Military

The below-ground type shelter reduces the midday heat as much as 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Building it, however, requires more time and effort than building other types of shelters. During the day, your physical effort will make you sweat more, increasing dehydration. Thus, you should wait until the cool of the night to make it. To make this shelter:

• Find a low spot or depression between dunes or rocks. If necessary, dig a trench 18 to 24 inches (45 to 60 centimeters) deep and long enough and wide enough for you to lie down comfortably.
• Pile the sand you take from the trench around three sides to form a mound.
• Dig out more sand on the open end of the trench so you can get in and out of your shelter easily.
• Cover the trench with material, such as Parachute, poncho, or canvas.
• Secure the material in place using sand, rocks, or other weights.

If you have extra material, you can further decrease the midday temperature in the trench by securing the material 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 centimeters) above the other cover. This layering of material will reduce the inside temperature 20 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Since your needs are immediate, you would eliminate shine on vehicles and equipment by using matte camouflage paint, covered if necessary by mud or a thin mixture of grease and sand. You may cover vehicle windshields with cloth, thin enough to allow vision through it.

While you may be able to use engineers and their equipment, it would take longer. When dug-in positions are prepared for tracked vehicles, use irregular-shaped scoops around two meters deep in the center and three times the vehicle width in approximate diameter. These more closely resemble natural depressions in the desert floor. If the ground is extremely rocky and engineer assistance is not available, you may need to build sangars for dismounted infantry. Engineers may have cranes and winches, but you rarely achieve total concealment.

A large-area smoke screen is normally preplanned with prestocking of ammunition, and fired by field artillery or mortars. Smoke does not provide total protection or even blind radar. It only degrades the enemy's close observation capabilities. Smoke does not affect radar significantly. Enemy radar and thermal imagery can see troops and aircraft operating behind smoke. Turbulent air conditions at mid-day temperatures may cause smoke to pillar and break up rapidly. The best conditions for a deliberate screen is a steady wind around five knots across the target in the lower temperatures of morning and evening. A tank fires local smoke when caught in the open by enemy fire, not when already hidden. It may give away your position. Sometimes it indicates to an overwatch element that the enemy is firing. The tank commander uses smoke to conceal his movement to a hull down position while overwatch vehicles engage the enemy. You don't want to overuse local smoke.

Stationary aircraft take time to conceal. Aircraft have a considerable heat signature, and must be readily accessible for maintenance. Since the enemy will locate your artillery and commit counter-battery fire, you must practice timely movement and dispersion. When you bring effective fire, you could automatically disperse your firing battery. You cannot place "mushroom" pole spreaders above radar. The ADA HAWK CW radar, for example, is degraded by use of the LWCSS. Concealing the HAWK is difficult since it must be free of camouflage. Also, all ADA weapons must maintain a high state of readiness. Air defense units must have to rely on digging-in. Engineer activity often precedes operations, so units need to conceal such work from enemy surveillance. Guidelines include: Employ the minimum number of equipment and personnel, and keep equipment not in use well away from the site, dispersed, and concealed.

Gun tube bend ("droop") more common in temperate climates, is caused by temperature variations between one side of a tube and the other, such as a cold wind on a hot tube. It totally distorts the accuracy of a long-barrel, direct-fire weapon such as the 105-mm tank cannon. In the desert, it is usually in the vertical plane due to radiant heat on top of the tube while the lower side is in the shade. This produces a downward bend that causes rounds to fall short of the target. You may need to resight the bore as a result of tube bend. Working parts of weapons must have the absolute minimum amount of lubrication. You may even prefer to have them totally dry, as any damage caused during firing will be less than that produced by the sand/oil abrasive paste. Artillery ammunition is consumed in greater quantities than would normally be expected, because of the expansive open terrain upon which an engagement would probably occur. You should keep optics covered with some type of plastic wrap until needed. The major threat to optics is wind blown sand, which causes pitting and scratching. Optics must be stored in dehydrated conditions using hydroscopic material. Keep free air circulate around those in use.

