Royal Army College

Lesson Overview

Every means of communication fails sometimes. A radio's battery dies, a set breaks, ground or weather blocks a signal, a handset is lost or soaked, a net goes silent for reasons no one can see. The lessons of this course have taught you to communicate well; this one teaches you what to do when, despite all of it, the communication is not getting through. It is one of the most important lessons in the course, because the moment communication fails is exactly the moment an undisciplined force falls apart, soldiers stop, wait, mill about, and lose the thread, while a disciplined one keeps acting. A force that can only function when its radios work is a fragile force; a force whose soldiers know what to do when the radio goes dead is a resilient one, and on this Army's tasks, in bad weather, broken ground, and a crisis, communication failing is not a rare accident but a thing to be expected and prepared for.

The lesson takes communication failure in three parts. First, the principle that holds a force together when the net fails: that soldiers trained to act on intent keep working toward the commander's known purpose when no orders come, so a broken net does not mean a stopped force. Second, the lost-comms drill: the prearranged actions a soldier or patrol carries out when communication is lost, the "actions on no communication" agreed in orders before they are needed, so that what to do is already decided and rehearsed rather than worked out in the moment. Third, alternative means: the other ways of getting a message through when the primary fails, the runner, the field signals already learned, visual and sound means, a fallback set or channel, so that losing one means is not losing all communication. Throughout, the lesson holds that resilience is prepared in advance: the time to decide what to do when the radio dies is before it dies, in orders and rehearsal, not in the silence after.

This is the knowledge layer. The hands-on skill, carrying out a lost-comms drill, sending a runner, falling back to an alternative means, and keeping acting on intent when the net is dead, is drilled and certified in person, above all on the airsoft military-simulation field where comms are deliberately stressed and broken to test whether a patrol keeps functioning. By the end you will be able to keep acting on the commander's intent when communication fails; carry out a lost-comms drill of prearranged actions agreed in orders; use alternative means, the runner, field signals, visual and sound, and fallback sets or channels, to get a message through when the primary fails; recognise communication failure as a thing to expect and prepare for, not a rare accident; and explain why a force resilient to comms failure is built before the failure, in orders and rehearsal.

Key Terms

Communication failure (lost comms): any state in which a soldier or patrol cannot communicate by the primary means, whether from equipment, ground, weather, loss, or an unexplained silence.
Acting on intent: continuing to work toward the commander's known purpose when no orders are getting through, the principle (from Lesson 01) that keeps a force functioning when the net fails.
Commander's intent: the purpose behind the task, what is to be achieved and why, understood by every soldier so they can act toward it without fresh orders.
Lost-comms drill (actions on no comms): the prearranged actions a soldier or patrol carries out when communication is lost, agreed in orders before the task so they need no deciding in the moment.
Prearranged action (drill): a response decided and rehearsed in advance so it can be carried out under stress without thought, the same idea as any battle drill.
Alternative means: another way of passing a message when the primary fails, including the runner, field signals, visual and sound signals, and a fallback set or channel.
Runner: a person who physically carries a message from one place to another when it cannot be sent, the oldest and most reliable alternative means.
Fallback (set, channel, or means): the prearranged alternative to switch to when the primary means fails, named in orders so the switch needs no improvising.
Rendezvous (RV): a prearranged place (and time) to move to or meet at if communication is lost, a common element of a lost-comms drill.
Resilience: the quality of a force that keeps functioning through failures, built in advance by training to act on intent, by drills, and by alternative means.

When the net fails, a trained force keeps going

The first and most important thing to understand about communication failure is that it need not stop the force, and whether it does is decided long before the failure, by how the soldiers were trained. There are two kinds of force when the radio dies. One has been trained to depend on the net: its soldiers wait for orders, and when no orders come they stop, wait, and lose cohesion, because their functioning was wired to a constant stream of communication that has now ceased. The other has been trained to act on intent: its soldiers understand the commander's purpose, what is to be achieved and why, and when no orders come they keep working toward that purpose, because the communication failure has taken away the orders but not the understanding of what the orders were for. The first force is fragile, undone by a dead battery; the second is resilient, slowed but not stopped.

