Intro

Breaching ultimately means to create a gap and break through it. The purpose of this guide is to give you some tips to help you understand what your squad is doing and where you may fit in to the situation. ‘Breaching’ is something you are constantly doing in Squad whether you are scaling a wall, entering a house, destroying a stack of sandbags or clearing out the enemy in a fortress. Having a solid understanding of the process and context is paramount for Squad Leaders to become successful orchestrating their squad when breaching becomes a necessity. The situations you face will all be different, the variables involved are so vast that experience is the best trainer (practice through play).

Communicate

Communication during breaching is a vital component to a safe ending. There needs to be a balance between vital information and silence to hear enemy movement. Communication will be in local comms as the information which is being transmitted is only vital to those who are close to you.

From the beginning till the end of breaching a compound, you should be listening to enemy movement or actions. Reloading, crawling, bandaging, walking and many more actions can be heard and can be used to locate an enemy within a compound and give knowledge of what the enemy is doing. When you hear such actions, call these out in short callouts (‘Enemy reloading to the left’ or ‘Enemy throwing grenade!’). As you move in, call out which direction you are going to check and where you see or have seen enemies. Do not forget to call it out when you are throwing a grenade, this way an ally can cover you and allies are aware of the grenade going out. When moving in call out which sector you are holding so your allies can watch different corners. Again, callout enemies you see but cannot shoot. When inside it is important to know what sectors are clear and where the enemies are still located. Allies should not be triple checking clear corners, but instead they should focus on where the enemies could be located or coming from. While advancing through a compound, callout ‘building clear’ when you have finished clearing a building. When using a frag grenade to safely clear a building, make sure you communicate this to local allies who might want to run into the building and catch the enemy by surprise, but then run into your grenade. There can be casualties during the breaching progress, it is important to callout when you die, how you died and where you died from (‘I got killed by an enemy grenade from East’ or ‘Enemy in this building, I’m down’). These callouts are also in local.

Security

Before ‘going in’ ensure at least one person is covering from the outside, your point of entry (POE) can just as easily be used by the enemy so always ensure that the POE is manned/covered. The more security outside the more chance of trapping the enemy in the compound/building. Having security outside will also ensure that any windows or vantage points can be suppressed if needed. They can also create a distraction when the situation asks for it, for example: have an AR supressing to draw attention and block the sounds of movement and grenades going out.

Climbing

Being able to climb over walls and obstacles gives you more entry points or options when conducting a breach, especially when working as a team using synchronous actions. By climbing on top of the head of an ally you can climb even higher walls and thus create more entries. Do not forget that when you start climbing you cannot defend yourself until the animation is done, so use of smokes or covering fire is highly recommended.

Ladders

As climbing makes you vulnerable like mentioned above, using ladders avoids that problem. With ladders you can get over a wall or on a roof in a slow and secure manner with your gun raised and ready to engage. This allows you to enter faster and with more squadmates into a building, with smaller chance at casualties on your side. The only downside of ladders is that you need an FOB within 150 meters of the compound to be able to place them.

Explosives

Indirect fire is best achieved with explosives, they cover a wider area and can dispose multiple enemies within range. They also give a small window of opportunity by distracting the enemy as they scramble to avoid the shrapnel. A great chance to ‘get in’ and strike. The use of grenades, launchers, and mortars all are useful when clearing enemies and should not be overlooked. If you have a grenade in your equipment then always use it before entering a compound. It will not only damage or kill the enemies within, but also give you a short but instant smoke screen which can block the enemies’ view and give you a split second to sneak in.

Smoke

Smoke Grenades are an effective breaching tool, they can be used to: -Conceal your entry points; -Obscure parts of compounds, negating enemy sightlines; -Act as a diversion; -Disrupt enemies’ situational awareness and can cause panic.

Muzzle Awareness

It is important to keep track of your muzzle at all times, especially in CQB. Your weapon sticks out from your character and so make you visible around corners before you can even notice the enemies. Always keep your weapon pointed at the corner when going around it, this way you don't give the enemy that advantage. Weapons can also collide with structures which prevents them from shooting, so make sure to have some space between you and any object that can stop you from firing.

Pie Principle

The pie principle is used before and when entering a compound. It is systematically checking all sectors from right to left and/or left to right. This is done to minimize exposure to multiple threads at once. Turn this into a habit of doing and it will save your life.

Funnel of fire

A funnel of fire is extremely lethal and should not be underestimated. The funnel is the area that is covered by multiple enemies from different angles. For example: the entrance of a compound. The video that is linked below will explain it in further detail and will show ways to counter or avoid it.

 

When breaching

A breach usually starts with the call out “BREACH” when this happens it is vital that every squad member commits to it and pushes through. As you push through the entrance of a compound you want to keep moving and head off to the corners. Always try to keep the entrance clear so you don't block any allies from going in. The idea is to get multiple allies inside in the least amount of time. For a successful breach you need to dominate the area and you can't do that on your own.