Factors such as lack of acclimatization, overweight, dehydration, alcoholic excess, lack of sleep, old age, and poor health will lower a person's resistance to climatic stress. A high standard of discipline is essential, as an individual's single lapse may cause serious damage to his unit or to himself. Soldiers with good leaders are more apt to accept heavy physical exertion and uncomfortable conditions. Soldiers must stay healthy and physically fit. They must have adequate, tasty, and regular food, and be allowed due periods of rest and sleep. Allow approximately two weeks for acclimatization, with progressive degrees of heat exposure and physical exertion. Although this strengthens heat resistance, there is no such thing as total protection against the debilitating effects of heat. If this happens, limit heavy activity to cooler hours and allow soldiers to rest more frequently than normal. You were warned that sandstorms can be killers in the desert! Fast, windblown sand can be extremely painful on bare skin, so this is one reason why people must always be fully clothed. You must carry pieces of cloth or bandannas to help cover your face and neck during sandstorms. A loss of two quarts of body fluid (2.5 percent of body weight) decreases efficiency by 25 percent. A loss of fluid equal to 15 percent of body weight is usually fatal.

Maintain the proper standards of personal hygiene, not only as a deterrent to disease but as a reinforcement to discipline and morale. Insist upon daily shaving and bathing if water is available. Use electric razors, adapted to run from a vehicle power source, instead of "wet shaves." It is especially important to clean the areas of your body that sweat heavily. Change your underwear frequently and use foot powder often. A laundry and bath point, or sufficient water may not be available. Nevertheless, troops can clean themselves with sponge baths, solution-impregnated pads, a damp rag, or even a dry, clean cloth.

As you sweat more, extra salt must be taken under medical direction. Too much salt, however may cause increased thirst, a feeling of sickness, and can be dangerous. The importance of wearing eye protection in the desert cannot be overstressed. Some people prefer sunglasses, others like goggles. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but both keep out direct and reflected sunlight and reduce the numbing effect of cold winter winds. Temperatures and night operations can lead to sleep deprivation, which can impact mental health, performance, and accidental injury and death.

Desert tactics require dispersion, but the environment is likely to degrade transmission ranges. This degradation is most likely to occur in the hottest part of the day. If you start to lose contact, especially if noon is approaching, you must have alternate ways to communicate.

Track vehicles are best-suited for desert operations. Wheel vehicles may be acceptable since they go many places that track vehicles can go; however, their much lower average speed in poor terrain may be unacceptable during some operations. Temperature gauges will read between 10 to 20 degrees hotter than normal. Don't panic if your average operating temperature is 180 degrees, and when operating your vehicle, the gauge shows 200 degrees. Monitor the gauge. If the temperature keeps rising, put the vehicle in neutral and "rev" the engine up to approximately 1,200 RPMs until the gauge drops back down. Operators should not remove hood side panels from engine compartments while the engine is running since this will cause turbulence, leading to ineffective cooling.

A U.S. Dodge truck performs acceptable off road with a skilled driver. Desert terrain will shorten tire life, and a field training exercise can have a flat-tire rate of 40 percent. Batteries do not hold their charge efficiently in intense heat. You need to carry extra distilled water. You must keep air vents clean or the battery may explode. Set voltage regulators low, and increase your supplies of dry batteries. Sand and dirt can easily accumulate in hull bottoms of armored vehicles. Over 200 pounds of dirt has been known to accumulate in a helicopter fuselage. Filters require frequent checking in the desert.

If you convince a soldier that he is capable of surviving in the desert environment, you will do more than almost any other aspect of training to strengthen his self-confidence, and thus his morale. Wells unlikely will be poisoned, although some wells in the North African desert have strong concentrations of mineral salts that may lead to intestinal irritation or illness. Survival navigation is not to be confused with celestial navigation, which is taught to specialists for unit navigation. Water is most important in survival, but you should not discard your personal weapon or any navigational equipment except in the most extreme circumstances.

Your unit surgeon can provide you with valuable advice on operations in desert environments. Time factors are increased, activity is limited, and heat illness needs to be monitored when using protective clothing and masks in the desert, but your NBC NCO needs to emphasize the value of discomfort over being dead. An important aspect of tactical deception is to prevent the enemy from ever knowing that he has been deceived by practicing security measures before, during, and after a deception operation. Although radio communication is important in the desert, and you can expect the enemy to employ ECM, there are no special electronic counter measures (ECCM) peculiar to desert operations. If you suspect jamming, try to work through it without mentioning on the air that a transmitter may be inadvertently blocking the net with a "hot microphone."

You should never assume air superiority in field training. You should routinely take every advantage of cover and concealment when stopped for any period of time. If you don't dig in, at least disperse, so you don't make yourself a nice cluster target. You must maintain march discipline during tactical road marches over open terrain. This means maintaining irregular spacing in convoy, and sufficient distances between vehicles to preclude "dust blindness." You must keep in mind considerations peculiar to desert operations. You may have major inaccuracies of initial rounds because the target location is easily misjudged by heat haze or mirages, or the gun or target may be obscured by sand, dust or smoke.