What are conventional tactical signs? Why are they needed? In the article we will answer these questions and not only. Tactical conventional signs are called graphic images used to designate on military maps, position patterns, actions and plans of their army and enemy, the deployment of defensive structures, military equipment, communication lines, headquarters, barriers, airfields, rear institutions and other things.
Plan
Tactical marks are known to be mapped. Today, organizing battalion combat operations and leading them during the battle, it is difficult for the commander to work on the ground without it.
A map with a combat (operational) situation, used by the chief (commander) in the process of command and control, is called his working map. It is one of the basic military documents, with the help of which military leaders conduct military operations.
Each commander should always work on a prepared chart, because then the tasks can be solved very quickly. A correctly made work card facilitates the work of the military in a combat situation. By the way, such a document can be used for a very long time.
Relative Symbols
Every commander must know tactical marks. The situation on the work card is a combination of symbols, inscriptions and abbreviations.
Conventional tactical signs and attributes displayed using them are very important in command and control of troops, since they reproduce objective reality, that is, the combat situation. With the help of them you can see the nature of the actions, the deployment of battalions (areal sizes), the amount of means and forces, the purpose of maneuvers and methods for achieving them.
Therefore, when working with a map, it is necessary to remember that behind each conditional symbol lies a person, the fighting vehicles of his army and the enemy.
Army language
Tactical marks are a peculiar language of the army, legitimized by manuals and combat manuals. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly observe the uniqueness of their understanding, the clarity of application. The generally accepted system of these symbols is constantly evolving and changing. This is a natural phenomenon associated with the evolution of military equipment and methods of warfare by units and units of all types of armed forces.
Tactical signs should be simple and clear. They are obliged to provide the possibility of using technical means to accelerate the mapping of the situation. In addition, they should not have different content, they can not be interpreted in many ways.
Marking
How are military tactical signs mapped? Linear semi-closed and closed symbols (the position of troops, the boundaries of the positions of false areas, borders for various purposes, etc.) are drawn on the plan, observing the scale. In view of this, they are often referred to as conventional scale signs.
Curly symbols of regular geometric shape (individual tanks), as well as some conventional composite signs consisting of textures and lines (communications, command posts, some engineering structures and facilities, launchers, and so on), which are point targets, are called off-scale , that is, they are drawn on the map without respecting the size.
Point targets marked with similar symbols on the diagram are drawn so that the center of the sign is located at the point where the object is located on the territory. The coordinates of this item when indicating goals or orienting on the map should be provided in the center of the mark.
The command post is drawn in such a way that a straight vertical line, continuing one of the sides of the geometric configuration, abuts with its lower end at the point of the region where the control post is located. The tactical sign “Halt” looks the same - it is drawn on the route of movement of the troops indicating the distance from the starting line.
It should be remembered that when moving or advancing to the west (or when defending with the front, to the west), the KP symbol will be located to the right of the vertical line indicating its location, and vice versa.
Applying Decor
The procedure for depicting on a map or other graphic document a special or tactical situation is called “drawing a situation”, and a complex of tactical conditional symbols is called “tactical conditions”.
A complete drawing of the situation about the enemy looks like this:
- infantry, tank, motorized infantry, artillery units with details of guns, platoons;
- the deployment of weapons of mass destruction with detail to a rocket launcher, a separate gun;
- radiation state in the amount necessary for action.
Drawing conditions about the troops:
- goals set by the senior manager;
- the position of battalions with details is two degrees lower than their own level (for example, the regiment commander draws the symbols of companies and battalions).
The following colors are used to outline the situation:
- basic - blue, red, black;
- auxiliary - green, brown, yellow.
The use of other colors, as well as shades of basic or complementary colors, is not permitted.
Compliance with the rules
The tactical marks of the RF Armed Forces are of interest to many people. In order to master the art of maintaining a work card, it is necessary to observe the accepted conditional abbreviations, inscriptions and designations. They are used to speed up the application of the situation on the plan and create combat documents.
It is important to know these abbreviations and apply them correctly, since often a misspelled letter fundamentally changes the meaning of a tag and can distort data. For example, the briefing provides for abbreviations: T - tank company and TP - tactical missile.
If, however, concise signs not prepared by edification and charters are used, their significance should be explained on the margins of the document or in the legend to it.
Topographic signs
Every soldier must know the tactical marks of the Russian Federation. Studying the territory on the map, it is simultaneously considered as if in two plans:
- They imagine the features and appearance of the Earth’s surface itself according to its horizontal pattern.
- Find out the presence and nature of the area located on it.
These objects are drawn on the schemes with conventional topographic symbols. All local objects depicted on topographic maps are divided into such basic groups, each of which has its own system of relational marks:
- settlements;
- soil and vegetation;
- hydrography;
- local separate landmarks;
- socio-cultural, industrial and agricultural facilities;
- road network;
- administrative fences and borders.
Relative characters adopted for different objects of the territory are indicated in special tables, which are typical. They are mandatory for all departments and ministries of the Russian Federation that produce topographic maps. For each homogeneous class of local objects (for example, for roads, bridges, settlements), a common symbol is established that defines the kind of object.
