Gear Standardization for an Asymmetrical Conflict

As we discuss more and more what *it* may look like, we need to first set ground rules for gear and firearms that men in our cadres will use if push comes to shove. Yes, I am telling you what to buy. Yes, I know this is going to hurt feelies of people who are gun nuts or autistic about certain niche firearms and calibers. Yes, if you run an AK-74 I am going to make fun of you and laugh at you, you're retarded. However, I am not doing this just to bruise egos or to be mean, I am writing this article because it *needs* to be written. If there is ever a situation where we need to defend our people and region from a hostile invasion or occupation; be it Chinese, Cartels, Leftist paramilitary insurgents, or "other" potential enemies; then we can't have 15 guys show up in the woods of Northern Idaho with 4 different weapons platforms, using 7 different calibers, none of which share compatible magazines with each other. This is a deathly serious issue and is make or break for a Foco.

Disclaimer: This isn't incitement, I am not telling you to do anything illegal, this is a theoretical discussion for Armed and Prepared citizens.

First consideration is Caliber and Magazines. Is the Caliber of your rifle of choice in every American home? Are magazines for your rifle in every single gun store, cabelas, and on the shelves of every gun owner's home in America? If the answer to either of these questions is *NO* then you have already made a mistake and must immediately work to rectify it. The most commonly used rifle round in the United States of America is .223/5.56×45. The most common rifle platform (and this pertains to the most common magazine as well) is the AR-15. The most common handgun round is 9mm. Most common handgun is a lot less important but stick to Glock 17 (Sorry M&P guys it's OVER.) Pistol commonality is very important for any prolonged scenario just as much as rifle commonality.

Now someone is going to start rah-rahing about "muh 308" or "muh battle rifle" or something goofy like that so let me set the record straight. If you buy a niche firearm that can't serve as a General Purpose Rifle, or that doesn't have parts commonality with the standard GPR, then you better have:

A) At least two more volunteers who will be running the same pattern of rifle, with the same caliber, same magazines, and parts compatibility; then you 3-4 can be separated into your own trinome/trouble trio/squad and you will be able to at least share parts, ammunition, and magazines. (You will still be complicating logistics for everyone else and generally speaking be a pain in the ass but at least your autism is isolated to a single trinome)

B) You better be using a round that's common among American civilians, armed forces, and police agencies.

Now with that out of the way, what does that mean for say a DMR or battle rifle selection?

DPMS pattern AR-10 in 308... That's it. No one except for oil barons or the autistic owns a SCAR, and there are really no other modern battle rifles which have any sort of infrastructure to support them.

Now if you are going to run an AK (don't, just don't) then your only real option is 7.62×39. 5.45 is unobtainium and if you are using a 5.56 AK then you are going to have to worry more about me than the enemy because you will be effectively running an *objectively worse* Ar-15, just because you have aspergers and I will hate you for it. Not to mention that for all the issues of maintaining commieblock weaponry and magazine limitations, you add onto that by using a round the AK pattern rifle never used historically and which is only used today in a handful of Eastern European NATO countries. 5.56 AKs don't have massive reserves of Eastern European surplus magazines unlike 7.62×39 AKs. Now there are 308 AKs which of course can serve a DMR role but once again, you better have 2 or 3 other guys with Zastava M77s (which cost the same as an AR10 without having integrated rails for mounting an optic or light, unlike an AR-10)

Now with those disclaimers out of the way I am going to assume you, the reader, is intelligent enough to know that the 5.56 AR-15 is the only option you should choose and I will write the rest of this article disregarding any other rifle caliber or rifle pattern on earth.

The beautiful thing about an AR-15, is that it's extremely modular and can be adapted for numerous different use cases. Generally speaking most members of a squad should have a General Purpose Rifle. A GPR is exactly what it sounds like, a rifle that does effectively everything OK but isn't particularly specialized. A GPR has a barrel length of 14.5-16 inches, it has some sort of flash light, some sort of optic, back up iron sights, and it has a sling.

