Welcome all to the latest minor SITREP, and indeed the first of many in 2022. The SITREP is the primary communication detailing roadmap progression and changes to SOP - it contains key updates from the senior staff and from across the senior chain of command.

At least in this addition, the minor SITREP will recap on detailed changes since the last Major sitrep (in case you missed them) as well as give some indication of whats on the horizon, wheras the Major sitreps will be where we implement the most change.

Server Issues / New Server

During November December, I noted the performance issues, and of well over 700 deployments I recall cancelling only 3 in the last 3 years to server issues, one of those was recently on Operation Polaris. We continue to make adjustments on this front more conservatively to optimise performance but with a focus on stability. All deployments from this SITREP will also take place on the new hardware which has a better CPU and core count than our 2020-2021 hardware.

Below are a number of updates from our ongoing Continual Standard Operating Procedure Improvement Programmes (CSIPs)

CSIP Core Infantry

concerns the following Core Infantry procedures;
 

• (P3-184) Weapon control statuses - updated to version 3
  • split out from LOAC, updated and better defined usage on weapons states (red/orange/green)
  • Effective immediately
     
• (P3-9) Rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict - updated to version 3
  • expanded with detail
  • Effective immediately
     
• (P3-155) Captured persons (CPERS) - updated to version 3
  • expanded with detail and more procedures.
  • Effective immediately
     
• (P3-181) Movement: Peel - updated to version 2
  • This new movement technique has been introduced and specified
  • More FTXs will be scheduled to drill this in completely.
  • This will be added to recruit training
  • Effective immediately

Many thanks to Pvt Minipily and Pvt Johnson working in the LOAC/CPERS CSIP and SFC Skullcollector for Movement.

Leadership CSIP Update

You'll see a number of trial ORBATs in the schedule with varying Squad sizes, as you'll know our default Squad is 15 men, and you'll see a variance between 9 and 15 man squads as part of the CSIP trials.

Medical CSIP Update

You'll see some trial ORBATs without Squad Medics, and the usage of Combat Medical Teams on platoon ORBATs, this is part of CSIP testing.

Updated to version 2201.22 Effective immediately

1. Disabled retrieval of GPS from UNITAB for all deployments
2. Prevented convertion of FAKs to ACE medical items, to counter duplication bug
3. Balancing for weapon overheating due to ACE update allowing suppressor coefficient
4. GRAD trenches settings re-added

GRAD Trenches

Trenches dug with the Entrenching tool now return to GRAD trenches. Effective immediately

- Camouflage your trench with small bushes
- New trenches to place
- Short trench to quickly provide cover for 1-2 soldiers
- New digging sound effects and visual effects

• Map - Kujari has been approved
• GRAD Tranches has been re-approved

Annual Survey Reminder

If you have not already, please be reminded that the Annual Survey will stop accepting Subissions on 23:59 UTC on Monday January 31st 2022. 
If you have not submitted now is the time to do so: https://unitedtaskforce.net/communications/topic/82

I would add a massive thank you to those who have already done so, we have had exceptional uptake from the total force this year, and we'll circle back to talk about the results over the coming months.

4 Troop

As you'll know, we are preparing to open 4 Troop to support our future growth, which will take place within the next month or so. Selections for all roles related to it's formation are ongoing.

Role Certification System

As announced in TAFFCAST 10, the Role Certification System (RCS) will be launched in the next SITREP;

• If you missed it, you can listen to TAFFCAST here
• If you are looking for a summary of RCS you can find it here
   

What I can tell you is that on launch, the RCS will start with the Radio Operator Certification, and then shortly after all other Communications roles.

• The current version of the RTO Certification can be found here this will give you an idea of what role abilities look like.

Shortly after Communications roles are introduced, Leadership, Aircrew and Marksmanship will follow. More updates on this as they come, but do expect changes as this is in-development.

Schedule Conflict Management

It's now possible to control schedule conflicts by preventing deployments on overlapping ORBATs or re-runs. On ORBATs that have schedule conflicts, you'll get a warning an link to any conflicting ORBATs - this will open up more creative opportunities for the schedule.

If you are deployed on one of them, you'll be prevented from deploying on the other, and be shown a warning.

Updated Active Personnel Chart

The active personnel chart has been updated to include a new section for Support Staff. This is designed to make it easier to know who to contact if you'd like to get involved in some of the support teams, such as mission making or training and SOP.
This lists the key personnel who are active in those areas and sits just under the active force chart.

SOP Change Request Notifications

When SOP change requests are approved, notifications will now be sent to the relevant J6 channel to notify the requestor and other interested personnel about the change and it's detail

SOP Viewing Statistics

We've now extended the SOP viewing statistics to show not only the total number of views, but how many members of the Active Force have verifiably read the SOP.
There is the possibility that they have read the SOP while logged out, so this figure should be perceived as a worst case scenario in any case.

ORBAT Viewing Statistics

We've also extended viewing statistics to ORBATs, which in the key information section will show the total number of views and how many unqiue active force members have viewed the ORBAT.

Operations and Campaign Orders Viewing Statistics

Again, similar data for the viewing of Operations Orders (OPORDS) and Campaign Briefings can be found in the toolbar. This is to better help us understand how the are used.

UNISOCIAL Updates

You can now filter by owned games only

Active rallies are shown with Discord Voice links.

Campaign Specific Media

While this existed before, it was not working. But it is now fixed and possible to access all media for an entire campaign by going to the Campaign Center, Media tab. This draws screenshots from all Dossiers where the user uploaded the image to an ORBAT from said campaign.

Campaign Center Nationality Flags

Added the nationality of the Campaigns Factions to the Campaign Center and Operations Schedule, each campaign can now have mutliple flags.

UNISTATS / Campaign Center Statistical Updates

The Campaign Center has been overhauled with new statistics, starting with a full breakdon on the last 6 months of operations by type, and upcoming. As well as for the first time, a full breakdown of Campaign Statistics by Rating, Performance, Slots Deployed and Hours

We have also dded an interactive / live visualization of the all-time combat operations size/rating scatter graph to UNISTATS which shows every combat operation as a single point in time, with trend lines for size and ratings.

You can find a persional version of this chart in your Dossier Account page, or via Dossier management for ORGCOC.

Dossier Management

Messages sent automatically by the bot are now logged and viewable in dossier management

Ability to Global Search for Campaigns, Roles and Communications

The Campaign Center, Roles Center and Comms Center have been added to global search.

For the Third Year this year, we'll be running the UNITAF Annual Survey.

The Survey runs each year from the 1st of January to the 31st January. The Survey is the only direct feedback the organisation collates outside of AARs and Suggestions and the Chain of Command itself.

We greatly appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.

The closing date for submissions is 23:59 UTC on Monday January 31st 2022.

Please note: 

• This is not mandatory
• The survey is not anonymous and you must submit a valid UNITAF ID in your submission
• if duplicate submissions are recieved for the same person, you will be contacted by a member of UNISTAFF
• unresolved identity issues with a survey result entry will result in it being destroyed - meaning it wont be considered
• only members of UNISTAFF will see the individual entries of the survey, that is myself, Capt Kevin and 1Lt Jari.

Click here to take part.

Thank you.

Welcome to the final SITREP for 2021, it has been nearly two months since the last major SITREP, so while this is a bit of a bumper edition of sorts, we will follow up with a Minor SITREP around the middle of January, as there are a number of items we just couldn't roll out in time. If this is your first SITREP a very warm welcome to UNITAF - I hope you are enjoying your time here thus far. For those of you that are skipping this paragraph because it's not your first rodeo, I wish you a very happy holidays and into the new year, from all of UNISTAFF.

The SITREP is the primary communication detailing roadmap progression and changes to SOP - it contains key updates from the senior staff and from across the senior chain of command.

Firstly and in view of what you will read further down in this SITREP, a massive thanks goes to our Mission Support and Leadership teams for delivering some fantastic campaigns this year. We're a bit heavy on the Conventional War side at the moment and I have instructed staff not to accept any further campaign pitches of this type. That said, we are willing to accept proposals for COIN / Peacekeeping or similar to help bring balance to the schedule in the new year.

New Campaign Updates

Operation Poseidon
Summary: Throughout the last 10 years, the People’s republic of China has increasingly built up their military. At the same time they have also been expanding into the South China Sea. The US & Australia have recently been combating this threat with major exercises however, After the recent incident with PLAN Forces, it's time for more drastic action.

View full details on the Campaign Center https://unitedtaskforce.net/campaigns/portal/op-poseidon

Operation Everglade
Summary: Cold War, mostly ironsights without optics - to be announced shortly.

Existing Campaign Updates

Operation Sapphire
Sapphire was retired out in mid-December to allow for a map change, and is due to return shortly on it's new terrain.

Operation Parabole
Similar to Sapphire, Parabole is set to return with a new map shortly.

Changes to Recruit Fatigue and Slot Access

Effective immediately, (fatigue bonuses may take up to 36 hours to apply)

Over the course of this year, and since the introduction of the Tier and Fatigue systems, we've continued to review effects across the Task Force and what follows is the latest re-balance in that vein. Even if your not a Recruit, this change may impact you so it's worth reading.

Earlier this year we noticed that some recruits were ignoring Core Infantry and progressing tiers in other areas, which lead us to prevent Recruits from being able to achieve Tier II in any non-infantry area. This change was aimed at ensuring that recruits are not distracted by the lure of those areas until they have served a set period in entry level combat roles. This is vitally important because the majority (over 80%) of the entire slot supply is Infantry, and our Recruitment and Retention Marketing also reflects this, with Applicants being told specifically that the Unit is Infantry First, and not to apply if they dislike infantry roles.

This is a quite deliberate effort to deter applications from single interest applicants, who for example would only fly, or drive tanks and never deploy in other areas. Our data shows that the most successful applicants have 2-3 interests and we're looking ultimately for team players who'll be flexible to the teams needs, but still have their own interests. Partly, this is also about rewarding those that do have multi-interest approches.

To further this effort, we're going to continue to double down on this policy post application by making the following change;

• Recruits no longer have access to Tier II (or greater) roles in any Combat Area, except for Core Infantry
• This means Recruits;
  • can access T-0 and T-1 roles outside Core Infantry, via L Slots, having the Tier or via 1UP
  • can access any Tier Core Infantry role via having the requirement or through 1UP or 2UP

Above: Recruits will see the "Min Pvt" message on roles which they can't access as Recruits.

