NBC Hazard and NBC SOP

[echo9c]

Just curious, how does an M1A1 Abrams Pl of 3 tanks lose 2 tanks driving down a road through a persistent chemical hazard with an SOP of Avoid NBC? I can see them blundering into the hazard even with the SOP, but I can’t see them continuing another 1000m down the road without mitigating their problem of dying from a chemical agent. At what point after encountering an NBC agent do they assume a high state of NBC protection, hatches down and full NBC gear on, gas suits, gloves, and respirators?

Also, does the NBC hazard get flashed to other subunits in a formation? Five M901 SP AT with an avoid NBC SOP drove into a known persistent chemical hazard and lost 4 out of 5 vehicles. While not having the same protection as an M1 tank, I know from experience it is possible to operate in a M113 type vehicle while wearing complete personal NBC protection. It’s not comfortable and your efficiency is really degraded but it is a tiny bit better than being dead.

In both cases, the units were using deliberate movement.

[WildCatNL]

Hi,

Thanks for reporting.

The Avoid NBC SOP instructs the unit to avoid known/reported NBC contaminated areas during movement. Information about newly discovered contamination isn't distributed instantly to all of the force's vehicles. Especially vehicles already initiating a move into an area which is being declared contaminated may respond too late.
We recently (after the 2.1.3 release) improved the ability of units to avoid known contaminated areas, so your example of the five M901's should no longer occur from the next update/beta.

The Avoid NBC SOP doesn't mean the unit is in high state of NBC protection. The Abrams weren't, and by the time some crew members developed symptoms suggesting NBC and alerted the platoon, two tanks had their crew contaminated and/or panicking and become ineffective.

I'll check if the Avoid NBC SOP reduces the casualties from hitting an (undetected) contaminated area, and raise a change request for this behavior if it doesn't.

[cbelva]

If the M1A1 unit drives into an unknown contaminated hex, they would take casualties. Like William said, the SOP to avoid does not necessarily mean that they are in a high state of protection. The NBC SOP states the action the unit whould take upon encountering a KNOWN contaminated area. If it is to avoid, they should try and move around it. If the SOP setting was not to avoid, then they would attempt to cross the area with max protection and decon later.