If you are under the age of 21 and looking for an AR, here are 4 options depending on your price point (btw to the person who made the power point I am lifting this list of off, credit really goes to you; I assume you dont want me to publically give you credit but I will at least give you a nod here):

Poor/Beginner tier- Smith and Wesson M&P Sport III (around $740)

Mid tier- ALG Defense "El Jefe" (wait for it to go on sale; regular price, $1.2k, is too much but on sale it drops down to $850)

High tier- Centurion Arms Midweight CM4 Complete Rifle ($1,475)

Very High tier- Geissele Super Duty MOD 1 Rifle ($1.6 to $2k)

If you are over the age of 21 then you can purchase an upper and lower receiver separately.

Lower:

Aero Precision Mil Spec ($330)

That's it, that's all you need when it comes to a lower.

Upper:

Poor/Beginner tier- Aero 16" 5.56 Mid Length Complete Upper w/13.5" slimline Handguard ($380) (you will need a charging handle which can cost from 30-100 dollars depending on which you buy, and you will need a Bolt Carrier Group which costs usually around $100, go with Microbest)

Mid tier- BCM 16" CHF ($830) (it comes with a free Bolt Carrier Group as of right now and you can add on for 75-90 dollars a charging handle, only get the free A2 flash hider)

High tier- URG-I Complete, Near Clone, 14.5 ($1.2k to $1.45k) (This is a pin and weld upper so you will need to go to a gunsmith to have the muzzle device removed, this one comes with a BCG and a Charging Handle. If you don't want to deal with pin and welded uppers then you can find 16" uppers from the same website, but for those you will need to buy a separate muzzle device, charging handle, and Bolt Carrier Group.)

If I were to give my personal recommendation: Buy an assembled BCM upper and Aero Lower, that's all you'll ever really need.

I could cover Building an AR but I don't have much personal experience with gunsmithing so I will just move on to squad organization and tactics when it pertains to gear.

As a guerrilla, you need to move fast and be able to operate with as small a group as possible. Generally speaking a foco should be at least the size of 3 people and with a maximum size of 18 or so. If you have a 19th or 20th person that's okay but once you have 21 people then have one trinome of 3 split off to create their own separate foco which is autonomous (though your commander should remain in touch with theirs for the sake of collaborating on a larger scale.) Now that's more for a Rural environment; for urban activities keep it to 3 man teams who are in contact with other cells in that, and neighboring, cities. If you have 1 or 2 stragglers in your urban insurgent group that's fine but, just like how once a rural foco hits 21 members, once you have 6 then it's time for a mitosis.

Each trinome, 3 man squad, needs to have a team leader (in the case of the urban insurgent this man will be also the representative of The Party,) a planner who knows the AO and who is in charge of getting maps and on the ground intel, and someone who is in charge of logistics and all that comes with it (acquiring food, ammo, transportation, weapons, mission critical gear.)

For Urban areas these trinomes largely function as intelligence gathering and sabotage operatives. Should there be a hostile occupation force they will be the ones who pour sugar in their gasoline, slash tires, give the General Headquarters of The Party information (unit strength, commanders, movement of forces, and a heads up if any hostile forces are leaving the city,) and of course other things which I shouldn't say for the sake of "not fedposting." Models to follow are the UDA, UVF, PIRA, ETA, and funnily enough inner city gangs (in regards to tactics of "direct confrontation.")

Weaponry suited for an urban insurgent are as follows:

-General Purpose Rifle (14.5 is optimal, pin and weld or SBR)

-Duty Handgun (9mm M&P 2.0)

-AR Pistol/SBR (something easily concealable like 11.5" with a folding stock adapter)

-Birdshead grip short shotgun (Mossberg 590 Shockwave for example) or Short barreled shotguns if you are willing to deal with NFA regulations and fill out the required forms (doesn't really matter if the US government ceases to exist or the law no longer applies because of an invasion or elsewhat, just don't break gun laws right now in peacetime)

-cheap throwaway handguns

-revolvers

To a degree all these weapons also pertain to a rural insurgent too as a foco will require intelligence operatives and a support network within the towns, small cities, and closest major city of their AO.

