AAR ARMA 3 | Campaign Crisis Response | Operation United Hands

[Geki.T]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Name of Combat Mission: Operation United Hands
Number Within Campaign: 1/?
Game: ARMA 3
Server Hosted on: ARMA 3 Training Servers
Date of Combat Mission: 26NOV23
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 1900z
Mission OIC: First Lieutenant Sam.T, Second Lieutenant Narramoor.A
Mission Controller: First Sergeant Geki.T

Attendees:
Captain Adam Beiter
Staff Sergeant Adrian Hilberg
Staff Sergeant Tristen Santoyo
Staff Sergeant Ryan Westcott
Staff Sergeant Whitehead.B
Corporal Harris.M
Corporal Telinov.V
Corporal Lucander.P
Corporal Fisher.S
Specialist Keith.W
Lieutenant Colonel Dread.M
Second Lieutenant Narramoor.A
Captain Beiter.A
Staff Sergeant Adrian Hilberg
Staff Sergeant Tristen Santoyo
Staff Sergeant Ryan Westcott
Corporal Jake Albright
Corporal Maco.D
Specialist Taylor.D
Specialist Dray.T
First Lieutenant Sam.T
Warrant Officer 1 Hamm.C "Hooker"
Corporal Davis.D
Captain Highman.J

 

[Harris.M]

Element Callsign: Viking-2
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Whitehead.B

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Harris.M
Corporal Telinov.V
Corporal Lucander.P
Corporal Fisher.S
Specialist Keith.W


Pros:

• Good Tempo
• Gas was a hinderance but was also a welcome element to change the way we normally play.

Cons:

• Need to collect equipment of fallen squad members to prevent enemy forces from collecting them. Also the enemy when in a policing OP.
• Trigger Discipline - not fully following ROE
• Server performance - low frames and disconnects effecting squad numbers being able to play.
• Low numbers for the OP and its size.

 

[Dread.M]

Element Callsign: SPARROW-1
Element Leader: Lieutenant Colonel Dread.M

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Lieutenant Colonel Dread.M

Pros:

• Dynamic mission with layers of complexity
• Seemed to be good levels of activity for the transport birds
• Use of gas as an obstacle to overcome

Cons:

• SPARROW not needed. Entire OP with zero rounds fired.
• No triple Rs available. First time in my Cav experience during an official operation I had to identify a gas station to land unsecured and get fuel.
• Too many assets for ISR
• Map acted weird at times with trees rendering in and out

 

[Narramoor.A]

Element Callsign: Viking-6
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Narramoor.A

Pros

• Nice original OP concept. I like the modular objectives, and it was more successful than the last FTX
• Coordination with Atlas was great, got to work out some kinks in-case HQ gets knocked out.
• Fun was had at the trooper level
• Good to see KAT medical being fun and engaging for people.

Cons

• AI phased through cave walls which made clearance difficult
• Lots of ground to cover
• Server stability issues at points

Opinion

• No deliberately plannable objectives, I think an FTX should always have at least 1, even if small to warm people into it.

 

[Beiter.A]

Element Callsign: Outlaw (Civilian Pop)
Element Leader: Captain Beiter.A

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Captain Adam Beiter
Staff Sergeant Adrian Hilberg
Staff Sergeant Tristen Santoyo
Staff Sergeant Ryan Westcott

Pros:

-fun op to mess around with
-Had a blast experimenting with the drugs to give medics some work and confusion
-Definitely made some good trades today

Cons

-I feel like we went a bit overboard first but we handled that right afterwards
-We didn’t have communication with the Zeus to help really aid the mission unfortunately
-We maybe went a little hard in the caves but it was due to knowing the AI were struggling to actually act like AI

 

[Albright.J]

Element Callsign: Atlas-1
Element Leader: Corporal Jake Albright

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Maco.D
Specialist Taylor.D
Specialist Dray.T


Pros:

• Full KAT medical OP
• Good teamwork within the element, we were able to respond to any request quickly
• Nice, demanding mascas event at the end of the OP --> having to actually do a propper triage for the first time in months, resulting in us being able to save 2 of the 6 critically wounded patients, with initially only 2 medics present at the scene
• Different setting than usual; the focus on more assymetrical/humanitarian operation was nice for a change
• Members had fun

Cons:

• Operation felt unplanned; things were happening here and there, but with little info on how it fit into the bigger picture/plan. Nothing against operations without a 100% layed-out plan upfront; it just felt a bit too unplanned and chaotic.
• Controlled civilians went over the top on several occasions. Some jokes/silly behavior is ok here and there, but it definitely took some seriousness out of the OP.
• --> Medical stryker being stolen. Not as fair 'punishment' for own negligence, but simply due to the fact that we physically can't lock vehicles
• Little medical work in total for some of our members; I received mixed feedback on that point, however we did have several extended idle times during the OP where no medical work occured.
• FPS issues