This is why Lesson 01 insisted that a force trains its soldiers to act on intent, and this lesson is where that principle earns its keep. The commander's intent is the purpose behind the task, held by every soldier, and it is what lets a soldier decide what to do when the net is silent: not by guessing, but by asking "what is this task for, and what action now serves that purpose?" A patrol that has lost comms with its commander but knows the commander wanted the missing person found and the area cleared can keep searching toward that end; a patrol that knew only its immediate orders and not the purpose behind them is left helpless the moment the orders stop. The deep lesson is that communication failure is survived not mainly by clever alternative means, though those matter, but by every soldier understanding enough of the purpose to keep acting toward it without being told. A force where intent is understood does not fall silent when the net does; it keeps moving toward the goal, communicating where it can and acting on intent where it cannot, until communication is restored. Building that understanding, in every soldier, before the task, is the first and best preparation for comms failure, and it is why a good commander always ensures their soldiers know not just what to do but why.

   WHEN THE NET DIES: TWO KINDS OF FORCE

   trained to DEPEND ON THE NET        trained to ACT ON INTENT
   --------------------------          --------------------------
   soldiers wait for orders            soldiers know the PURPOSE
   no orders come -> they STOP,        no orders come -> they keep
   wait, lose cohesion                 working toward the purpose
        |                                   |
   FRAGILE: undone by a dead            RESILIENT: slowed but not
   battery                             stopped
        |                                   |
   the failure took the ORDERS          the failure took the orders
   AND the function                     but NOT the understanding

   the question a soldier asks in the silence: "what is this task FOR,
   and what action now serves that purpose?"  (Lesson 01's intent)
   -> built in EVERY soldier, BEFORE the task. why a good commander
      tells soldiers not just WHAT but WHY.

The lost-comms drill: deciding in advance

Acting on intent keeps a force moving in the right direction, but a force also needs to decide, in advance, the specific actions to take when communication is lost, so that no one has to invent a response in the confusion of the moment. This is the lost-comms drill, the "actions on no communication" agreed in orders before the task, and it is a battle drill like any other: a response decided and rehearsed beforehand so it can be carried out under stress without thought. The principle is the one this whole course rests on, applied to failure: the time to decide what to do when the radio dies is before it dies. A patrol that has agreed its lost-comms actions in orders carries them out smoothly when the net goes silent; a patrol that has not stands around debating what to do at exactly the moment it most needs to act.

A lost-comms drill answers, in advance, the questions a soldier will face when communication fails. What do I do first, check and try to restore the communication, or act? Usually a quick, disciplined attempt to restore comms, check the set, the battery, the antenna, move to better ground, before falling to the drill. If I cannot restore it, what action do I take, do I continue the task on intent, hold, or move? Where do I go, often a prearranged rendezvous, a place agreed in orders to move to or meet at if communication is lost, so a scattered patrol can reform without needing to talk. How do I try to re-establish communication, at what time, on what fallback, from what place? And for how long do I try before falling back to the next plan? These are settled in orders, so that the answer is already known: lost comms means do this, go here, try to reconnect thus, and if that fails, then this. The drill removes the paralysis of the unprepared, because the soldier does not have to work out what to do; they execute what was already agreed. This is exactly the kind of prearranged action Patrolling and Tactical Movement builds for contacts and other events, applied to the event of losing communication, and it is rehearsed the same way, until the patrol carries it out without hesitation. A good set of orders always includes the actions on no communication, and a soldier always knows them before they step off, because the failure they prepare for is one that, on this Army's tasks, is very likely to come.