For a rural foco, you can have a larger sized group (though it should stay under 20 man in size) but it needs to stay organized in the same trinome manner as previously explained. One man in each group is the squad/team leader, one man is in charge of planning/mapping AO, one man is in charge of logistics. The nature of each squad will determine who is who. In the first stages of the struggle, tactics will be very similar between rural and urban forces, largely sabotage and intelligence. Once you have 9 men, your transition from urban guerilla to rural foco should begin.

You need to set up deep in the woods a series of hide sites and weapons/food/ammo caches (another reason that weapons commonality is important) so that should things break bad you can hit and then split off into your trinomes and have places protected from aerial observation that you can lay low and resupply in, but I will get more into this in another article.

For a guerilla foco the larger it gets the more diversity you can have in weaponry and combat roles, more specialization. For example a larger foco can have a SAPR (Semi Automatic Precision Rifle) team where one man has an 18" (ideally,) or 20", heavy barreled AR-15 and a precision scope (Low or Mid powered variable optic is preferred,) and the other two have 16" GPRs (one is team leader and maintains comms with the rest of the foco, and the other has a spotting scope/binoculars and works as a spotter.) If you want to be THAT GUY and run a 308 AR-10 instead as a DMR (don't be that guy OK) then the other two should have 16" or 14.5" AR-10 Battle rifles for the sake of parts, mag, and ammo compatibility.

Another specialized squad could be an IAR/LSW or "AR-RPK" team. One man has a fixed, rifle length, stock with either a red right hand LMG upper (with mounted bipod) or a Klein Machining AR-RPK upper. The other two have either 14.5" GPRs or, because these two guys are going to have to be "ammo bitches" and carry extra drums/40 rds mags for the gunner, if they wish to save weight they could use 11.5"-12.5" rifles. This is something that was common among scout and recon teams in Vietnam (like MACV-SOG,) all of their men would either have as short barreled rifles as possible or light machine guns, and just carry a massive amount of ammunition. If you want to be THAT GUY and bring an actual AK pattern RPK (please don't be that guy) then your squadmates will either have AKMs/AK-47s or, if they want something shorter and lighter, something like the AK 104 (once again please don't be that guy, you are making things harder for everyone else) in order to maintain parts, ammo, and mag compatibility (I am going to repeat this a lot but that's because it's the name of the game when it comes to guerilla warfare.)

For a smaller foco of around 9-11 men it could look something like this:

Trinome A:

•Squad Leader (tactical leader of the Foco)- 14.5" GPR. Is also in charge of comms, mapping and land nav in AO

•Grenadier- 16" GPR. In charge of any explosives captured from the enemy, also personnel management, RPG gunner (if applicable)

•Rifleman (Also works logistics, keeping track of food and water and ammo)- 16" GPR.

Trinome B:

•Team leader 1- 16" GPR. Maintains comms with rest of group. Also in charge of his squad's land navigation and maps.

•Designated Marksman- 18" SAPR. Also is recon and intelligence.

•Rifleman- 16" GPR. Spotter for Marksman. Also in charge of his squad's logistics and supply.

Trinome C:

•Team Leader 2- 14.5" GPR. Land Navigation. Assistant Squad Leader, 2nd in command to Squad Leader. Is Political leader of the squad, representative of the party and the one who has the various law codes and general orders from the party memorized by heart.

•Grenadier- 16" GPR. In charge of any explosives his squad is given, rigs traps, detonates explosives. In charge of Logistics and supply.

•Rifleman- 16" GPR. Maintains comms. Designated Medic.

Any extra men would be added to one of those 3 trinomes, most likely the command trinome. Now bear in mind a foco isn't like a standing army, so a Grenadier really is just a rifleman who gets handed the first RPG that falls into their squad's hands.

A larger Foco could look something along the lines of this:

Trinome A:

•Squad Leader- 16" GPR. In charge of his trinome's comms. Is Political leader of his Foco.