This update will go some way to reducing the time a Recruit spends in their probationary period by funnelling them into meeting the requirements required to progress, or, frankly giving up because the unit is not right for them - which to be clear - is OK.

To help Recruits, while we are taking away with one hand we are giving with another;

• Recruits will no longer gain fatigue in Core Infantry, getting a 100% reduction in fatigue (only for Core Infantry roles) during their first month of active time in grade (0 ATIG).
• During their second month of active time in grade, they'll get a 50% reduction in fatigue (only for Core Infantry roles) (1 ATIG)
• Once they reach 2 ATIG, 2 months active time in grade, they will no longer get a fatigue bonus for Core Infantry Roles

This change is two sided, it will give Recruits priority access on release to Infantry roles, and will free up specialist roles for Regulars, at the same time it is intended to ease some of the complaints around the difficulty of slot access for new Recruits, easing them into our system of deployment. We will continue to monitor this closely and the resulting impact/behaviours on both Recruits and Regulars.

UNITAB Additional Feature Update for Intelligence Officers

Effective immediately

If you are the listed Intelligence Officer for a deployment, a role assigned to the Senior Game Master, you'll see a slightly altered UNITAB in future;

• Reporter - opens the Splendid Camera
• Admin - Opens the Admin Menu

• Reload ORBAT - Hard reloads the full ORBAT, use if having multiple issues with loadouts or Zeus permissions
• ENDEX - Runs the ENDEX script, desimulates all AI, heals all players, puts all weapons to safe
• Get Zeus - Emergency Zeus recovery performant, never use promote Zeus modules.
• Open Arsenal - Opens a full Arsenal for your Player.

CBA Settings

Effective immediately

Version 2412.21 was updated and released to STG-2 in December, a number of minor changes outlined below;

• Ability to arrest armed players or suspects pre surrender
• Minor increase to blood flow rates for IV lines
• Removal of ACE Fire systems introduced in the ACE 3.14 update
• Added versioning headers to setting files for easier tracking

If you have not updated your mission files, please ensure you do so, a version for AI Uncon has also been published.

A full mod review has taken place, and you can find approved mods here and pending approval / rejected mods here.

Effective immediately

I will highlight just a few notable mods;

• Zulu Headless Client (ZHC) - to be tested, potential for performance improvements
• grad_civs - to be tested on deployments pending adoption, a good candidate for Enduring Freedom

A number of mods have also been approved for the Upcoming Operation Poseidon (China) and Operation Everglade (Cold War).

November/December 21 Personnel Activity

With a few deployments still to go until the below data for December is finalised, the recovery in total attendance continues with just over 800 unique deployments in both November and December, the active force strength remains strong at 114 in November and down to 109 in December, with the next intakes planned for January 2022, this should continue to level out in the new year.

November/December 21 Operations Activity

November posted a joint record with May for deployments at 38, December a little quieter which was anticipated over the holiday period. There was a notible dip in overall mission ratings posted in December, down 5 points from the accepted average, it's also cerrelated with a minor nose dive in server performance ratings which will contribute somewhat to the overall figure.

Some work was done to address poor server performance reports in late December which we continue to monitor - In any case, some healthy data all around and nothing to be overly concerned with during this period.

A look back at 2021

When we get to this time of year, it's a good chance to reflect on the year, but to also cast back on previous years - to see just how far we've come.

Deployment activity

I feel this probably speaks for itself that we completed the same number of deployments last month (November, less 1) than the entire year of 2019. The number of deployments increased by 69% to 393. Well over the 1 per day average. Talking to the active force strength, annualised (this is the number of unqiue people deploying in the given year). Increasing at a similar rate to deployments, from just shy of 200 to just under 300 this year, what that does show is a % of total force members with a total membership less than 1 Year, or a higher turnover of Recruits as the force grows, which is expected and also under further investigation.

Slot supply

Where this gets really interesting, is when you factor in not only the huge increase in operations, but the increased size of them, resulting in a ramp even SP2 Bex wouldn't drive off. Again to use my prior comparison, we deployed 825 slots this November, which is more that the total deployed in the entire year of 2019 at 556. The number of slots deployed has increased 148% from 2020/2021, to over.. 9000.

Mission ratings

You know what they say, quality over quantity - and so it's important to not forget that. Even so, average mission ratings across the years are still overwhelmingly positive, and we recently passed the 90% average all time. While there are observable points of failure month to month, this shows that the application of corrections is overall effective.

UNISOCIAL

You will have likely seen the UNISOCIAL announcement on Discord, which has already been deployed a few days ago - the video below outlines it in full, but a summary is below.

• Other games moved from account settings to UNISOCIAL
• Other games getting dedicated pages
• Other game rally pings auto-create and remove voice channels with invites as part of the pings

As mentioned in the original update, we will build on these updates in the future.

Continual SOP Improvement Programmes

There are number of CSIP teams underway at this time, they are;

• CSIP Medical: Full Review, expected Q1/Q2 2022
• CSIP Leadership: Full Review, expected Q2 2022
• CSIP Mission Support: To create and detail undocumented SOPs, ongoing
• CSIP LOAC / CPERS: Minor updates to CI LOAC policies, expected Q1 2022

It has been a rather long 2 months since I did a proper updates and congratulated those of you promoted since the last SITREP, so it's a longer list than usual. The last few months saw two new entries to the COC, both Cpl Sean and Cpl Nico and some promotions up the chain for SSG Chelmy, SSG Aiedail, SFC Whitewolf and most notably MSG Zuka and 2Lt Korean Falction - congratulations.

Also notable, the batch of SP2 and SP3 promotions since the Rank Review of SITREP/14.

Corporal, Assistant Section Commander Selection

• more information about the ORGCOC can be found here: https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/administration/chain-of-command
• more information about ASC's can be found here: https://unitedtaskforce.net/operations/roles/area/administration/list
• more information on UNITAFs promotions and selections process can be found here: https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/administration/promotions-and-selections

Well if you thought the promotions list was long, wait till you see this one.

Congratulations to everyone for all your achievements this period. A couple I would like to point out is to the long-servers achieving the Long Service Medal 1 Year - it's fantastic to see.

Update on works in progress

The eagle eyed among you will note the absense of a few items, so let me update you on those.

Automatic JFTL Assignment

Expected on MINOR SITREP, mid Jan 2022. Will automate the assignment of Junior Fire Team Leaders from non-NCOs during the pre-slotting stage.

Lesson Plans

Will bring central lesson plans database to the site, with approvals and versioning process, going through final stages of development.

Master After Action Reports

Expected January 22, either in the Minor or Major SITREP, further changes are expected to AARs as part of this update.

Misc

• BUG PATCH Combat fatigue applied to future deployments unintentionally has been removed, and will take effect on the next daily update for each dossier.
• T1494: Staged update for upcoming SITREP with fatigue and recruit changes
• T1515: Started detailed tracking of ORBAT / OPORD and Campaign Center viewing
• T1506: Added new functions to support Mod Center request processing
• T1278: Rolled out PAR Medal Detail Module as outlined in hq-announcements
• T1526: updated formulas for bugs reported in MYCOC2.0 - Promotions Report Good Conduct %
• T1510: When UNISOCIAL games are rallied, automatically create a temporary voice channel and place the invite in the ping
• T1523: Added a warning when a user is viewing an ORBAT for a campaign in which a campaign OPORD exists, but they have not read it yet
• T1527: Security fixes for other game pings
• T1473: UNISOCIAL modules roll-out and removal of OG modules in account settings
• T1508: Added the ability to add other games to UNISOCIAL to all users
• T1533: Fixed issue with Privates- accessing loadout viewers in the Roles Center
• T1358: Linked Fatigue SAL Policy to Fatigue data in Dossier Progression
• T1521: Recruit Tier Updates pre-SITREP
• T1465: Recruit UP Tiering Updates pre-SITREP

Actions

Please ensure that your After Action Reports are constructive, we'll be releasing a policy with further guidance along with the MAAR update.

Summary

Well, it's been a big year for UNITAF and with the announcement of Enfusion earlier this year and it's encouraging updates, next year could well prove to be even better.

See you in the field soon.

This minor SITREP contains some interim updates and will be effective Monday 1st November 2021.

• This SITREP
  • concludes the work of STG-11
  • completes the roadmap item  #71 Communications SOP Review

Lessonplans

An upcoming feature will change the process for FTX scheduling to only allow FTXs to be scheduled from an approved lessonplan. Until now most lessonplans live on Google Documents but with this update, lessonplans will be created, edited and published in a new Lessonplans area. Lessonplans can be associated with difficulty levels, different SOPs and roles. Once published and approved lessonplans can be selected when scheduling FTXs. Lessonplans are also viewable pubically, allowing attendees of FTXs more infomation on sign-up.

This update will be implemented in a number of Phases.

1. This SITREP - The feature is silently launched allowing testing and input by some training staff
2. The feature will be, within the next few weeks publically launched as all lessonplans are loaded
3. Around the time of the next major SITREP, lessonplans will be a requirement of scheduling an FTX, replacing the old 'Select SOP' method.

We will feature more about this update once it's ready for public release and many thanks to SSG Scape for his work on this. 

Joint Fires Communications SOP

Following the previous major review of Communications over the last 5 months, the second part of the updated SOP which covers the control of joint fires has been approved and has been published.

concerns the following Communications procedures, updated to Version 3;
 

• (P10-53) Artillery Control: Basics
• (P10-176) Artillery Control: Terminology
• (P10-179) Artillery Control: Call For Fire
• (P10-166) Artillery Control: Adjusting Fire
• (P10-170) Artillery Control: End of Mission
• (P10-171) Artillery Control: Bracketing
• (P10-172) Artillery Control: Examples
• (P10-49) Air Control: Basics
• (P10-162) Air Control: Aircraft Status/Check-In
• (P10-164) Air Control: Situation Update
• (P10-51) Air Control: Terminology
• (P10-52) Air Control: CAS Target Designation
• (P10-50) Air Control: CAS Requests
• (P10-167) Air Control: CAS Attack Phase
• (P10-168) Air Control: CAS End of Mission
• (P10-169) Air Control: CAS Examples
   

The update has substantually improved our procedures in these areas, and practices will commence next week on these topics, and more frequently going forward to get everyone up to speed. A big thanks to SSG Skullcollector, Cpl Noah_Hero and 1Lt Jari of STG-11 for their great work and patience over the last 5 months.

