A living knowledge base of special operations doctrine, planning cycles, reconnaissance tradecraft, targeting logic, influence methods, and protection TTPs. Built from open US Army/Joint publications and original tradecraft digests where open pubs are thin. Structured for specialists. Graph-linked. Updated continuously.
What this is
Tactics notes is the operational twin of Intelligence notes.
| Garden | Job |
|---|---|
| Intelligence notes | Actors, crises, systems, and strategic concepts |
| Tactics notes (here) | Planning, TTPs, and fieldcraft that turn intent into effects |
Both live under Asymmetric Measures. This tree is the measures layer: doctrine digests and field concepts, not full-manual republication, and not platform series (those sit under content).
How to use it
- Enter by problem (plan a mission, develop a target, detect surveillance, frame a civil environment).
- Open the matching section below.
- Follow wikilinks into frameworks, activities, and procedures.
- Trace back to pubs via
sourcefrontmatter and Doctrine Sources.
Every concept note carries: definition, doctrinal framework, mechanics, application, related concepts, and failure modes. Offense and defense are both in scope; open doctrine teaches both.
Knowledge base
The vault documents command philosophy, planning processes, reconnaissance, targeting, special operations activities, influence, intelligence support, protection, civil affairs, sustainment, applied domains, and field procedures across thirteen interlinked sections. Sections 01 to 09 are doctrine. Section 10 translates it into practice. Sections 11 to 13 execute and cite it.
Mission command, troop leading procedures, detachment mission planning, mission variables.
02 Reconnaissance & Surveillance
Urban and non-urban reconnaissance, pattern of life, special reconnaissance tradecraft.
Center of gravity, CARVER, effects selection, and assessment logic.
04 Special Operations Activities
ARSOF core activities: UW, FID, SR, DA, contingency and stability tasks.
Military information support, military deception, and information operations.
Analytic frameworks (PMESII-PT, ASCOPE), IPOE, collection, network analysis.
07 Protection & Counter-Surveillance
Surveillance detection, counter-surveillance, and force protection for small elements.
08 Civil Affairs & Human Terrain
Civil affairs operations, civil knowledge, and civil network engagement.
Special operations sustainment and conventional force–SOF integration.
Crosswalks that translate sections 01 to 09 into professional practice: executive protection, protective intelligence, surveillance operations, corporate counterintelligence, OSINT, HUMINT, SIGINT, MISO and PSYOPS, cognitive warfare, cognitive security, cyber.
One-page executable cards cut from stable concept notes.
Doctrinal contributors, theorists, and key works that shape the corpus.
Cited publications, reading order, and the private doctrine archive map.
Start here
| If you want… | Open |
|---|---|
| Command philosophy and decentralized execution | Mission Command |
| Frame any tactical problem | METT-TC |
| Detachment-level planning cycle | Detachment Mission Planning |
| Leader sequence under time pressure | Troop Leading Procedures |
| See in a city without becoming the show | Urban Reconnaissance |
| Pick targets systematically | CARVER Matrix |
| Source of power and vulnerability chain | Center of Gravity |
| Detect hostile observation | Surveillance Detection |
| Map of what SF-type units train to do | Special Forces Core Activities |
| Unconventional warfare vs FID | Unconventional Warfare, Foreign Internal Defense |
| Intelligence preparation cycle | IPOE Process |
| Operational environment variables | PMESII-PT |
| Influence process (MISO) | Military Information Support Operations |
| Protect a person from a planning attacker | 101 Executive Protection, 102 Protective Intelligence |
| Protect an organization from hostile collection | 104 Corporate Counterintelligence |
| Collection disciplines (open, human, spectrum) | 105 OSINT Practice, 106 HUMINT Practice, 107 SIGINT Practice |
| Defend your own judgment against manipulation | 110 Cognitive Security |
| See the whole translation layer | 10 Applied Domains |
Voice and rules
- Open sources only on this tree (Army/Joint public doctrine, original tradecraft notes, open analytic frameworks).
- Distill manuals into teachable notes. Do not paste entire pubs into the garden.
- Wikilink aggressively. Graph navigation is the product.
- One knowledge base, operational register. No civilian-transfer lectures, no ethics-reminder blocks. Translation to professional practice lives in 10 Applied Domains as mechanics and scale, not as permission sermons.
- No emojis, no em dashes. For note anatomy, see Tactics Notes Conventions.