   THE LOST-COMMS DRILL  (decide + rehearse BEFORE, execute WITHOUT
                          thought)

   agreed in ORDERS before the task ("actions on no comms"):

   1. TRY TO RESTORE (quick, disciplined): check set / battery /
      antenna; move to better ground
        | still no comms?
        v
   2. WHAT ACTION? .... continue the task ON INTENT / hold / move
                       (as orders specify)
   3. WHERE? ......... prearranged RENDEZVOUS (move to / reform there
                       without needing to talk)
   4. RE-ESTABLISH .... at what TIME, on what FALLBACK, from what place
   5. HOW LONG? ...... try for how long before the next plan

   -> "lost comms means: do THIS, go HERE, try to reconnect THUS, and
       if that fails, THEN this."
   removes the paralysis of the unprepared; the soldier EXECUTES what
   was already agreed (a battle drill, like a contact drill in
   Patrolling and Tactical Movement). Always in orders; always known
   before stepping off.

Alternative means: getting the message through anyway

Acting on intent and the lost-comms drill keep a force functioning when communication fails, but often a message still must get through, and the third part of resilience is having alternative means, other ways to pass a message when the primary fails. The principle is simple: do not let the loss of one means be the loss of all communication. A force that can communicate only by radio has, in a dead radio, lost everything; a force that has alternative means has lost one channel and still has others. The oldest and most reliable alternative is the runner, a person who physically carries a message from one place to another when it cannot be sent. The runner is slow and costs a body, but they are almost unfailingly reliable, immune to dead batteries, jamming, and bad ground, and a written message carried by a runner gets through when no signal will. A soldier should never forget that when all else fails, a message can be written down and carried by hand, and that this humble means has carried orders through when every radio was silent.

Beyond the runner, the alternative means are largely ones this course has already taught, now seen as the fallbacks they are. The field signals of Lesson 03, hand, whistle, and light, are alternative means: silent, equipment-light ways to pass simple messages that work when the radio does not, which is why that lesson stressed they are not only a stealth tool but the patrol's communication when the net is unavailable. Visual and sound signals at greater range, a recognised light signal, a pyrotechnic where the force has them, a prearranged sound, can pass an agreed meaning across a distance when no one can talk. And a fallback set or channel, a second radio, a different frequency, a backup means named in orders, lets a patrol switch to an alternative rather than going dark, provided the fallback was arranged in advance. The thread through all of these is that they work only if prepared: a runner needs to know where to go, a light signal needs an agreed meaning, a fallback channel needs to be named and monitored, and all of that is settled in orders before the task, the same forethought as the lost-comms drill. The soldier's job is to know the alternative means available for the task, to reach for the next one when the primary fails rather than giving up on communication, and to remember that a message can almost always be got through by some means if the soldier is determined and prepared. Combined, intent, the drill, and alternative means make a force resilient to the communication failures that, on this Army's tasks, are certain to come: the force keeps acting toward its purpose, follows its agreed actions when the net dies, and gets its messages through by whatever means still works, so that a dead radio slows the force but never stops it.

In Practice: The dead net on the hillside

A section is searching a hillside for a missing walker in worsening weather, and partway through the search the commander's net goes dead, the weather and the ground between her and the far half of the section have killed the signal. This is the moment that separates a fragile force from a resilient one, and because this section was prepared, it does not fall apart. The far half of the section, suddenly without orders, does not stop and wait. They know the commander's intent, the missing walker is to be found and the assigned ground cleared, and so they keep searching their sector toward that purpose, acting on intent rather than freezing for want of an order, exactly as Lesson 01's principle and this lesson require.

They also execute the lost-comms drill agreed in orders before they stepped off. First they make a quick, disciplined attempt to restore comms, checking the set and moving a little to better ground, but the signal does not return. So they fall to the agreed actions: continue clearing the assigned sector on intent, and, at the prearranged time, attempt to re-establish communication from a high point on the fallback the orders named. None of this needs working out in the moment, because it was decided in advance; the soldiers simply carry out what was agreed. When the timed attempt from the high point still does not raise the commander, they use an alternative means rather than giving up on communication: they send a runner, with a brief written message, back toward the commander's last position, carrying the report that their sector is clear and the walker not found there. The runner, immune to the dead net, gets the message through where no signal would, and the commander, who had been acting on intent on her own side, now has the far half's report and can redirect the search.