You can find the updated SOP here
https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/communication

New ORBAT roles

Thanks to PFC Clarke for the images.

Fire Support Chief

Complimenting the Logistics Support Chief, the Fire Support Chief orchastrates indirect fires by organising the battery and it's canonneers and communicating with the forward observers.

Combat Journalist

With a new mod covering cameras and the ability to use splendid camera via UNITAB a dedicated role of Combat Journalist.

The up-to-date mod requests and under-testing list can be found here https://unitedtaskforce.net/operations/mods/pending if you have made a request and it has not been mentioned below, check this page for an update on the request status if it has not been approved it will be listed in the Denied/Dissapproval List section with a reason code.
 

• Naval Legends APPROVED
• Snowmobiles APPROVED
• Hellenic Armed Forces Mod (HAFM) - NAVY APPROVED FOR TESTING
• VME PLA Mod APPROVED FOR TESTING
• Hate's Digital Camera APPROVED
• PSZ: OP4 APPROVED FOR TESTING
• PSZ: Polish Armed Forces APPROVED FOR TESTING
• Crows Zeus Additions APPROVED
• Blastcore Murr Edition APPROVED
• Gulfcoast Islands APPROVED
• Fifty Shades of Female (formerly FEMAL3 Heads) APPROVED
• AWESome - Aerial Warfare Enhanced Somehow APPROVED FOR TESTING
• BackpackOnChest - Redux APPROVED FOR TESTING
• ACE 3 Extension (Placeables) APPROVED
• JSRS SOUNDMOD - CUP WEAPONS MOD SOUND SUPPORT APPROVED
• JSRS SOUNDMOD - CUP VEHICLES MOD SOUND SUPPORT APPROVED
• HAFM NAVY Core & Weapons part APPROVED FOR TESTING
• PSZ: Compatibility with ACE APPROVED FOR TESTING

Weapon overheating

In the ACE 3 update 3.14, some further changes were made to the Overheating Framework which we missed in our previous update, but have now tweaked.

• Weapon overheating is now more prominent than before and functions have been added to cool your weapon using water in your inventory.
• Hot weapons are less accurate and have a higher rate of fire but are more prone to jamming
• Very hot weapons can cook-off (where a chambered round ignites due to heat rather than the hammer) causing discharge.
• Spare barrels are now more useful and should be carried by Assistants to allow MGs to swap barrels as needed to sustain fire.

Intel notifications

A new discord channel called #intelligence will allow Campaign staff to broadcast their intel postings to discord.

To broadcast a piece of intel, navigate to the campaign center and click on the Bullhorn icon to send the ping. This can only be done for publically viewable intel.

Uptiering notifications

It's now possible to subscribe to up-tiering notifications on an ORBAT. This will ping you directly when each stage of the up-tiering window opens, this setting is specific to an ORBAT, so will only ping you for ORBATs you have subscribed to.

Clicking on the toggle ON/OFF will toggle the subscription.

Homepage

The upcoming and currently live operations on the homepage will now display more detailed information, as well as being clickable.

Discord ping improvements

A number of Discord Pings have recieved updates.

• MVP pings contain more information about a deployments overall rating and how it compares to other UNITAF deployments both from it's campaign and globally.
• UP-tiering notifications now contain more information about the slots left on the deployment, and mention those with notifications enabled

Patreon

Just finally, a big thank you to those supporting UNITAF on Patreon, your contributions are always appreciated - so thank you.

Earlier today an ACE3 update was released which fixes a number of long-standing bugs, contains improvements but also has some wide ranging changes that will impact our operations - the most important are marked red. This updates details those most relevant to us, this update will present new challenges during operations and will require some additional SOP and SOP revisions in the future so please ensure you look it over.

If you are interested, you can find the full changelog here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/changelog/463939057

Vehicle Damage & Enhance Cook-Off 

Vehicle crews more easily take damage both during collisons but also when a vehicle takes incoming damage. Vehicles are less likely to explode and appear to catch-fire more easily. Vehicles which are critically damaged appear to set fire, explode and set everything around them on fire too, including the crew. This update also appears to fix the long standing issue where vehicle crews survive vehicle explosions.

This will mean lost vehicles will critically injure vehicle crews going forward, with the added complication of fire - see below for more on that one. It is likely we will invoke a new policy in that exploded vehicle crews will be killed and returned to base.

Fire

Splint, Fracture and Torniquet Indicators

Visual indicators for Splint, Fracture and Torniquets now show in the HUD, if enabled as shown below.

Ability to name cargo objects

An incredibly useful logistical feature, it's now possible to name cargo items.

Give it a descriptive name of what's inside, i.e. the contents or whom / callsign it belongs to.

This makes LOGPAKs in ACE cargo, very easy to identify.

BFT/CTAB Group Names

Group leaders can now set their own group names, reflecting on CTAB and BFT. This remains as SOP, but this is currently done by GMs, however it is now possible for the FTLs and so on to set their own callsigns per the ORBAT, also allowing for some BFT flexibility for vehicle crews etc to set theirs for seperate tracking.

ACE Towing

ACE have added their own towing mechanic, currently our towing is handled via the user action menu, however ACE's version has some noticable differences - the first is that a vehicles size and weight is taken into consideration, and therefore bigger vehicles are generally needed to tow smaller ones.

ACE also requires you have a rope of some kind in order to tow, two smaller lengths of rope have been added.

With a rope in your inventory, action menu the towing vehicle to attach a rope

Select where on the vehicle you'd like to attach it

Walk to the towed vehicle and again, select where to attach the rope.

Infantry speed indicator

The HUD will now show your stance/speed, making it easier to tell between combat and standard pace.

Welcome to this month's SITREP, If this is your first SITREP - which I know it will be for many of you, a very warm welcome to UNITAF - I hope you are enjoying your time here thus far.

The SITREP is the primary communication detailing roadmap progression and changes to SOP - it contains key updates from the senior staff and from across the senior chain of command.

• Unusually for a SITREP, most changes mentioned within will be effective from Monday 18th October, rather than immediately, unless otherwise indicated.
• If you have any queries or questions about the rank review - please speak to your chain of command.

This months STIREP is primarily targeted at the rank review, and we'll follow up with a minor SITREP in a few weeks time, for anything that didn't make it on this one, such as;

• Joint fires SOP
• Mod review
• Lessonplans

Rank review

In the latest TAFFCAST episode we talked about the rank review that has been taking place over the last month and as an organisation we've been looking at how our rank structure supports our operations and ensuring it's fit for purpose into the future. The current structure, which has been in place since 2019 in its current form was deemed to be unfit for purpose. When we make strategic changes we're looking at our current structures, systems and standards and applying those years ahead to determine if they are working as intended.

Now that this process is complete, we're in a position to communicate the changes that will now take place and how they will be implemented over the coming days. These changes are designed to support UNITAF into our next platform, beyond Arma 3 and into the next 5 years of growth - in realistic terms to a total force size of 500 which we feel will be required to support higher limits of concurrent players and operational scale that would be permitted in future games.

Enlisted rank review

This change is effective Monday 18th October 2021

Enlisted ranks cover all ranks below the rank of Corporal. In the review the focus was on three key areas;
 

1. Increasing the time taken to achieve the maximum rank to provide better long term progression to aid the long-term vision of UNITAF

2. Increase the experience and dedication/loyalty gap between ranks so each has its own more defined meaning

3. Provide more ranks for so that more progression opportunities arise, especially as time goes on
    

To understand this better, let's look at the current structure and some information about it.

Current structure

Our structure comprises a 5-step progression from acceptance of application to Master Specialist, the highest rank which was added last year.

In the table below you can see the current structure, alongside a statistic: ATIU (average time in unit), this indicates on average how long the current people active in this rank were when they were promoted to this rank and therefore will give you an idea of typical progression times. The numerical requirements in the requirement column, refer to operation/practice hours.

The focus for the enlisted review is relating to the statistical ATIU. Overall, the ATIU for PFC and below is in line with what we would want to see. With ATIU being an average, this means there will be some people who reach these ranks much sooner and some much later - so what I want to achieve here is make the current ATIU more of a minimum at its current figures rather than an average.

ATIU for SPC and MSP is much lower than we'd like. In our current structure in 5-years time a Master Specialist today would have been in rank for 5.5 years with no progression and that would also result in a large group of people in the same rank with wide ranging TIU and experience. Any update must also address the highest ranks and progression into them.

Thirdly, it's important to understand that the current system was designed when UNITAF was deploying on average 2 deployments per month. To put that in perspective, when this was published our slot hours per month were 132 SHPM, today UNITAFs average is 2,520 SHPM - an increase of 1800%. There is a substantial activity difference now, versus when we set these requirements. When I set the rank of MSP, in place the target TIU for that rank was 3 years, and due to the increase in deployments per month, the first MSP was awarded at 10 months TIU.

Future structure

Previously, the minimum requirements for each promotion were not public, known only to NCOs, however as part of this update, we will make the minimum requirements for all promotions public. Before we look at the details of the changes, we need to define some new statistics that are introduced alongside them. 

Definitions

• Active time in unit (ATIU) - the number of unique months in which the user has been active in the unit. This is not the same as the number of months enlisted, since one deployment is required per month to be classed as active. For example, if two members joined 24 months ago, and one of them was absent for 12 months of that time, his ATIU would be 12 months. If the other had played every month during that time, his ATIU would be 24 months.

• Active time in grade (ATIG) - the number of active months you have been in your current rank.

• Good conduct (GC) - Good conduct is defined as having received no reprimands while being in your current rank. If you hold good conduct in your current rank, the requirements to achieve your next rank are discounted, as outlined in the table below. Reprimands are reports logged against your dossier for policy violations and no-shows.

Both ATIU and ATIG statistics have been added to public dossier profiles, under deployment record.

New ranks

The new system introduces 4 new specialist ranks, taking the 5-step progression to 9-steps, at the same time it revises the requirements for all ranks above that of and including PFC. It achieves this by introducing a requirement for ATIU, ATIG at all grades above and including PFC - ensuring all those in these grades have met a combination of combat and practice activity, as well as time in the unit. 

