cover to the convoy, absorbing any rounds fired
towards the convoy from the rear while the CAT vehicle gets into position.

1.5 Who goes where?

When putting a convoy together there is no point putting the principle car at the
back, the CAT vehicle at the front and having the Lead and Rear vehicles halfway
down the road at the local Starbucks.

Below is a small diagram of what the convoy should look like as it moves out.

The red vehicle is the rear vehicle, tucked in behind the CAT vehicle in green. The
blue vehicle is the main principle car and is tucked in behind the purple point
vehicle. The arrow indicates the direction of travel.

The following diagrams show the movements that the convoy must make to ensure
the safety of the principal, from contact front, left, right and behind.

Contact Front
Having a contact appear in front of the convoy is one of the hardest things to
counter, especially if exposed to high caliber fire. You need to be able to think
quickly and react to the threat, the most logical thing to do is for the lead vehicle to
tell the other vehicles which direction they will be turning, left or right, then the cars
must be ready to get into the contact left or right formations as soon as they have
come out of the turn to put fire down upon the enemy.

Contact Behind
Having a contact behind the convoy is a lot easier to deal with; the CAT vehicle
peels back (by moving to the right and then slowing down to come level with the
rear vehicle) and provides additional fire support onto the enemy behind.

Contact Right and Contact LeftHaving a Contact Right/Left requires the CAT
vehicle to move into position as soon as fire starts coming down on the convoy, its
imperative to ensure the safety of the principle. The CAT vehicle must move to the
right/left of the principle car to ensure that no fire is brought down upon the
principle vehicle, after the CAT vehicle the rear vehicle then moves into the space
that the CAT vehicle was taking up. The gunners on the other three vehicles can
swing right/left and put fire down on the enemy until the whole convoy is off the X.

1.6 Other Things to Consider

Before setting out in a convoy you must always make a mental checklist –
Do I have drivers and gunners for each vehicle?
Is my principle a commander, in which case ill have to form an all round defense
when he/she wants to set down razor wire and such?
Is my CAT vehicle driver up to the job?
Are we likely to come up against heavy armour, in which case it may be an idea to
let the CAT vehicle peel off with a Heavy AT?

1.7 Conclusion
Using a PSD mindset when conducting some battlefield roles can be very
rewarding. I have tried to use a similar convoy tactic with my squad in our former
PR server with great effect, and I hope that you all have a rewarding gaming
experience through using it.