The leader of an enemy or neutral nation is not going to be interested in the details of a corporal’s flanking attack on a bunker but he may be very interested to hear that a couple of divisions are being moved from one country to another. Short-term instructions between elements of small units cannot generally be intercepted and acted on by the enemy owing to lack of time unless the situation is very unusual. An exception might be the order to advance on a village in a counter-insurgency operation where the enemy have a local listening post.

There are two things which work in favour of radio security. The first is that very often our enemy speaks a different language to us so they cannot easily understand what we are saying. This means that very often the interception has to be run past a more senior figure in their organization and this delays the passage of useful information between them. This cuts both ways though.

The second is that we can use codes. Simple things like allotting random names to positions and units can make it quite difficult for an outsider, who may not use the same language, to make sense of what is going on. Of course, you will go to more trouble encoding more important information and information which has a longer useful life.

   Radio jamming: It is quite simple, in certain circumstances, for one side in a conflict to block everyone’s radio communications but this is not often done. The reason is that to maintain a state where no one can use a radio – generally by a type of broadband transmission – requires a powerful transmitter on the ground, at sea or in the air. This transmitter is a prime and easy target for the enemy and so you must control the area where it operates. If you control the area – land, sea or sky – then you are the dominant power and will generally suffer more from the obstruction of communications than the enemy does.

   Radio tips: There is a lot to know about radio and I can only give you an outline here to get you thinking. There are, however, one or two general rules you can follow in order to preserve security: don’t use your mates’ real names as the enemy might start talking about/to them and damage morale. They might even track your family back home! Don’t use code designations where the enemy can see what you are referring to as this compromises the code. This means don’t say, ‘We are approaching Zebra now’ as you come back to base camp. This gives away the code name so that whenever ‘Zebra’ is used in future the intent may be clear. Keep your use of the radio short as it can be tracked. There are even weapons which can home in on your transmission. Use the radio then move quickly especially when you are a small unit and the enemy may have the ability to find your position and come visiting or drop something nasty on you.

Mobile telephones

Recently soldiers have started to use their own mobile telephones in barracks and on the battlefield too. Very much the same security principles apply to mobile telephones as radios. They are simple to listen-in to from anywhere in the world – for a country with the right equipment. Someone with the right gear listening to you chatting from Afghanistan to your wife or girlfriend back home in the States or the United Kingdom can get her number. And from that her exact position within a few metres. Do you really want that?

Because mobile telephones use a digital system they are even easier to monitor by machine than a radio transmission. There are now machines which listen to conversations and pick up certain words such as ‘train’, ‘plane’ or ‘bomb’ – as the most obvious examples. These conversations are then automatically recorded, tracked and flagged for closer attention by humans. That is great for catching amateur terrorists but there are countries around the world interested in other things you might be saying.

While a radio signal gets distorted over distance, to all intents and purposes, a mobile telephone doesn’t. Because the digital mobile telephone signal is bounced from the handset to a local booster and then up to a satellite, off to another satellite and then back down to a booster and finally to the receiving handset it is a relatively simple to monitor any telephone conversation from anywhere in the world.

Satellite radio in use at a FOB in Afghanistan. (Fiona Stapley © UK Crown Copyright, 2006, MOD)

Most intelligence is not ‘James Bond’ stuff at all – it is low-level information aggregated up. Without giving too much away, the radios in a large unit would be used more before an operation wouldn’t they? Likewise, mobile telephones owned by members of a unit might all be used to book trains or planes before going overseas. This could tell a foreign power more than you might want them to know about your troop movements. Watch what you say and listen to instructions from your officers.

Battlefield internet

You probably already use the internet yourself and may even know that it was invented by the British but set up properly in the US as a decentralized communications system which could not be easily compromised in a nuclear war. What you may not know is that a lot of high-end kit from aircraft to artillery are now using a sort of military internet to digitally transfer maps, pictures, targets and everything else you can think of which might be useful in a battle. Of course it is instant but also the accuracy of the written word and the picture gives a massive advantage over radio. On top of this, the latest machines can even talk to each other. A target spotting aircraft can send the coordinates of a target direct to our artillery or helicopters. And there are artillery pieces which can lay on from this information and shoot all by themselves. Clever hey?

Summary

My position on communications is that high-tech kit is great. It lets us take down the opposition with less risk to ourselves and generally moves the odds of survival in our favour. On the downside, all gadgets break down and the enemy are likely to help them break down if they possibly can. Set up all your operations taking into account that communications may go down at any time just like that bloody GPS.

Remember not to say anything useful to the enemy on air. Never use real names or titles on air. Follow any and all instructions for the use of code as one slip can give everything away. Keep each radio transmission as brief as possible. When there is risk of enemy fire, move after each transmission. Ensure that what you say is correctly understood.

* Tabbing comes from the British Airborne acronym Tactical Advance to Battle. It means a long run or march with heavy kit.

* A stick is a small unit or section of soldiers, usually around 8 men.

* The so called ‘automatic’ pistol is actually semi-automatic as the term ‘automatic’ means a weapon which fires cyclically and repeatedly for as long as the trigger is depressed – such as a machine gun. A semi-automatic fires once each time the trigger is pressed and then reloads – usually by recoil action pushing back the top slide in a pistol and gas action in a rifle – to be ready for the next shot.

You are only any use to yourself and your mates for as long you are fed, watered and protected from the weather. When you are wet, cold, short of sleep, hungry or thirsty, you are a liability to yourself and your comrades because you are more interested in getting comfortable than getting to grips with the enemy. You might be able to point a rifle when you are chilled to the bone but you sure as hell aren’t going to think straight or keep a reliable watch for the enemy. Remember: any fool can be cold and hungry but a good soldier can make himself comfortable wherever he is placed.