The requirement for ATIU solves the issue of the 1800% increase in SHPM by hard limiting the benefit of excessive deployments (above the average of 8 per month) and will protect the integrity of the units structure should we double this activity again, since it’s highly possible that we could see 5,000 SHPM or greater, in the next few years.

As with the old system, the First Requirement refers numerically to operation/practice hours.

Further notes

• The fastest time someone can reach the highest rank (MSP, CMS is excluded as it is considered a positional rank), is increased from 10 months, to 46 months, or 37 months with Good Conduct

• The current rank of Master Specialist is renamed to Specialist 2nd Class

• The current rank of Specialist is renamed to Specialist 3rd Class

• The 4 new specialist ranks (SP1 to CMS) are added above the current MSP rank/future SP2 rank.

• All promotions still require no reprimands in the last 30 days.

Will my current rank change?

In short, yes. All ranks will be updated to meet the minimum requirements of the new system, this will take place on Monday 18th October 2021. During the re-assignment, only the first and second requirements from the table above apply. The third requirement does not apply to this implementation nor to rank re-assignment in the future (i.e. someone stepping down from the ORGCOC) - only to future promotions. Your rank will be determined by the First and Second requirements only. You should wait until the official announcement that the update is completed, and you can see your rank on Discord and Website before applying changes to your teamspeak and game profiles. You must ensure you update these, or you will not be allowed into upcoming deployments if you have an old rank applied on your profile.

As Commanding Officer, I know many of you take great pride in the ranks you have earned here, I also know that some people don’t pay any attention to it at all - this is something that I’ve kept in mind during this review and something we have spoken about at length as staff. Statistically, most people will see a reduction in rank by one grade. I’m aware, especially when considering the ORGCOC rank update also mentioned in this SITREP, that this may feel disheartening. However, what I would say is those of you who remain active into the future will benefit the most from this change, and it is you whom we are making this change for.

What results is a much more robust system, where each rank has a more defined meaning - and each promotion a much more impactful and rewarding achievement - this is not something that would be the case, if we did not re-assign everyone to meet them.

When will this happen?

The implementation of this change will start right now with the publishing of this SITREP, you’ll see changes being made across our network, including the website, teamspeak and discord as we roll out the necessary updates required to support this change, at some time on Monday 18th of October a full update will take place that will re-assign all personnel to the correct ranks on both the website and Discord, this process will take time with nearly 400 personnel to process - once this is complete an announcement will be made.

Finally, this will be the only major review in our structure for the last 2.5 years since the unit was founded and it will likely not be reviewed again for at least the same amount of time.

ORGCOC rank review

This change is effective Monday 18th October 2021

Ranks of the organisational chain of command cover all those from Corporal to Colonel. The primary difference between ORGCOC ranks and Enlisted ranks is ORGCOC ranks belong to the position and not the person. For example, the rank of a Troop Commander is (1Lt/2Lt) and so a person in that position holds that rank in order to perform the duties of that position, and if they leave that position, their rank changes depending on where they go next.

The purpose of the ORGCOC rank realignment is to provide 2 progressional ranks at every position in the ORGCOC. This is currently the case for all of the following positions in green;

• Company Commanders / Executive Officers (Capt,Maj)

• Troop Commanders (1Lt,2Lt)

• Troop Sergeants (SFC,MSG)

• Section Commanders (Sgt,SSgt)

• Assistant Section Commanders (Cpl)

The only position that does not currently have a 2-step progression is Assistant Section Commander, the entry level ORGCOC position. Just as with enlisted ranks, progression is an important part of being in the ORGCOC. To solve this we explored a number of options including using the USMC rank of Lance Corporal and re-aligning all ranks to make this happen, the latter of which is what we have opted to do.

Future structure

The table below outlines each position affected by this change in the ORGCOC, from Assistant Section Commander to Company Sergeant. All ranks from Sergeant to Command Sergeant Major move down one position in the chain of command meaning Sergeant now becomes the senior rank for an Assistant Section Commander, and Staff Sergeant the entry-level rank for Section Commanders.

The table below details each position, it’s previous rank and it’s new rank according to this change.

What does entry/established mean?

Every ORGCOC position now has two ranks, one for ‘Entry level’ position holders and another for ‘Established’ holders. This provides the desired in-position progression. The specific requirements for moving from Entry to established will be later determined and published as guidance by staff - for the time being it is defined as “having exceeded the expectations of the position over a long period of time”. Promotions as before this update between positional ranks is at the discretion of myself and the other officers - although we do aim to provide some further guidance on this soon.

So everyone is being promoted then?

While there is no getting around this optic, we are changing what it means to hold the ranks of Sgt through to SFC as they are known now, as this change is implemented anyone holding these ranks will be automatically assigned to the rank one higher than their current rank, except this is not a promotion and the website will never refer to it as such - according to all systems, the person will have held this rank for as long as they have held their current rank. The seniority of each position remains the same and no structural changes will take place, except for the name of the rank and visual identity of each position.

ORGCOC Seniority

To preserve the indicative level of seniority in the COC, the NCO, SNCO groups will be updated as per the following table, adding two new groups JNCO and CNCO.

Discord updates

As part of this wider update, we’re updating a number of Discord features.
 

Groups and permissions

This change is effective Monday 18th October 2021

• New groups have been added for all ranks, meaning your rank icon and rank will be displayed on Discord, the same way it is shown on Teamspeak. This also allows the tagging of ranks in announcements, if required.

• New groups have been added for all ORGCOC positions, meaning members of the ORGCOCs positional role will be shown on discord.

• nco, snco, jnco groups updated in accordance with the new structure

Channel changes

This change is effective Monday 18th October 2021

• nco-chat becomes orgcoc-chat

• nco-chat, snco-chat updated according to the new structure

Troop channels

This change is effective Monday 18th October 2021

• Each member now has access to a Troop Announcement channel, this channel is in a new section of Discord called COCCOMs (Chain of Command Communications) it allows your dedicated Troop staff to communicate with the troop, and makes it clearer who they are. UNITAFs bots will also use this channel to provide Troop specific information.

• Troop Command Channels have been renamed to the format of x-trp-cmd

Discord timestamp support through hammertime

This change is effective immediately

We have added support for the Discord Hammertime function to most pings provided by our bots which show you a relative time to the announcement. A ping saying that an ORBAT release will take place on XXX date will say (in 4 days) relative to your timezone, and when hovered over, show this in your local time.

Account settings

Updates to account layout

This change is effective immediately

In the my account section of unitedtaskforce.net the layout has been updated to support the large quantity of other games now in the system.

Ability to view your own AARs

This change is effective immediately

It is now possible to view your own historical AARs via the my account page.

Daylight savings

At 0100 UTC on Sunday 31 October, most all UNITAF deployments will be adjusted for UK Daylights Savings, meaning that for example; Sunday deployments will move forward one hour from 1700 UTC to 1800 UTC. For the UK this operation will still start at the same time locally, 6PM (then 1800 UTC) and until British Summer Time kicks in next year UNITAF time and UK time will be exactly the same.

For our members from around the world who have already observed DST or are about to, this should again not make any major difference as most our represented countries observe DST if not exactly on the same date and this is in line with what we do every year for DST.

Activity overall is certainly increasing inline with what we'd expect as we enter Winter, a number of re-activations from retired and discharged members combined with some really Excellent work from SFC Korean Falcon and STAG-1 in recruitment put the active force back over 100 for the first time in a few months.

The number of deployments is rising again, but on-par with the average this year, and mission ratings overall have dipped slightly in September (especially for server performance) although are on-par again with the average, as August itself was exceptional.

I was really pleased to approve the following promotions after the last month. Welcome to all of the recruits and again, congratulations to SFC Korean Falcon and Stag-1 for the great work.

From latest to greatest - Congratulations all.

Manual assignment tool

This change is effective immediately

It's now possible to manually assign Leadership and Mission Support roles from the ORBAT editor, both before and after ORBAT approval.

Misc

• T1338 - Fixed an issue with roman numerals not working with discord pings
• T1337 - Various performance improvements for databases (Sgt Scape)
• T1361 - Added ATIG and ATIU to dossier profiles
• T1177 - Added a ping to Troop Command channels when a reprimand is removed
• T1344 - Added a ping to Troop Command channels when a dossier note is made
• T1205 - Removed the legacy callsign editor from the ORBAT editor
• T1352 - Fixed a bug where flagged AARs would be rasied by the wrong user

Summary

Two really special mentions this month, firstly to SFC Korean Falcon - for his outstanding work in the last 2 months in STAG-1, Recruiting and Retention. Secondly to all the members of STG-9 (Development) Sgt Scape, 1Lt Jari and SFC Dungworth for their work on items both in this SITREP and those coming soon.

See you in the field soon.

Welcome to this month's SITREP, If this is your first SITREP, welcome to UNITAF - I hope you are enjoying your time here thus far.

The SITREP is the primary communication detailing roadmap progression and changes to SOP - it contains key updates from across the senior chain of command.

Unless otherwise stated, any update provided in this SITREP is effective immediately.

Operation Brimstone

Since our last SITREP, we've seen operations wind down on Operation Brimstone, we've got one final large deployment underway next week on Sunday 29 August, before the campaign medal review will take place. With over 50 deployments, Brimstone has been one of the largest campaigns in UNITAF history. We'll produce some stats specific to the campaign around that time. It goes without saying a massive thank you to all the leaders and GMs from across Brimstone.
 

Operation Sapphire

With our primary COIN campaign winding down, it leaves some space for a mid-weight COIN deployment somewhere between Operation Overture and Operation Typhoon. We're pleased to announce Operation Sapphire which will commence in the coming weeks.

Operation Overture

We've had some great feedback from Operation Overture, alikened to Operation Herrick, a slow paced and roleplay heavy campaign which provides something unique among our campaigns. I'd highly reccommend giving it a try should you get the chance. Well done to Pvt JaSmAn and co for bringing it to life. It has highlighted the need for some robust roleplay SOP and Practices which we're working on right now.
 

Operation Parabole

Operation Parabole continues to address small special forces teamwork based deployments but is likely to move between different special forces teams and terrains in the future.
 

Operation Typhoon / Operation Eiche

Both Typhoon and Eiche are in their early stages, with large areas of operation providing plenty of challenge going forward, as our two primary Conventional War campaigns, expect to see more of these on Sundays as we deploy larger ORBATs as required.