•Grenadier- 14.5" GPR. In charge of Trinome's map and land nav. Rigs traps and explosives.

•Rifleman- 16" GPR. In charge of logistics. Medic.

Trinome B:

•Team Leader 1- 16" GPR. Is in charge of Logistics for his trinome.

•Grenadier- 16" GPR. Comms. 1st RPG gunner.

•Rifleman- 16" GPR. Land navigation and mapping of AO.

Trinome C: (LSW team) (Scout/Recon team)

•Team Leader 2- 14.5" GPR. In charge of Logistics. Ammo bitch.

•AR-RPK Gunner- 20" LSW (Light Squad Weapon) in charge of maps for AO.

•Assistant gunner- 12.5" Carbine. Also ammo bitch. Also carries comms.

Trinome D: (SAPR team) (Scout/recon team 2)

•Team Leader 3- 16" GPR. In charge of land navigation/maps.

•Designated Marksman- 20" SAPR. In charge of logistics for trinome.

•Rifleman- 16" GPR. Spotter. Comms. 2nd Medic.

Trinome E: (Scout/recon team 3) (1st Maneuver Element)

•Team Leader 4- 14.5" GPR. Comms.

•Grenadier- 14.5" GPR. In charge of land navigation and maps. 2n RPG gunner.

•Rifleman- 16" GPR. Logistics.

Trinome F: (2nd Maneuver element)

•Team Leader 5- 14.5" GPR. Comms. Assistant Squad Leader.

•Grenadier- 16" GPR. Logistics. Demolitionist.

•Rifleman- 16" GPR. Land nav/maps.

I will discuss what "Maneuver element" means another day. Just watch ViktoriousDead's YouTube video about ambushes. Now this description of a Squad within a foco above isn't 100% perfect but it will suffice for the point I am trying to make here. That 18 man group; which has weapon systems fulfilling all the major roles within an infantry squad of Designated Marksman, Light Squad Weapon, General purpose rifle; which has 18 different rifles being used, they all require 1 ammunition caliber and 1 type of magazine. In order to supply munitions to that foco all you need to do is go down to any gun shop or cabelas and buy the same 10-12 dollar a pop magazines for each person and the same ammunition for each person which usually costs 60 cents a round.

Now I am going to explain the issue with having mixed weapons platforms with the two following scenarios:

First, premise. The balloon has gone up, there is some type of total collapse of the American system and there's either a hostile military occupation, some leftist paramilitaries have seized control of the I-5 corridor from Salem to Seattle (Think Paris Commune,) Cartels have migrated north, or whatever other collapse scenario you have thought up in your head.

You have a cadre of 12 friends who you have regularly gone shooting, hunting, and hiking with during peacetime; all of you are on roughly the same page ideologically, you have prepared for this by stockpiling food/ammo/gas, you have some type of place out in the boonies of Eastern Oregon where your families can hide out, and you are in contact with some broader political organization; and now you and your friends are going to take on the enemy and free your state from foreign occupation. You go to your bugout location in the Cascade or Coastal ranges and now comes the long and hard struggle for independence.

Scenario 1, you are lucky:

All 12 of your friends have chosen the AR 15 platform. You have parts, ammo, and magazine compatibility. After a little while out in the sticks you get two 3 man teams joining you. One is a 3 man team where they all have 7.62×39 AKs (PSA AK-104, WASR-10 AKM, RPK, take your pick) so you can isolate them into their own fireteam which shares ammo and magazines. The second 3 man team is a DPMS pattern AR-10 DMR team where one of them has a SASS (Semi Auto Sniper System) and the other two have battle rifles, once again you can separate this group into it's own 3 man fire team.