If this class of neighboring objects has several standard versions, then to display them, the base symbol is partially supplemented or modified.
Types of Relational Symbols
The tactical marks of the Russian Armed Forces according to their purpose and properties are divided into the following types:
- large-scale;
- explanatory;
- off-scale.
Large scale signs
So, you already know what the classification of tactical conventional signs is. Outline (scale) conditional symbols are used to mark local objects, the sizes of which can be determined on the map. For example, the area of ​​a swamp, settlement, forest.
Each relational scale symbol is made up of a contour - the boundary of the area of ​​a given object, and marks that fill it with uniform marks in their drawing, called fill symbols.
All contours on the map are drawn exactly to the scale, preserving their similarity and orientation to the actual real silhouettes on the territory. They are dotted if they do not coincide with other lines on the terrain (roads, ditches, fences), which are drawn with other signs.
Scale Signs
What are the main tactical signs, we have already figured out. And what are off-scale conditional symbols? These are the signs needed to outline local small objects that are not embodied in the scale of the map, isolated elements, wells, houses, and so on. When playing such an object on a scale, there would be a dot on the map.
A relational off-scale symbol includes this, as it were, leading point, accurately conveying the position of the object, and its essence indicates its essence.
Such a primary point is:
- characters with a right angle at the base - at the top of the corner;
- labels of a symmetrical shape (asterisk, square, circle, rectangle) - in the center of the picture;
- characters in the shape of a figure with a wide basis - in the center of the basis;
- characters that are a combination of multiple images are in the center of the bottom image.
These leading points are used for accurate measurements on a map of distances between objects and when extending their coordinates.
Map measurement
Relative conditional labels include symbols of roads, streams and other local linear objects, in which only the length is expressed in scale (the width on the map cannot be measured). Their exact placement on the document is guessed by the middle (longitudinal axis) of the sign. It must be remembered that local small objects (freestanding objects, trees, wells, and so on) are applied with extra-large-scale labels, and more extensive (rivers, settlements, and so on) - depending on the chart range, with extra-scale and outline symbols.
Extra-large labels cannot indicate the size of objects or the area they occupy, so it is impossible, for example, to measure the width of a bridge on a map.
Interpretative characters
Relative explanatory signs are used to show varieties of objects and their additional characteristics. For example, the arrow on the river shows the direction of the current, the figure of a deciduous or coniferous tree inside the forest outline is the dominant tree species in it, and so on.
Identification marks for military vehicles
The tactical mark in technology plays a very large role. To distinguish their military vehicles and identify their affiliation with the unit, unit, they are depicted conventional numbers and identification symbols.
The tactical mark of a unit (compound) is a geometric figure drawn in the form of a square, circle, rectangle, triangle, rhombus and so on. The number of variants of these signs needed to be increased. Therefore, today it is allowed to draw lines inside them in different directions, letters, numbers, drawings of trees and their leaves. Sometimes one part of the label is simply painted over. Such signs of the unit (compound) are appointed by the senior chief and are periodically changed.
Conditional numbers are a three-digit number. For a certain period, the commander of the formation of each military unit allocates a couple of hundred numbers. For example, 200-288 or 700-555. The commander of a military unit establishes the numbering order of military vehicles. In this case, for different techniques, the repetition of the same numbers is allowed.
Drawing marks on equipment
The tactical identification mark is drawn on the left and right sides of the car (sides of the tower) in front of the relational number. Due to the presence of open areas of the sides (towers), it is allowed to apply it in the direction of the military vehicle in front of the conditional number.
In summer, these marks are applied with white paint, and in winter or during operations in the desert, when the military equipment has a masking color, black (red).
The numbers of the conditional number are drawn with a height of 20-40 cm, depending on the design qualities of the military equipment. Their width is two-thirds of the height. The parameters of the tactical symbol must be at least two-thirds of the height of the digits of the relational number, but not more than them. The thickness of the lines of these marks is equal to one sixth of their height.
Practice
In areas where real divisions existed and where exercises were held, tactical recognition symbols were assigned, which in accordance with the Charter were geometric figures. Each unit was assigned one specific sign, inside which numbers, letters, dots, sectors, lines indicating a separate battalion of a division, regiment were applied.
Although the regulation did not prohibit drawing leaves inside the symbols, in practice this did not occur. After the exercises, these images remained on technology, turning for soldiers into permanent identification marks. Most often they served for several years from doctrine to doctrine.
The charter obliged to depict the number on both sides of the tower (on two sides) and on its rear (rear of the car). But most often it was applied only to the so-called "firing machines", which were used for training in training firing. This is due to the fact that it is difficult for the maneuver leader without such a number to find out where which car is from the command tower.
But already during the Afghan war, it was necessary to remove not only the impudent symbols of the Guard, Special Forces, but also ordinary signs from the armor. In the Chechen war, even on planes and helicopters painted over numbers. Colored bright spots unmask the technique and help the enemy recognize, track down and focus fire on it.