Operation Giantsbane / Operation Panther / Operation Enduring Freedom

Giantsbane and Panther will continue to be run on an ad-hoc basis as our two primary historicals. Panther has moved to the PF DLC going forward, and Giantsbane may see some small mod changes to provide more options in future operations. Enduring Freedom is open to new GMs as a prooving ground for small to platoon scale counter insurgency operations.

Communications SOP

Following a 3 month major review of this combat area, a full re-write of the SOP has been published. 

concerns the following Communications procedures, updated to Version 3;
 

• (P10-37) Basics: Intro & Brevity 
• (P10-156) Basics: Phonetics
• (P10-157) Basics: Callsigns 
• (P10-39) Basics: Prowords
• (P10-158) Basics: Radios
• (P10-159) Basics: Radio networks 
• (P10-44) Procedure: Joining a network 
• (P10-46) Procedure: Radio checks 
• (P10-47) Procedure: Unresponsive callsigns 
• (P10-48) Procedure: Message types 
• (P10-160) Procedure: Brevity, Clarity and Confirmation 
• (P10-40) Reports: CONTACT 
• (P10-41) Reports: SITREP 
• (P10-42) Reports: ACE 
• (P10-43) Reports: CASREP 
   

The update has removed a number of prowords and simplified some procedures, it also provides better clarity on items which were considered best practice but were not written into SOP. I recommend reading the full SOP, but I've outlined some key differences below;

• Re-ordered SOPs into a more logical and flowing order
• Emphasised the basic principles
• Mandated the use of OUT to control transactional communications on transactional nets
• Removed HOW COPY in favor of ACKNOWLEDGE
• Removed READBACK CORRECT in favor of CORRECT
• Removed COPY/SOLID COPY/LIMA CHARLIE (and all variations of COPY) in favor of ROGER
• Emphasised the difference between SAY AGAIN and REPEAT
• Added a section on callsigns
• Added a section on radio networks
• Explained differences between transactional communications and non-transactional
• Added a section on joining a network
• Provided numerous examples for transmissions
• Added SIGHTING back to Contact Report Alerts

Accidental use of old SOP will not be punished, some habits take time to adapt to and what we will do is help to improve adoption of new SOP through correction and practices which have already been scheduled, and within a number of months we expect to have everyone familiar with this new SOP.

You may have noticed that the Fire Control and Artillery section of this SOP has not been updated, the review is still underway, and we expect within the next month to have it updated also.

You must read this as it is effective immediately and is a core component of operations.
https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/communication

Leadership SOP Review and Platoon Standards Pilot

You may have noticed in the last month or so some testing of some different types and scales of ORBATs on some of our larger deployments. As part of a wider review of Leadership SOP, due to start in September, an official pilot scheme has been set up to test 3 ORBATs using a 4 Squad Platoon, with 9 man squad structure (1+4+4) instead of our usual 2 Squad platoon with 14 man squad structure (2+6+6). 

This scheme runs for the next 3 weeks, starting on Sunday 22 August (Eiche) which uses a 4 Squad 1+4+4 structure. This pilot scheme will gather feedback through AARs for review during a September review. A document outlining the pilot scheme and theory behind the testing phase can be found below. The structure of our platoons has a profound impact on the way we operate, and so we're interested in hearing feedback through your AARs of how you find the smaller squad sizes. Leaders of operations in the pilot will be provided with temporary SOP in order to better correct operating distances better in line with this layout.

Our SOP outside of this scheme remains 2+6+6 until further notice, more information will be forthcoming in TAFFCAST and in September following the pilot scheme.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vRdl2gQ0fQ129CskfqqwUMj0ijHNO-4un01qrRtPYsvULEIQYvUTLzs5V2vY_Ykmj7qWX_PAGzSsplm/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

From today, the following changes apply to all default CBA settings files;

• Removed forced custom colours setting for DUI Squad Radar
   

The current versions of this file can be found here (for developers)

• With AI unconciousness: https://docs.unitedtaskforce.net/P38
• Without AI unconciousness: http://docs.unitedtaskforce.net/P31

The up-to-date mod requests and under-testing list can be found here https://unitedtaskforce.net/operations/mods/pending if you have made a request and it has not been mentioned below, check this page for an update on the request status if it has not been approved it will be listed in the Denied/Dissapproval List section with a reason code.

• Boeing Konyo APPROVED FOR TESTING
• Faces of War APPROVED
• Iron Front ArmA 3 APPROVED FOR TESTING
• Faces of War Compatibility patch FIX APPROVED
• Faces of War - TFAR (BETA) Compatibility APPROVED
• A3 Thermal Improvement APPROVED FOR TESTING
• Tembelan Island APPROVED
• G.O.S Al Rayak APPROVED
• Sugar Lake APPROVED FOR TESTING
• Salmon Buttstroke APPROVED FOR TESTING
• MS_IFF_Strobe DECLINED
• AH-64D Apache Longbow - Official Project DECLINED
• TacControl DECLINED
• Arma 3 Aegis - Police DECLINED
• Arma 3 Aegis DECLINED
• Arma 3 Atlas DECLINED

Roadmap Changes

In the last SITREP we shared the Roadmap for 2022, and of the 5 now items 3 of them are partially completed in this SITREP, with all items expected to be complete by the next SITREP later this month, or early September.

Campaign Center Progress

We've got some really exciting progression for the Campaign Center this month.

WARNO Buttons

A new 'WARNO' button appears in place of 'Awaiting OPORD' in the case the OPORD is not yer released, so it's easier to access the known information about a deployment.

Operation / Campaign Links

With more modules of the Campaign Center being onlined we've made it easier to access the CC from Operations specific to that campaign, this image seen on the sidebar of an Eiche deployment, when clicked will take you to the CC for that Operation.

Campaign Managers and Deputy Campaign Managers

Campaigns now have set CM and DCM positions, those listed as such will be able to manage features of the campaign center such as the management of intel, objectives, persons of interest etc. Some of those features are released with this SITREP and some will follow in the coming weeks. Features are enabled on a Campaign by Campaign basis, so you may see that they are still de-activated for some campaigns, but over the coming months most all campaigns will have most features set up.

Campaign OPORDs

I'd imagine joining UNITAF 40 deployments into a Campaign could be confusing, so the orginal Campaign OPORD is a key part of the CC for any campaign, outlining why were are there and what our overall objective for the campaign is. 

Tactical Maps integration

We use tactical maps for our operation planning, but we also use them for Campaign Progression, the publically facing maps are now integrated into the CC so you can use the CC to view a campaigns progression from a map perspective, pan around, zoom in and out to see where our bases, enemy movements and objectives are. The maps can be opened externally in Plan OPs and CM/DCMs also have the option to open the PlanOps editor directly from this screen.

We're also going to add this feature to Operations too! Keep an eye out for it.

Intelligence Feeds

Probably one of the most exciting an dynamic changes to the CC is the new Intelligence feed. This allows CM/DCMs to add small intel droplets to the CC inbetween OPORDs to develop the story of a campaign. Intel might be picked up by players during deployments and then posted to the CC Intel Feed. Text, images and video can all be posted to the Intelligence feeds. We're really excited to see how our campaign staff use these features.

People of Interest and other features

There are a tonne of planned modules for the CC underway, and in the next few weeks a few more features will be made available;

• Mugshot grid of people of interest
• Dossier profiles for POI's with roleplay guidance
• Campaign stats
• Campaign deployment records

These features detailed above are live right now, but you might not see them right away as they are enabled on a campaign by campaign basis. So if you are are campaign manager contact the Commanding Officer for feature onlining for your campaign. 

DLC Requirements Integration

I apologies for this one being a tad late, as it was supposed to land just before the Panther operation, to which we've moved to the PF DLC. We've added full support to the Operations Center for DLC requirements for Operations and Deployments. We make regular use of the Apex DLX, and this feature is fully linked to your account settings for DLC.

Updated ORGCOC Requirements

concerns existing policy P15-127 Policy: Chain of Command, updated to Version 2

This policy now changes the minimum activity requirements for ORGCOC members to a new formula.
https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/administration/chain-of-command

Well, we are ever so close to 30K hours it's a little bit crazy. Hitting 500 deployments earlier this month was a real milestone. One of my focuses with the ORGCOC is navigating real life without a global pandemic, which has been all we've known with UNITAF in the last 2 Years. It's worth saying we fully expect the mid-lockdown 8.8 deployments per person per month to halve, and the differing activity trends we're seeing right now reflect that for sure.

That said, we're still very stable in our 3 key metrics, recruiting an retention targets are a roster of 120-130 and our active force mainains around 100 which is steady.

On a good note, Overall Mission Ratings improved substantially in July.

The number of deployments will fluctuate as people navigate the changes over summer, but is still very respectible. We're also not reporting issues with slot access, with a large number of deployments in this period locking with vacant slots. Server performance ratings and communication take small dents.

I was really pleased to approve the following promotions after the last month. Two new Corporals and a host of new Recriots to welcome.

From latest to greatest - Congratulations all.

Flaggable AARs

It's now possible for FL/IOs to flag AARs which they feel need to be addressed for any reason, to protect the identity of the person who made the AAR, flagging of an AAR will automatically raise a PAR to that persons COC so it can be reviewed by the ORGCOC.

If an AAR is already flagged, it will be indicated

Saving of OPORDs and Previewing them

When saving OPORDs, previously the page would refresh automatically, this is now a manual process, fill it out and then submit.

It is now also possible to preview OPORDs before they are published.

Misc

• T1298 - Started logging how long someone spends in any ORBAT slot, especially if the slot is cancelled
• T1280 - Updated some design elements of Training SOP, including better table design
• T1274 - Bugfix for L slot editors after 24 hours
• T1269 - Stopped the system from copying clientside mods when copying from old ORBATs
• T1295 - Corrected the ordering of SOP on training Orders to match the SOP area
• T1294 - Fixed pre-release pings for practices

Summary

Before I wrap up this SITREP just a massive thanks to the members of STG-11 for their work on the new Communications SOP, and to Sgt Scape (STG-9) for some great work on many of the features on this SITREP. There are a chunk of other updates which didn't quite make it onto SITREP 13, but with another due in a couple of weeks I look forward to reporting some even more exciting developments.

See you in the field soon.

