Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Exchange the techniques and skills needed to walk the shadows. Post your guides and how-tos here.
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Sicarius
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Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Post by Sicarius » Thu Feb 11, 2021 2:27 am

Every operator needs a firm understanding of CCC, which stands for cover, concealment, and camouflage. Moving quietly or having expensive gear does not help if you travel down the middle of a street. CCC is applied the minute you are in the field, whether you perform it through planning or spontaneously.

CCC is mainly focused on snipers when described in manuals. Cover is defined as a barrier that can protect from small arms fire(Ex, a support pillar). Concealment is defined as an object that protects you from enemy observation, NOT small arms fire(Ex, a bush or shadow). Camouflage is defined as something on your person that protects you from enemy observation(Ex, camouflage clothing or taping leaves to yourself). How can we better tailor this concept to our activities? After all, the casual operator is not too concerned about being shot at and shooting back and we utilize this information differently than snipers.

Cover is better defined as "A solid object that directly blocks vision"(Ex, a wall or dumpster). Concealment is better defined as "Something or an object that protects you from enemy observation but still allows you to observe to an extent"(Ex, a bush or shadow). Camouflage is fine as described, which is "Something or an object on your person that protects you from enemy observation"(Ex, camouflage clothing or taping leaves to yourself).

Now, here are the definitions simply laid out.

Cover-"A solid object that directly blocks enemy observation"
Examples; Walls, AC units, vehicles, large trees, rocks, hills

Concealment-"Something or an object that semi-protects you from enemy observation but still allows you to observe to an extent"
Examples; Landscaping, un-solid fences, shadows, flora, "peepholes"

Camouflage-"Something or an object on your person that protects you from enemy observation"
Examples; Camouflage patterns, artificial or natural flora/netting, ghillie garments, sniper veils, loose ground material

It is important to note that you will most likely not be entirely covered, concealed, or camouflaged. Using one side of a wall hides you, but then there is the other side. Maybe it casts a nice shadow or has some shrubs to offer concealment? Maybe it does not, in that case, utilize your camouflage or find a better spot.

When do you use this? When completing a serious operation, you most likely plan out Thieves Highway's for infiltration, exfiltration, etc. You can do this through physical or digital reconnaissance, and therefore plan a route that best hides you. Additionally, E&E requires rapid identification of CCC routes during some portions of the process. There are of course other uses, but these are just a few general ones.

How do you apply this? I am not a seasoned operator, so therefore I cannot give a solid method to use. However, I would try to "scan" the environment and identify the cover, concealment, and camouflage available. Several resources in the library cover this, and there are several sources on the internet for situational awareness and scanning. I am not currently citing anything on this, I plan on writing about it later.

Do note, I plan on making better content, just establishing a basis.

Works Cited
Note that the entire source does not necessarily reference the topic discussed here.

https://nightops.net/wiki/lib/exe/fetch ... ge.pdf-The library!

https://fieldcraftguide.com/6-secrets-for-camouflage/-A source

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEMs1Qq1omg-get past the accent if you can

My favorite source; Anyone with common sense, will you be easier seen in the open or behind a wall? Exactly, I mainly put sources just to have them there, but anyone can tell you this makes sense.
"If one cannot be both, it is much better to be feared than loved" - Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

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Re: Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Post by Wind » Thu Feb 11, 2021 2:44 am

@Sicarius, good introduction to CCC. I'm sure it will help many.

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Re: Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Post by Xanatos » Thu Feb 11, 2021 5:06 am

Understanding the difference between cover & concealment applies to situations where guns are involved - you hear people who conceal carry talk about this topic a lot. While it's not a topic that has a lot of active application in Night Ops, there may come a time where we are pursued/searched for by an armed opponent and we need to choose where we hide more carefully. Shadows aren't bulletproof, after all.
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Re: Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Post by Sicarius » Thu Feb 11, 2021 12:51 pm

I do agree, but I was highlighting the difference; This was aimed at stealth rather than gunfights. In fact, bullets often go through cars and other "solid" objects. I think the front of a car by the engine is where you can hide, not sure though. The term "cover" changes when in a combative scenario, I just wanted to discuss the stealth variant. If someone had a gun and was chasing me, I would probably just die being honest :D
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Re: Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Post by Wind » Thu Feb 11, 2021 1:26 pm

I wonder if it might be better to not change the meaning of cover, and, instead, come up with an additional term for concealment using objects that can't be seen through. I think the idea of making a distinction between those types of concealment could be very useful for stealth.

Just brainstorming some potential ideas:
blind concealment vs sighted concealment
total concealment vs partial concealment
permeable concealment vs impermeable concealment
eclipsed concealment vs partial eclipsed concealment
complete concealment vs incomplete concealment

What do others think? I have a slight preference for complete vs incomplete since it would use a "c", which might make it fit better with the established CCC. Obviously, there are lots of other possibilities.