Let's assume each man in this rural foco has either a belt kit or a chest rig allowing them to carry at least a fighting load of 7 mags (6 in kit, 1 in rifle) or up to 16 mags on their person (if they have a belt kit which holds 12 magazines plus something like a chicom chest rig or bandoleer which holds at least 4 more mags.) That means your logistics department would have to acquire around four thousand rounds of 5.56, one thousand rounds of 7.62×39, and somewhere around 600 rounds of 308 in order to sustain your forces. This also means buying somewhere around 144 AR-15 mags, 36 AK mags, and 24 AR-10 magazines on a regular basis to make up for any magazines that fail or are abandoned in a firefight. And this isn't factoring in new Bolt Carrier Groups, springs, or any other maintenance parts required to arm a group with 3 completely different weapons platforms which for the most part don't share compatible parts.

Scenario 2, you are dumb and unlucky (gun autist apocalypse):

10 of your friends have AR-15s, 2 of you are special snowflakes. One special snowflake has a 5.56 AK, one has a 7.62 AK. Already this means logistics has to acquire 3 types of magazines and two types of ammo. Now you get one straggler who joins with an AK-74 in 5.45×39. 4 types of magazine, 3 types of ammo. You get a couple guys both with AR-10s, one is in 308 and one is 6.5 creedmore. 6 types of magazine, 5 types of ammo. Next you have a straggler join with a FN SCAR in 308. 7 types of magazine, 5 types of ammo. Another guy stumbles into the woods looking for a fight with a 30-30 lever action. 7 types of magazine, 6 types of ammo. Some guy from the nearby town rolls in with a 30-06 M1 Garand. 7 types of magazine, 7 types of ammo, and now you need clips for an M1 Garand. Effectively all of these weapons have different manual of arms, almost none of them have compatible parts, and some of them have unobtanium ammunition.

Now obviously this can be solved by using captured equipment from the enemy in order to standardize your gear, but until that becomes an option then you have to deal with this logistical nightmare as a 18 man guerilla organization with MAYBE 6 guys in the nearby towns who can supply you with ammunition and magazines (who now instead of buying a shit ton of 5.56 and 30 round AR-15 mags now have to go out and buy everything from M1 Garand stripper clips to 5.56 AK mags.) Of course in real life you are going to get people showing up with grampappy's deer hunting rifle, but you can at least mitigate that issue by making sure everyone in your personal little group of preppers has the same platform of rifle with the same ammunition.

Now, all that being said. There is a degree to which this depends on AO. If you are in the Great Basin or the Northern Plains, where it's miles and miles of nothing and you can spot enemies from thousands of miles away, then perhaps it may be better to have some people with 308s in your cadre. Now that discussion is up to you and your friends, if you want to have a DMR team with 308 AR-10s or if the whole squad has 308 Battle Rifles, it's your call. Always keep in mind that parts, ammo, and magazine compatibility are essential; as is commonality. Also another point is that weapons compatibility is a little less important for urban insurgents than rural ones. And of course the most important thing for prepping is to know your neighbors.

You need to be involved with your own community, or the community that you are planning on bugging out to. Know who is who, who may support the NWTI, who may not. Go to city council meetings, go to school board meetings, partake in community organizing, food drives, volunteer at soup kitchens, and better yet do these things as part of the Northwest Front so there is a nice smiling face associated with The Party in the minds of the White People who live in whatever small town you are planning on operating near. It's a lot harder for the enemy to propagandize the locals if they see their local Northwest Separatists not as evil raycis nazi bigots who torture small animals and who have it out to get them, but as the nice young man from Church whose kids play with theirs at the local park. This was what gave the Taliban, the Basque, the Irish, and the Iraqi resistance a leg up over their occupational governments; the men who fought were also members of their community and grew up with the locals, went to school with them or their children, and who they knew before their respective struggles began. It was only after the IRA or the Basque had exhausted this natural trust they had, due to them being trigger happy morons who kept blowing up grandmas or schoolbuses, did they fail. This is also where the idea of the Guerilla New Man and having a good moral character comes into play, but that's a topic for another day.

Thig saorsa bhon chlaidheamh,

Ex Gladio Libertas!

____________________________________

This day is called the feast of Crispian:

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.

And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’

Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,

But he’ll remember with advantages

What feats he did that day: then shall our names.

Familiar in his mouth as household words

Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember’d;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

-William Shakespeare, Henry the Fifth