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Step 5 – Determine Resources

DEUCE -Deployable Universal Combat Earthmover, "a valuable resource"

As we are all painfully aware, resources are finite. This is certainly the case in the area of obstacle emplacement. Within any unit there is a limited amount of obstacle materials, equipment to emplace these materials, Soldiers to emplace these materials or run the equipment, and time. In determining your resources there are two parts. First, you must identify what you have physically available to emplace obstacles. Most of this work was done during your mission analysis when you began to understand yourself. Second, you must determine what your resources are capable of achieving in terms of emplacing obstacles. Once again, smart people have done calculations for our use. Use these numbers as a start point and make changes based on your personnel situation.

Below we address these most critical resources.

1. Engineer Assets. Obviously, engineer assets are vital in constructing obstacles. They are of course experts in emplacing obstacles and are equipped with specially developed resources to emplace obstacles. Engineer vehicles can be used to lay mines, dig tank ditches, emplace pickets and wire, etc…. Because of this, they are huge time-savors and enable you to utilize your other Soldiers in other areas. There are many tables you can use to determine what these assets are capable of accomplishing. Below is an example of the “science” of obstacle emplacement from years past. Do not worry about what it all means! The point is that a great deal of the serious number crunching has been done and is available.

LEGEND:
BTH (blade team hour). One blade team working for one hour. A blade team consists of two engineer blades (two dozers, two ACEs, or one ACE and one dozer). One vehicle digs (cutter) while the other spreads the spoil (striker). A dozer-ACE blade team uses the dozer BTH.
SEEH (SEE hour). One SEE working for one hour.
PH (platoon hour). One platoon (3 squads) working for one hour.
SH (squad hour). One squad working for one hour.

2. Soldiers Available to Emplace Obstacles. Your engineers can only do so much on the battlefield. Thus, units must use other Soldiers (predominately Infantryman) to assist in obstacle emplacement. These Soldiers can string wire, pound in pickets, and even emplace and arm certain mines (not the best duty!). Good leaders know how to best utilize these Soldiers in constructing obstacles. More importantly, they know where the burn-out point is for these Soldiers. Make them do too much and they will not be physically or mentally ready when you need them.

3. Soldiers Available to Secure Obstacles. One of the overlooked aspects of obstacle emplacement is that there must be security of the obstacles during their construction. Units are highly susceptible to enemy attack while they are emplacing obstacles. Thus, forces must be designated to pull security during this construction. Because of this you must have sufficient forces to pull this security. If you do not have the necessary forces to pull security; this is a factor in determining the number of obstacles you can emplace.

4. Materials Available. You must calculate what you physically have on hand in terms of the materials needed to emplace obstacles. This includes things such as mines, pickets, wire etc… Some of these items may be already forward, while others may be located in the rear area and need to be transported. It is a good idea to develop a table which shows all your materials and then different columns highlighting when they will arrive for emplacement. For example, under pickets you show what is forward now, what can be here in 4 hours, 6 hours, etc …

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