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Re: Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Post by Sicarius » Thu Feb 11, 2021 5:24 pm

You read my mind, I swear! I have more complex ideas regarding CCC, I just feel I do not have enough experience to share them and they are not complete. I had eclipsed written down in my notes, you raise some other interesting ideas though. Perhaps simpler wording so more people can understand though, as no one wants to google every other word. I will admit, I googled permeable. I still feel cover should be changed in this regard, but I do agree that more specifications should be needed for cover, concealment, and camouflage. Adding different adjectives to change the meaning may be too complex for new operators to understand, but for those who are more advanced or enjoy the educational aspect, I can see reason behind it. However, I like the different classifications of concealment that you offer. Perhaps instead of abbreviating CCC it can be changed to something else, where each classification can be introduced. Or CCC can explain the concealment and camouflage of stealth, and the solid cover to not get shot through.

I have several ideas for "systems" to memorize for different portions of what we do, but as stated I feel I lack experience and I wish to refine them. Memorizing a concept will prove better under stress, and I am interested in the realism and real-world applicability. We also have to come to terms with the fact that we cannot create a system for everything. There will be factors at play we do not know, understand, or expect. Therefore as operators, we must be able to adapt and use our minds in the field to solve problems. Anyways, I have to go write something for Friday so I will not drag out the thread too much with ideas. We should make discord or organize a chat meeting solely for brainstorming ideas. If anyone is interested, PM me for a time
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Re: Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Post by Psychlonic » Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:15 pm

I've hinged a great deal of my success remaining undetected on a few stupid simple principles that for some reason go largely overlooked in many stealth guides - I've probably even short changed my own as I didn't have the experience to look back and realize how effective they were. They may seem obvious or already covered, but hear me out;

1. See without being seen.
2. Be where nobody is looking.
3. Be absorbed into your background.

Straight up solid concealment - even along the lines of a bush - has its obvious advantages but there are also disadvantages in my mind. I want to remain hidden while also seeing every single thing with zero chance of being surprised, the night is not the place to have blinders on. Awareness opens opportunities and allows me to plan my next quick move while making sure it's safe to do so. There is also the factor of light levels, locations, directions, etc. that also tie into the 3rd point. At the easiest to understand level you know that if you're in a dark room and shine a flashlight over your head, someone in front of you won't see you - they'll see the light. This also should be factored into being in a position of superior sight while denying others the ease of seeing you. Another great example would be a hole. Up close you can see through it just fine, but far away nobody will see you peeking through. Failing that, make yourself as small as possible while still being able to see potential threats. In my head, I've always called this principle "visual superiority". I can see you with no problem, but it's hard as hell to see me. All efforts are on balancing this scale in my favor.

Being where nobody is looking is obvious enough. Lacking good concealment in a certain area or perhaps to augment it, you simply place yourself in an odd spot. This could be the shadow in the corner next to a small set of steps, it could be on top of a gazebo laid out, it could be against the trunk of a tree facing away from an approaching person. Unless someone suspects you are around, nobody is going to check every single place a person could be hiding. Being in these unobvious areas allows for a greater margin of error in staying hidden especially combined with the other two principles.

Finally, if someone does look at me I don't want them to see me - even if I'm technically in their field of view. I want them to instead only see a much larger image that I'm merely a part of. Typically, this comes in the form of shadows. I've used everything from the shadows cast by otherwise mostly open fences, light pole shadows cast on their rear side, and obviously building or tree shadows are great. Some common sense needs to be applied - you can't do this if it's reasonable to assume anyone coming nearby will illuminate you in a way that makes you easy to see. On the other hand, consideration into how their lights will cast shadows may lead to favorable conditions.

Even a new operative will intuitively pick up on the basic ideas using these three things - crawl in ditches, stick to solid objects and travel to the next staying in the boundaries of cast shadows, etc. But actively thinking of these things on the operation can help out when there's no obvious concealment available - for example maybe you need to go through a large lot that's open and surrounded by lights. Crawling more often than not makes it fairly safe to traverse (just as a basic example). It's also important when you need to optimize your times. Maybe you need to cover a lot of ground and if you spend too much time hunkered down and moving slowly you'll never finish the operation.
Knowledge alone is not power, it is the potential for power. That potential can only be unlocked through applying that knowledge and realizing the skill.

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Re: Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Post by Wind » Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:36 pm

@Psychlonic, I found your explorations of these topics helpful. I particularly liked how you distilled one of the ideas to "visual superiority." I never really thought of it that clearly. Good stuff!

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Re: Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Post by Xanatos » Fri Feb 12, 2021 1:36 pm

This video demonstrates the concept of 'dead space' fairly well, or 'being where nobody expects you' as Psych mentioned.
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Re: Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Post by Sicarius » Fri Feb 12, 2021 3:30 pm

I am getting that book!
"If one cannot be both, it is much better to be feared than loved" - Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

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Re: Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage: A key aspect of remaining undetected

Post by Sicarius » Mon May 10, 2021 11:42 am

Alright, after reviewing this, theorizing more, and getting out at night to operate, I can say a different definition from the original cover is unnecessary. Concealment can just be divided into two parts, like full and partial concealment. Full would include fences, certain walls, AC units, doors, etc. Partial would include bushes, shadows, etc. Full concealment fully conceals you, but you cannot easily observe the environment. Partial concealment conceals but you could still be seen, but allows for much better observation. And of course, don't forget about what Psychlonic said about peepholes in walls, fences, and other stuff, where the conceal is that you can see everything but the other "thing" cannot identify your location.
"If one cannot be both, it is much better to be feared than loved" - Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

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