The value is a search that continued and a force that held together through a communication failure that would have stopped an unprepared one. Because every soldier knew the intent, the section kept working toward finding the walker when the net died; because the lost-comms drill was agreed in orders, the far half acted smoothly instead of milling about; and because the section had alternative means and the determination to use them, the runner got the message through and the search was coordinated again. Another section, trained to depend on the net and with no lost-comms drill, would have stopped on the hillside when the radio went dead, half of it waiting for orders that could not come, while a walker who needed finding waited in the worsening weather. Both lost comms on the same hill. One was built to be resilient before the task, and the difference, when the net died, was whether the search went on.

Check Your Understanding

Explain why whether a communication failure stops a force is decided before the failure, by how the soldiers were trained. Contrast a force trained to depend on the net with one trained to act on intent, and explain how the commander's intent lets a soldier decide what to do when the net is silent.
Describe the lost-comms drill and why deciding the actions in advance, in orders, matters so much. What questions does a lost-comms drill answer beforehand, and how is it the same kind of prearranged drill as a contact drill in Patrolling and Tactical Movement?
Explain the principle "do not let the loss of one means be the loss of all communication," and describe the alternative means available, the runner, field signals, visual and sound, and a fallback set or channel. Why does each work only if prepared in advance, and why is the runner described as the most reliable alternative?

Reflection (write a short paragraph): This lesson argues that resilience to communication failure is built before the failure, in understanding the intent, in agreed drills, and in prepared alternative means, and that the moment the radio dies is exactly the moment an unprepared force falls apart. Think about the difference between a soldier who stops when the net goes silent and one who keeps acting toward the purpose, and what it means that on this Army's tasks, in bad weather and broken ground, comms failing is to be expected rather than feared. What would it take to be the soldier who keeps the search going when the radio dies, and why does that rest on preparation done long before?

Summary

Every means of communication fails sometimes, and on this Army's tasks, in bad weather, broken ground, and crisis, communication failing is to be expected and prepared for, not treated as a rare accident. The moment the net dies is when an undisciplined force falls apart and a disciplined one keeps acting.
Whether a failure stops a force is decided before it, by training. A force trained to depend on the net stops when orders cease; a force trained to act on intent keeps working toward the commander's known purpose, slowed but not stopped. Every soldier knowing the intent, the why and not just the what, is the first and best preparation.
The lost-comms drill is the prearranged "actions on no communication" agreed in orders before the task: try to restore comms, then take the agreed action (continue on intent, hold, or move), go to a prearranged rendezvous, and re-establish on a named fallback at a set time. Decided and rehearsed in advance, it removes the paralysis of the unprepared.
Do not let the loss of one means be the loss of all communication: have alternative means. The runner, who physically carries a written message, is the most reliable, immune to dead batteries and bad ground; the field signals of Lesson 03, visual and sound signals at range, and a named fallback set or channel are the others.
Alternative means work only if prepared: a runner needs to know where to go, a signal an agreed meaning, a fallback channel to be named and monitored, all settled in orders before the task, the same forethought as the drill.
Intent, the drill, and alternative means together make a force resilient: it keeps acting toward its purpose, follows its agreed actions when the net dies, and gets messages through by whatever means still works, so a dead radio slows the force but never stops it.
Cross-references: rests on acting on intent from Why Communication Wins (Lesson 01); carries the actions-on-no-comms in the orders of Orders and the Orders Process (Lesson 05) and as a drill like those of Patrolling and Tactical Movement; reaches for the field signals of Field Signals: Hand, Whistle, and Light (Lesson 03) and the messages of The Message and the Report (Lesson 04) as alternative means; and prepares the resilience the force needs on the search, relief, and crisis tasks of Aid to the Civil Power and Public Order.

When Communication Fails: Lost-Comms Drills and Alternative Means