Welcome to this month's SITREP, it's been a bit over a month since SITREP/11 so this one hopefully will bridge the gap. If this is your first SITREP, welcome to UNITAF - I hope you are enjoying your time here thus far.

It is important to note that the SITREP is an important communication which contains key updates from across the senior chain of command, and failure to read it is not a valid defence! That said, I do hope you find this new format useful.

Unless otherwise stated, any update provided in this SITREP is effective immediately.

In terms of campaigns, our deployments supporting Operation Brimstone have had significant impact on the sector and we do expect to start to pull our forces out over the next month. We will maintain a small presence in the region to provide support to local forces, but this will be not at the scale of some of the direct action we've taken to date.

We will be deploying to a new theater in due course, but I don't have anything concrete I can share at this time. Some of our direct action effort between the exit of Brimstone and the new theater will be supporting Operation Eiche and Operation Typhoon. 

I can also announce that starting August, UNITAF will be supporting the United Nations peacekeeping in Angola, Africa as part of the 'Blue Helmets' effort this will be dubbed Operation Overture.

Entrenching tools update

concerns P13-120 Organising a Mission, updated to Version 4

From Monday July 26, entrenching tools can only be in loadouts for, carried and used by;

• Combat Engineers
• Support Engineers
• Assistant Automatic Riflemen
• Assistant Machinegunner
• Light Vehicle Crewman (Driver)
• APC/IFV Crewman (Driver)
• MBT Crewman (Driver)

This is an intentional reduction in supply of tools to 1-2 per fireteam, to ensure that at least 4 personnel from each fireteam maintain full security at all times. It has the added bonus of a geniune specialty boost to the Assistant and Engineer roles. This will be reviewed throughout the next few weeks, since loadouts and arsenals will be updated to support this change you may encounter tools in places they should no longer be so please let us know if you do.

As a note to mission support teams, the removal of the tool will be automated across all arsenals and loadouts, but please check as required as some roles will need it adding.

Note from Monday it becomes an breach under loadout SOP to use knowingly an entrenching tool if you are not acting in one of the above roles, in the same way as treated for AT or MGs.

Rules of engagement update

concerns existing policy P3-9 Rules of engagement & law of war, updated to Version 2

This policy now contains information on laws of war, such as combatants vs non-combatants and what constitutes a valid target. 
You must read this as it is effective immediately and is a core component of operations.

https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/basic-infantry/rules-of-engagement

New policy for civilians, enemy captives and detainees

concerns new policy P3-155 Civilians, enemy captives and detainees, Version 1

This new policy outlines the proper handling of civilians, enemy captives and detainees
You must read this as it is effective immediately and is a core component of operations.

https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/basic-infantry/civilians-captives-and-detainees

From today, the following changes apply to all default CBA settings files;

• Removed forced inventory size setting
• Removed forced ACEX view distance setting

The current versions of this file can be found here (for developers)

• With AI unconciousness: https://docs.unitedtaskforce.net/P38
• Without AI unconciousness: http://docs.unitedtaskforce.net/P31

The up-to-date mod requests and under-testing list can be found here https://unitedtaskforce.net/operations/mods/pending if you have made a request and it has not been mentioned below, check this page for an update on the request status if it has not been approved it will be listed in the Denied/Dissapproval List section with a reason code.

• Task Force Canada (TFC-CAF) APPROVED
• Enhanced Map Ace Version APPROVED CORE
• Fawks's Enhanced NVGs APPROVED CLIENTSIDE
• Angola Maps v1.3 APPROVED
• Saint Kapaulio APPROVED
• Apricot's MW NVG VFX REMOVED

Roadmap Changes

In the last TAFFCAST we shared the Roadmap for 2022, I'm pleased to publish it in it's current form with a nice update to the Roadmap here, you can find it via the menu or on this link unitedtaskforce.net/roadmap

The roadmap has been fully updated into Now, Next and Future so you can have a look over there and see what might be surfacing on future SITREPs. There is a lot over there, so I would encorage you to check it out.

We will update it regularly and it is of course subject to change.

Promotions and Selections Process

new policy P15-154 Policy: Promotions and Selections, Version 1

This policy puts into action best practices which have been underway for recent promotions in the ORGCOC.

https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/administration/promotions-and-selections

Changes to 'L' Plates

updates existing policy P15-145 Policy: ORBAT Slot Allocation, Version 2 (2.1 minor)

Updates have been made to the mechanics of learner slots, those are;

• A learner slot is permitted per 20 slots on the ORBAT (increased from 1 per orbat)
• Anyone who is Tier-0 in the area can use the Learner Slot (changed from 0 combat hours in the combat area)
• If the learner slot is not claimed 24 hours after the release of an orbat, it will now automatically become a normal slot

https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/administration/orbat-slot-allocation

I was expecting a steep decrease in activity to winter, as I've said before we've never experienced a proper summer and so we don't have anything to go off. The latest figures indicate a good recovery and we'll likely recruit out of the dip, one thing to watch out for is a swathe of re-activations come winter.

I was really pleased to approve the following promotions after the last month. Some highlights are;

• our first master Specialist, MSP Bex!
• 2Lt Zero (now Cpl Zero) stepping down from the ORGCOC (see my discord announcement for more on this)
• the selection of 2Lt Deksterus, SFC Dungworth and Sgt Skullcollector

Congratulations all, well deserved.

I'm biased of course, but I'd say the highlight was issuing our first 2 Year Service Medals. Congratulations all.

Deployment background information

Deployment background information has been added to a number of places. This is the first part of the OPORD editor (for NCO reference) is also requested at the scheduling stage. This has been requested alot, and will help you to determine if you want to deploy on any given operation.

On the ORBAT

On release pings (both general and pre-release)

Rank quality of life changes

A few minor information changes to ranks can be found on the ranks area and on dossiers;

Time in grade on dossier profiles

Average age on promotion

Misc

• Various fixes to MYCOC2.0 from #suggestions on table sorting
• Removed the menu items from the roles center for Administration roles
• Fixed the COC Report timestamps
• Removed FTX hours from being counted as combat hours in the Roles Center
• Added a next and previous SOP navigation item to SOP footers
• Fixed an issue where non-logged in users couldn't view SOP
• Fixed access issues for TSgts in MYCOC and COC Reports

This week we're issuing a small and minor SITREP with some updates and rebalancing on both the Fatigue and Tier systems. These updates have gone live. Some of these are bug fixes and some are new developments - in each case they are all contained here as they will make fundamental changes to both systems.

If you are new to UNITAF then welcome - this SITREP is a monthly/bi-monthly update from the Commanding Officer, with updates about UNITAFs development, minor SITREPs are infreqent and usually focus on a specific topic, wheras major SITREPs review each month and look forward to the next, and cover all areas.

Tier System - Practice Hours

It was raised to our attention recently that Practice Hours were being awarded to cross-over areas. A cross-over area (also known as derived roles/areas) is used to award like-for-like operation hours when a role constitutes experience in multiple areas. For example Anti-tank roles give like-for-like Core Infantry hours because the role is mostly being infantry, until a threat is located. This is supposed to only work with operation hours, but we located a bug whereby Anti-tank practices also gave Core Infantry practice hours, this was also the case with a few other derived areas.

This bug also concerns the following areas;

• Field Leadership
• Communications
• Core Infantry

You will see in the Tier Update of today (07/06/2021) that you may have been tiered backwards in one or more the above areas if you were allocated practice hours by this bug. If you acheived Tier II Core Infantry and were promoted due to this bug - for now we will not issue demotions so long as Tier II Core Infantry is achieved in reasonable time.

Combat Fatigue Balancing

With the successful launch of Combat Fatigue, a number of bugs and re-balancing items were reported, what follows is a summary of those changes.

• FTXs no longer give 60 second bonuses per FTX, instead they give 20 seconds bonus to fatigue per hour
• FTXs that cover multiple subjects will now correctly split the bonus over each area, instead of duplicating it
• FTXs no longer count towards fatigue, a reported bug showed that attending an FTX increased Core Infantry Fatigue, this is no longer the case.

New Combat Roles

A number of new Combat Roles have been introduced, to fill some areas we feel needed more specific ORBAT details.

• Combat Medic Medical Tier II - a command detached medic, usually used in specific cases where additional medical personnel are required (such as single squad operations or Logistical Teams, but not in the Squad or Platoon Command Elements.) Equal to a Squad Medic in ability.
   
• UAV Operator (Reconnaissance) Combat Support Tier III - to compliment it's attack counterpart, and SUAV smaller role, the UAV-OR is specifically for the reguarly used Global Hawk, high altitude model, denoting that it is a non-combative platform.
   
• Joint Fires Observer (JFO) Communications Tier IV - able to request, control, and adjust joint mortar, Field Artillery, Naval Fire Support, A-10, AC-130, and other Close Air Support (CAS) aircraft. Controlling multiple ground and air based fire support assets at the same time.
   
• Communications Specialist Communications Tier III - senior version of the Radio Operator, for use in scenarios where experienced RTOs are required, including Special Forces applications.
   
• Infantry Team Leader (ITL) Field Leadership Tier III - The Infantry Team Leader is a unqiue role utilised in non-SOP deployments whereby an Infantry team is operating in a non-standard team which is larger than a Fireteam but smaller than a standard Infantry Rifle Squad. Specific examples are in typically 8 man teams with either a single fireteam leader or none at all. ITLs can command either a Rifle Team or a Weapons Team, depending on the circumstances.

Miscellaneous Change-log

• T897 - Duration that a user has been procedure flagged for, has been added to MYCOC
• T1199 - Member activity status added to MYCOC
• T1193 - Combat Fatigue overview for subordinates added to MYCOC
• T1185 - Fixed Practice Hour duplication in Cross-over-areas
• T1181 - Combat Fatigue, added support for split SOP FTXs
• T1190 - Combat Fatigue, fixed bug causing FTXs to contribute to Infantry Fatigue
• T1207 - Mod size added to Operations Mod editor/views
• T1206 - FTX and Instructor slots can now be changed in the ORBAT editor for FTXs
• T1201 - L-Plate slots, fixed issue where it was possible to change an L-Plate slot to any other slot
• T1187 - Added the ability to make loadout change requests for non-existant loadouts
• T1189 - Fixed a bug to link MYCOC PCFs to user profiles

Roadmap Updates

Finally, now that the Fatigue system is bedding in, we'll be reviewing the Roadmap in the coming days and I would expect to see the Campaign Center, with intelligence, planning and building on the logistical side of campaigns to be brought back to the fore, so we look forward to providing that update soon.

