Navigation and Fieldcraft

FLD 201 · Fieldcraft, Tactics, and Soldiering · Level 200 (Phase Two)

A Royal Army College course in finding your way and working in the field.

Course length: approximately 9 to 14 hours of online self-study, studied asynchronously at the student's own pace, together with any in-person practical instruction and assessment the course requires.

Foreword

The field is the soldier's workplace. Whatever the task, searching a hillside for a missing person, working through a flooded valley, training on an exercise, or moving on patrol, a soldier must be able to operate in the open country where roads and signposts run out. Two old skills make that possible. The first is navigation: knowing where you are, and how to get to where you must be. The second is fieldcraft: operating in the field effectively and, when the task requires, unseen, and keeping yourself fit to go on. A soldier who masters them is an asset in the field; one who does not is a passenger, and may become a casualty.

These are not glamorous skills, and they are not new. A soldier has always needed to read the ground, find a route, move across country, and look after themselves far from shelter. What has changed is that some now imagine a device in the pocket has made the map and compass obsolete. It has not. Batteries die, signals fail, screens break, and the soldier who cannot find their way without help is not a navigator but a tourist who has been lucky so far. This course teaches the reliable foundation, on which any aid is a useful extra and never a substitute.

Who this course is for

Every member of the Royal Kaharagian Army, of every rank. Navigation and fieldcraft are basic skills of soldiering, like first aid and drill, and this course is for all. It expands the Basic Training Manual's modules on fieldcraft fundamentals and on navigation, orientation, and terrain awareness, and it pairs closely with the home-operations and humanitarian-outreach courses, for the search-and-rescue and field tasks the RKA is most likely to perform.

What you will be able to do

By the end you will be able to:

• read a map, understand its scale, signs, and grid, and give a grid reference;
• picture the shape of the ground from its contours, and read relief and dead ground;
• use a compass, understand the three norths, and take, set, and follow a bearing;
• plan and follow a route across country, judge distance, and act correctly when unsure of your position;
• conceal yourself and use ground, understanding why things are seen;
• observe and search ground, judge distance, and indicate a target;
• move in the field by day and night with sound noise, light, and track discipline; and
• live and work in the field while staying effective, healthy, and safe.

How the course works

The course is self-paced and studied online, lesson by lesson, with a reflection at the end of each. But navigation and fieldcraft are practical skills, and they are mastered only on the ground, with a real map and compass, on real terrain, under instruction, and certified in person. This course gives the knowledge those practicals rest on: how a map and compass work, how to read the ground, how to plan a route, and the principles of concealment, observation, movement, and field living. Read it with a map of your own area open beside you, and take what you learn here onto the ground at the first chance.

The two halves

The course has two halves that meet in the field. Navigation (Lessons 02 to 05) is the map, the ground, the compass, and the finding and following of a route. Fieldcraft (Lessons 06 to 09) is concealment, observation, movement, living in the field, and attracting rescue when things go wrong. Together they answer the two questions the field always asks of a soldier: where am I and how do I get where I must be, and how do I operate out here effectively, unseen when I must be, and still fit to do my job.

Structure

A note on the RKA's reality

The RKA's field work is, above all, search and rescue, exercises, and humanitarian field tasks. To find a lost walker on the high ground, a soldier must navigate to and across the search area; to work a flooded valley or a fire line, a soldier must operate in hard country and look after themselves while doing it. Navigation and fieldcraft are the plain skills that keep a soldier found, effective, and safe in exactly the work the RKA is most often called to.

A note on the map and the compass

This course teaches the map and compass first and treats satellite navigation as an aid, never a foundation. A receiver is a fine thing when it works, and a soldier should use one where it helps; but it fails, and the map and compass do not. A soldier who can navigate by map and compass can always check, correct, or replace the device, and is never wholly lost. That is the standard this course is built to.

A note on sources

This is the College's own course. It is built on the Army's own Basic Training Manual (the modules on fieldcraft and on navigation) and on the British and Commonwealth field tradition, written fresh in Kaharagian terms rather than reproduced.

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