Opinion:

• Going with chemical warfare right at the first big KAT OP felt like a bit too much; it might have been better to introduce do the chemical warfare in a seperate OP, after everyone already dipped their toes into KAT.
• Personally, I enjoyed the medical dynamic. KAT requires much more intensive care for critically patients, meaning that triage decisions in mascas scenarios have a lot more weight. It also meant that becoming unconscious is something troopers really want to avoid, as it comes with a much bigger risk of dying + binding friendly forces, compared to becoming uncon with ace pharmacy.

 

[Sam.T]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: ATLAS-6
Element Leader: First Lieutenant Sam.T

Pros

• This was probably the best Troop FTX implementation we've seen over the past two years, with both Platoons being present with specific tasking throughout the Operation to (in theory) provide workload across the Troop.
• KAT Implementation seemed to go over smoothly, with medics picking up the baton quickly and running with it. I also observed some excellent CLS and buddy aid, helping to prolong casualties until Atlas arrived.
• Implementing the KAT Chem Warfare suite seemed well received; this adds depth to our gameplay and introduces a new threat to be mitigated.
• Communications between platoon HQs went smoothly, despite that incredibly high workload on both PLs.
• Generally speaking, the new "multipurpose" platoon composition for Atlas was well received, though more emphasis on medical teams may be needed to account for the extra care KAT necessitates.
• Feedback indicated more training on search and rescue actions and inclusion of it in FTXs/Operations would be well received by medical personnel.
• Player civilians were generally well received, though some of the potential for roleplay was lost in task saturation for the PLs and Troop staff.
• Quick "classroom" session on CLS equipment, buddy aid, and the "reaction to gas attack" drill seemed very effective.
• New KAT kits seemed practical, no complaints voices from the medics to my knowledge!

Conns

• The operational scope was a hindrance today, not because of the planned objectives or mission size but overwhelmingly low turnout (~1.5ish infantry squads, no Chaos, and half of the med platoon turned out).
• Using contaminated areas without consultation led to Viking being exposed to a threat they weren't briefed on and didn't receive training on how to identify/mitigate. (This was rectified once I identified). This could have been a "pro" for Atlas; it just wasn't utilized correctly. Something to revisit in the future.
• Player civilians stealing vehicles when realistically they shouldn't have been able to. (This was addressed once identified).
• Lack of dedicated platoon command and control assets (i.e., no PSG, Platoon Medic, or Chaos) led to task saturation for both PLs. The lack of personnel at all levels severely hindered things, as there wasn't really enough qualified individuals to delegate tasking to.
• The aforementioned task saturation meant that much of the planned enhancement of the search and rescue AO did not happen.
• Low Atlas turnout, in combination with the excellent CLS and buddy aid, meant that many casualties were put into borderline stable states and then not able to be addressed by medics. This combination led to many troopers being uncon for exacerbated periods of time.
• I concur with Viking-6 that there should be at least 1- plannable objective just to aid the initial scenario flow. A good instance, in this case, could have been the securement of the hospital structure/S&R in "Southtown."

Improve/Neutral

• SOP for these more "amalgamated" operations where Atlas units operate directly in conjunction with Viking squads/teams must be improved. This will likely materialize in pushing on/off the Viking Platoon net or perhaps even utilizing the squad net. More testing is needed.

 

[Hamm.C]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: BUFFALO-1
Element Leader: Warrant Officer 1 Hamm.C "Hooker"

7Cav Members in attendance:
Warrant Officer 1 Hamm.C "Hooker"
Corporal Davis.D
Captain Highman.J

Pros

• Super fun FTX and we had fun and enjoyed supporting our Bravo friends, as always.
• Great flying with A+++ crew.
• Davis.D did a fantastic job as Crew Chief.
• Very good mission concept and design.

Cons

• FPS were absolutely terrible at times. And when I say terrible, I mean really terrible. When somebody else said they were down to 4 FPS, I felt blessed to have 11 FPS. That's how awful they were.
• Unfortunate blade-strike/crash landing of a seemingly invisible object. Main rotors hit something and we couldn't figure it out at all. Not sure if some object or tree rendered out of nowhere or maybe part of the FPS performance problems, but it happened and we couldn't figure it out. Silver lining I guess is that CSAR was successful from RAVEN, bird was detted and we continued.
• OPORD implied hoist operations so I was pretty jazzed up for that but it didn't happen.

 

[Rutkowski.P]

LOCKED

 

[Rutkowski.P]

S1 Operations Processed.