As always, if you have any issues or questions with anything contained in this SITREP, please use the appropriate channels, be that ORGCOC or on Discord.

Major, James
Commanding Officer
UNITAF

Welcome to this month’s monthly SITREP from Headquarters. If you're joining us in the last 30 days or so Welcome to UNITAF - I hope you're enjoying your time here so far. The SITREP is a monthly to bi-monthly update which contains a range of changes both past and upcoming as well as the discussions and focuses from up and down the chain of command, it's designed to keep everyone up to speed with the thoughts of the senior Chain of Command.

This months MAJOR SITREP has some wide ranging updates to the ORBAT, Slot Allocation and Tier System, as has been discussed in recent SITREPs and Podcasts, for that reason we'll start with the perspective and return to the retrospective at the end.

Combat Fatigue System

This is perhaps the biggest update to the dynamic orbat system since the introduction of up-tiering, and follows our continual commitment since the introduction of P15-145 Policy: ORBAT Slot Allocation to increase the fairness and level playing field of slot supply and demand. While we've talked about this in previous SITREPs, it's important to understand the role of the system. Combat Fatigue has nothing to do with your ability to execute a role, and is therefore does not interfere with the Tier system at all. What Combat Fatigue does do, is change the availiblility of slots to individuals with the same Tier, by giving them different deployment button access times, based on factors such as behaviour, SOP adherance, and most importantly their recent activity in that role or role area.

Simply put, the more you play in an area the more Combat Fatigued you become, and the more the Combat Fatigue system will try to allocate that slot to other people who have the same tier as you first, but offering you easier access to other roles not related to that area.

Video Overview of the Combat Fatigue System

Goals of the Combat Fatigue System

Fatigue is designed to address the following primary unintended behaviours of the Dyanmic ORBAT System that will increase fairness;

1 - To give new members of UNITAF priority access to Core Infantry slots (by virtue of them being less fatigued)
2 - To spread wider access to specialist and lower supply slots by fatiguing regular deployees in favour of those at the same Tier/Experience
3 - Millisecond slot rushing on ORBAT release, by spreading slotting over the opening 15 minutes of an ORBAT.

Combat Fatigue does not address a number of other behaviours which we will come to update in the future (such as slot vacation / swapping).

How the Combat Fatigue System Works

Combat Fatigue balances slot allocation by adjusting the accessible time of different slots across Combat Deployment ORBATs based on an individuals past performance. Combat Fatigue is applied to each tier (combat area) seperately.

Each day at 0600 UTC, alongside the Tier Update, an individuals Combat Fatigue will be calculated and updated. Fatigue is calculated using the following formula;

Global Fatigue applies to all Combat Areas and is calculated as: (Reprimands in Last 30 days * 120 seconds)

Local Fatigue only applies to the Combat Area of the Applicable slot and is calculated as:
60 seconds for each ORBAT completed by the individual in this area in the last 30 days (60 days in the case of low supply slots, with less than 30 slots per month)
30 seconds for each SOP Correction Flag on this individuals dossier in this Combat Area
A bonus reduction in fatigue of 60 seconds per FTX/Practice attended in this combat area in the last 30 days (60 days for low supply slots)

Local Fatigue + Global Fatigue = Total Fatigue and this total number of seconds is applied to each slot on an ORBAT.

Where to locate your Combat Fatigue

You can view your own combat fatigue using the Dossier Practice Progression area of your Dossier. It will show the total fatigue for each Combat Area, broken down by Global and Local Fatigue factors. If you have any questions about specific parts of your Combat Fatigue (such as Reprimands or PCFs, you should speak to your Chain of Command). In line with Tiers, Combat Faitgue updates each day around 0600 UTC. Only you and the ORGCOC can see your Fatigue, and you can't see the Fatigue of others.

Combat Fatigue for ORBATs

When viewing an ORBAT before release and during the Fatigue period, the ORBAT will display instead the time in UTC in which the slot will be accessible to you based on your own Combat Fatigue.

Notes

Combat Fatigue cannot be negative and there is no maximum fatigue.
Combat Fatigue does not yet apply to the pre-slotting stage
Combat Fatigue applies to both ORBAT Release, 1UP and 2UP stages
Combat Fatigue does not yet apply to slots that have been recently vacated by someone else
 

When will it be implemented?

The combat fatigue system goes live with this SITREP, but your initial fatigue will not be calculated until the next day at 0600 - so you will be able to explore it and your current fatigue tomorrow and it will apply to all future ORBAT releases. We'll continue to monitor behaviours following this update and adjust as needed and in line with feedback.
This policy updates P15-145 Policy: ORBAT Slot Allocation

Changes to Tiering for the Recruit Rank

The Recruit rank as a probationary period is automatically ended when the holder completes Tier II in Core Infantry and has a clean service record. As an infantry first policy; Infantry is a vital part of operations and everyone must have an understanding of life on the ground and the implementation of UNITAF policies and procedures. This is especially important for those moving on to primarily deploy in supporting roles such as Aircrew, Calvarly and Mission Support, which integrate closely with but are not infantry roles.
 

Why is it being changed?

we're balancing policy to do two things:

- Give priority / make it easier for Recruits to access Core Infantry slots (through Combat Fatigue)
- Make it harder for Recruits to progress in specialist roles, before they complete probation
 

What is changing?

We have discussed the best way to approach this and we've decided that rather than restrict access to practices - Recruits will be welcome to attend any practice they are eligible for like any other member. Instead, we have added a Rank and Tier Requirement to all Tier II qualifications across all Combat Areas of Tier II in Core Infantry, and the Rank of Private (E-2).

This means that recruits can only advance non-infantry Tiers to Tier I maximum, allowing them to continue use the 1-UP and 2-UP systems to access Tier II and Tier III slots, but not allowing direct access to higher Tier slots before their probation ends. Recruits will naturally fill Core Infantry roles to fulfill this requirement, at the same time the Fatigue system will support them with priority access.

What happens to my current tiers?

Any recruit with non-infantry Tiers above Tier I will be re-calculated to Tier I in line with this update, but on your promotion to Private in the next daily update your Tiers will be re-calculated based on your total acitivity meaning that you may jump multiple tiers on your promotion.
 

When will it be implemented?

This goes live with this SITREP, but Tier rank and Tier requirements will not be factored into calculations until the next day at 0600.
This policy updates P15-145 Policy: ORBAT Slot Allocation

Learner Slots or 'L' Plates

Another new feature for our newer members, a learner slot is a unique ORBAT slot which allows an individual who has not yet been able to gain any combat experience in a combat area to do so. It allows individuals to get their first step on the ladder allowing them to access the up-tiering systems for a combat area. It does this by only allowing someone who has practice experience but no combat in experience in a specific combat area to slot without needing the usual Tier requirement. Learner slots function as follows;

- One Learner slot is permitted per ORBAT
- Learner slots can only be applied to Tier I roles
- Only someone with at least one FTX logged in the related combat area, but no combat operations in the area, can use the Learner Slot
- The field leader may choose to change any of the Tier I slots to a Learner slot at their discretion.
- To use 'L' Plate slots, you cannot have had Reprimands in the last 7 days, or any active PCFs in this Combat Area.

How to assign a Learner Slot

From the ORBAT editor, roles eligible for conversion will be shown with a blue cap icon. Should the slot not be claimed, the Field Leader can return here to conver the slot back to a regular slot.

Locating Learner Slots on ORBATs

Learner slots are easy to find on open ORBATs, denoted by their blue cap and blue deploy buttons.

Once the slot has been claimed it is again denoted with it's blue cap.

When will it be implemented?

This goes live with this SITREP.
This policy updates P15-145 Policy: ORBAT Slot Allocation

Loadout and SOP Editors and Mod Suggestions

This is a reminder from the Minor SITREP in April, that it is now possible to make Mod Suggestions through the website, as can changes to combat loadouts and SOP be suggested. Full details of these new systems and how to use them is detailed in this Minor SITREP.

Video Overview

UNITAF Mod Support for Joint ORBATs

In an exciting addition to the UNITAF mod, support will be added for linked ORBATs. The UNITAF framework is to receive an update allowing users to link ORBATs together, this will allow the framework to support the following;

- Multiple Practices on the same server with full loadout support
- Operations with overlapping start and end times, such as early starting recon teams, or extra long missions
- Missions with multiple ORBATs running at the same time, with different factions and loadouts, such as joint nation operations

When will it be implemented?

Testing is underway currently, we expect this update to be live and usable during June 2021, if you'd like to help with the Mod, or have Mod making or scripting experience, please let us know.

Activity and Recruitment

After some record months of growth, we see a minor sip in April for both attendance and TFS, although due to the nature of the new Induction program, there will be some variance. This is likely also impacted by the (hopefully good European weather) and easing of lockdown restrictions.

An aboslutely stellar effort from the entire ORGCOC in a record 40 deployments in May.

Server performance is still a concern, with a number of recent very large ORBATs on conventional missions accounting for some of this rating dip. Mission Support teams should be mindful of this.

Candidates and Candidate Inductions

In line with previous SITREPs, we are continuing with the Candidate Intake system, at present, doing around 2 intakes per month on average, with each intake averaging 6 Candidates. The most recent change is that Candidates are no longer members of UNITAF and they attend their Induction and Recruit training before they are given access to the website, or Discord servers. This is to allow the possibility of application rejection if required at any stage.

The next intake will be on June 5

TAFFCAST

Episode 4 on all major platforms, including Spotify here: https://anchor.fm/unitaf

Promotions

This month SSgt Cross and 1Lt Ben (Ret.) both retired from the ORGCOC, allowing a cascade of promotions throughout the ORGCOC. We welcome those joining us for the first time, and well done as well to those advancing in the ORGCOC too.

In an exciting turn of events we meet our first Master Specilist (informally dubbed leader of the E-4 mafia) MSP Luke, and a host of SPC and PFC promotions.
Well done of course to the Privates ending their probations as well.

Awards and Citations

Well done to all those recieving awards this period as well.

Update to Dossier Design

Finally, there has been a nice little update to the Dossier rank and awards area, which also works on mobile!

