The following article is taken from our new Active Threat Survival Essentials course, now available on our partnered platform the Iron Survival Network. Click below to access the full course. The course features interactive video lessons using footage of real-world attacks and teaches the most critical concepts and techniques for surviving a deadly encounter. VIEW THE FULL COURSE The tragic rise in active threat events (deadly attacks) has led to a great deal of effort towards finding effective countermeasures and solutions. Unfortunately, many of those efforts have met with limited succ ..read more

Special Tactics is proud to have collaborated with William S. Lind, LTG(ret) James Dubik and Don Vandergriff in creating The New Maneuver Warfare Handbook. Since the original Maneuver Warfare Handbook was published in 1985, understanding of maneuver warfare has broadened and deepened. Here, the author of the original book, William S. Lind, shares that new knowledge with readers. The New Maneuver Warfare Handbook offers novel insights in military theory while remaining focused on the people who do the fighting, Marines and soldiers from Battalion level on down through staff NCOs and NCOs. The ..read more

The first installment of our four-part article on school/church defense focused on the importance of integrating three elements into a cohesive plan of action: On-site armed guards, auxiliary security/support personnel and local law enforcement. The second installment focused on seven suggestions for employing armed guards for school defense and how to integrate those guards into a larger plan/drill for responding to a deadly attack. This article deals with the incorporation of “auxiliary security assets” into the overall security plan. Finally, as in previous installments, while this article ..read more

The last article on school and church defense focused on the importance of integrating three elements into a cohesive plan of action: On-site armed guards, auxiliary security/support personnel and local law enforcement. In this second part of the 4-part article, we will focus on seven suggestions for employing armed guards for school defense and how to integrate those guards into a larger plan/drill for responding to a deadly attack. While the more guards a school can have the better, even just a single armed guard on campus can greatly reduce the threat. Many schools have started to employ a ..read more

The Special Tactics staff offers our prayers for the victims of the tragic school massacre in Uvalde, Texas and for the families who lost loved ones. Unfortunately, it seems clear that we have not seen the end of this rising trend of violent attacks. We want to do everything we can to help prevent future killings or at the very least reduce their number. Several years ago we published a 4-part article series (on our old website) covering Tactical School/Church Security and Active Shooter Response. We are re-publishing that article series here starting with the first part on an “Integrated App ..read more

We have recently received some requests from instructors, asking for permission to use our presentations and learning materials in their own tactical schools and courses. The good news for those instructors and all the other tactical instructors out there is that you DO NOT need permission to use any of our materials in your own training. Just like a high school teacher does not need to get permission from the textbook publisher to use a textbook in his/her class, any tactical instructor or school can use any of our materials, as long as they don’t steal them or break any copyright laws. If y ..read more

This short article is adapted from an earlier article and draws from our new High-Intensity Military Urban Combat book. The article discusses how high-intensity urban combat is different from low-intensity urban combat and provides several examples of urban defensive tactics from the manual. We welcome your reactions, comments and ideas on our Facebook page and if you like the article, click below to check out the book on Amazon. GET THE KINDLE E-BOOK ON AMAZON Our new High-Intensity Military Urban Combat book is an abridged version of the longer Squad-Level Military Urban Combat manual publi ..read more

This short article is taken from our new Law Enforcement Defensive Tactics Essentials book. The article is drawn from the book’s introduction and gives a brief overview of the Special Tactics Fighting Art (STFA) and discusses the critical concept of reflexive mastery for tactical martial artists. We welcome your reactions, comments and ideas on our Facebook page and if you like the article, click below to check out the book on Amazon. GET THE KINDLE E-BOOK ON AMAZON Law enforcement officers are currently facing some of the most difficult and confusing challenges they have encountered in recen ..read more

This short article is taken from our new Small Unit Infantry Ambush Tactics book. The article is drawn from the book’s introduction and discusses how the doctrinal “schoolhouse” mentality has caused many small unit leaders to forget the hard-earned ambush lessons of previous conflicts. We welcome your reactions, comments and ideas on our Facebook page and if you like the article, click below to check out the book on Amazon. GET THE KINDLE E-BOOK ON AMAZON The Lost Art of the Ambush The ambush is one of the most commonly practiced but least understood tactical skills in the modern U.S. militar ..read more

This short article is taken from our new Tactical Home Defense and Security book. The article discusses how to select and establish defensive positions inside your home in response to a hostile attack. We welcome your reactions, comments and ideas on our Facebook page and if you like the article, click below to check out the book on Amazon. ENROLL IN THE ONLINE COURSE GET THE COMPANION E-BOOK ON AMAZON Tactical Home Defense: Neighborhood Security No security measure is a magical forcefield that actively protects you from threats. The best alarm system in the world doesn’t provide any security ..read more