Notice to Medical Personnel

A SOP update may follow, but a reminder to all medics when dealing with MINIMAL patients that combat and area safety must be prioritised over 3rd party treatment. Medics should not instruct MINIMAL patients other than when requested by the patient or when giving medical advice. The role of a MINIMAL patient is first and foremost their combative role, which may even require them to instruct the medic. It is important that situational awareness and 360 security be maintained and this includes the proper triage of patients in accordance to SOP and factoring in any current threat.

Patreon

A special mention to those who have supported UNITAF on Pateron, please do let me know if you have, as I know some people have done it under a name not related to UNITAF, which makes it very hard to thank you personally. But it is nevertheless, much appreciated.

UNITAFs 2nd Birthday Celebration

In a slight update to my previous message UNITAFs Official 2nd Birthday will be Celebrated on June 16th 2021. We will look to plan a number of special events from June 16 to June 20 to celebrate this milestone.

Should you find any issues with the system updates found in this SITREP, please report them to the J10 channel, as soon as possible.

It's been another great month for UNITAF, please do let us know your feedback, including the new Podcast on Discord.

Major James
Headquarters
United Task Force

Recently we introduced the new Roles Center, as a precursor to upcoming changes to the Tier and Capability system.

Firstly let's look at the replacement to how suggestions are logged for;

• Mods
• SOP / Procedure Changes
• Loadouts

Which are no longer done via Discord.

Mod Management

In order to massively streamline the UNITAF mods suggestions, testing and approvals process the pending mods page now contains information relating to the status of mods that are under testing and that have been suggested.

 For those that have not been adopted, a reason code for the denial.

For those who are enlisted active members of UNITAF with a rank greater than Private (E-2) up to 3 active mod suggestions can also be made directly in the mods suggestion area.

The approvals process remains the same, with updates being provided in sequence with SITREPs about mod pack changes.

Standard Operating Procedures

In a simlar vein to Mods, the ability to request changes to Standard Operating Procedures is now possible. The feature is currently limited to those with the rank of Corporal (E-4) or greater, but will be tested and is expected to be rolled out wider in due course. There are two types of change requests;

Major - for content changes, removals or additions of practical SOP
Minor - for formatting, spelling and grammar or layout edits

Change requests can be raised from the procedure view.

When submitting a change request you'll need to provide a reason for the change, and the SOP will not accept further change requests until a response or action is made on any open change requests.

Loadouts

In line with Mods and Procedures, Loadouts now have front-end change requests. A new section of the Roles Center has been added which when viewing a specific role, allows you to navigate to the 'Loadouts' tab and view loadouts across all factions in UNITAF for this position. It also contains data on when the loadout was first and last used, and how many times it has been used, as well as it's approval status.

To open a change request for a loadout, you can navigate to that specific loadout from either the Roles Center or from any ORBAT containing that loadout using the existing Loadout Gear Icon. The feature is currently limited to those with the rank of Corporal (E-4) or greater, but will be tested and is expected to be rolled out wider in due course. 

From the loadout viewer if you have permission to open loadout change requests you'll see a new button, which will open the change request.

From here, you just need to import the loadout in game, make the required changes and then submit.

Roles Center

If you've yet to have the chance to check out the new Roles Center you can find tonnes of statistics over there about the most experienced members across the main combat areas and roles.

Summary

These changes will help to speed up the improvement of loadouts and procedures through crowdsourcing contributions. We'll continue to monitor it's usage and roll it out further as required.

Welcome to this month’s monthly SITREP from Headquarters. If you're joining us in the last 30 days or so Welcome to UNITAF - I hope you're enjoying your time here so far. The SITREP is a monthly to bi-monthly update which contains a range of changes both past and upcoming as well as the discussions and focuses from up and down the chain of command, it's designed to keep everyone up to speed with the thoughts of the senior Chain of Command.

For more meat on the below summary, you'll find it further down in this SITREP.

- TAFFCAST 3
- Activity and AAR Review
- Recruitment Policy Updates
- Promotions
- Awards and Citations + New Awards System
- Proposed changes to Recruit / Private Ranks
- A planned promotions policy
- Officers and UNISTAFF update
- Public Server update
- Daesh Dawn replacement
- Changes to 2ICs

As a special treat, you can listen to this audio version SITREP/10 if you like.

Activity and Recruitment

Firstly, let's talk statistics. By now the SITREPs must sound like a broken record, as we enter our 4th simultaneous month of attendance growth, month on month. Not just that, but if you look at Task Force Strength, it's now in it's 6th month on month in growth. Seeing the first period of a 100+ Total Force Strength; this is an important benchmark since it indicates not just our rostered size, but our active size, as there are always people in the process of becoming active or joining and those in the process of retiring or going inactive.

Obviously it doesn't take a mathematician to work out that a slot deployment of 850 slots in March, against a 108 total force is around 8.5 slots per active member in March, which to be honest - is a bit insane.
Another thing to remember here is that this entire graph now, from last April to this March is overshadowed by the global COVID-19 pandemic, so we don't even know what effect the easing of restrictions worldwide will have on our activity, but more on that a bit further down in the SITREP.

Next, let's look at deployments and as you can see - it speaks for itself, a heroic effort from our Mission Support and Field Leadership teams.
We do see a slight drop in Leadership and Communication ratings, I'm not 100% certain for the reason, but of course we'll continue to track it.

One thing I can pinpoint though is this nose dive in Server Performance, which continues into early April and I'm sure was noticeable. Some missions had been launched accidentally without Headless Client support, which has a big impact on server performance. This was fixed in mid-April. so we expect to see that back to normal, in SITREP/11.

Let's talk recruitment

For almost 2 years, UNITAF has operated a mostly open door recruitment policy, whereby the COC would induct and enlist applicants on a near constant basis. The last few months have seen two recruitment halts due to, let's call it "overcrowding". We have a great problem to have in UNITAF, that is more people want to join than we can support, and the people already wearing the patch want to play even more missions that we can provide. As we speak, we have something in the region of 30 applications pending.

This is a great problem to have, and for now our efforts are focused on the latter problem, how can we ensure we can support those wearing the patch today. So what does this mean for recruitment?

- Firstly, we're have set a hard limit on the rostered force of 120, this is the roster size that we'll aim to remain at for the time being.
- Secondly, we'll stop inducting and processing new recruits continuously, this will take the form of "Intakes" where 6-8 applicants are inducted and taken on within a 2-3 week period.
- The timing and size of intakes will be directed by the rostered size, so for example if the Roster size is 110, then an Intake of 10 will be planned.

We are in a very fortunate position, and we are content on using this to raise the bar with our new recruits, which we are finding to be much more attentive, dedicated and passionate as they have in some case waited nearly a month in order to be able to wear the patch.
We're also looking at some potential changes to the process of Candidate and Recruit ranks, which you can find in the Perspective section of this SITREP.

TAFFCAST

In this live episode of TAFFCAST, we discuss a brief update, plans for UNITAFs 2nd Birthday and move on to discuss how UNITAF started and what makes a good leader and how UNITAF chooses leaders for it's organisation. Followed by questions submitted by the live listeners. We were really happy with the engagement of the live broadcast and will look to carry this similar format forward - so expect to see more soon. We'd love to hear your ideas for topics too.

Or use this feed URL in iTunes and other Podcast players
https://feed.podbean.com/unitaf/feed.xml

Promotions

This SITREP is somewhat delayed, in that it's been 6 weeks or so since the last mainline SITREP, but here are some of the notable promotions since then. Most obvious is the promotion of Capt Kevin to Executive Officer, and 1Lt Ben to First Lieutenant. As we've talked about in previous SITREPs, the working model of the ORGCOC right now is in rules of two, with each post having two persons, so that there is full redundancy in the COC, and that also extends now to the Commanding Officer.

2Lt Mattjamco also took command of 2 Troop, and we added two new Corporals with Cpl WhiteWolf and Cpl LegacyStetson taking up the posts.

It's also great to see so many Specialists and PFCs, I'm also aware that we are mere hours away from our first Master Specialist Promotion!

There were of course, a large number of Pvt and Recruit promotions as well.

Awards and Citations

We recently saw a large update to our Awards System. Awards are now graded and can be given attachments to recognise outstanding achievements. Most all medals now either have stars or oak-leaf attachments in Bronze, Silver and Gold - allowing you to upgrade your medals over time, and show off as you collect them.

Example of the new JSAM with attachment variations.

With that, we also added a number of new medals. Specifically we wanted to ensure that we recognised the outstanding work that our Game Masters and Mission Support teams do on a daily basis.
With the addition of the Support Operations Service Medal - and a massive congratulations to those, as indicated below who have received it so far.

Next up, for those attending a large number of Practices, we have the Field Exercise Service Medal and those go to:

The Combat Operations Service Medal also gets an update, and it's great to see so many people having achieved it as well.

ORBAT Role Availability Feature

We also added a handy tool for ORBAT-wide role checking - to all ORBATs.

Candidate and Recruit Rank Changes - Recruit Training Changes

Earlier in the SITREP we discussed a more selective intake procedure. Along with that I'd like to share some current thinking surrounding the Candidate and Recruit ranks.

It's more than likely in the coming months, that the Recruit Training contents will change. The instructors are keen to remove some subjects and add some more. We expect this will take form of two sessions ;

- Recruit Core Infantry Training (for Candidate to Recruit promotions)
- Recruit Advanced Infantry Training (for Recruit to Private promotions)

This is not confirmed, but you'll see that the main difference here is that the current requirement for Private is Tier II in Core Infantry, which requires 2 Core Infantry FTXs, rather than do the same one twice, it's proposed that instead, Recruits do an advanced session as a requirement of becoming a Private, as well as Tier II in Core Infantry.

Discussions are ongoing on the above, and if you'd like to have some input - the best place to start would be j6-training-and-sop.

Promotion Policy

Following feedback from the ORGCOC, a full review of the ranks and promotions policy is underway. We want to ensure that the requirements and expectations of all ranks is really clear, and we don't think that these have been updated in line with other structural changes to UNITAF over the last 2 years.

We'll be updating the ranks section of the site with clear requirements for every rank, probably in time for the next SITREP.

In addition, we'll also publish a promotions policy, that clearly outlines the process to follow from one rank to the next, specifically when choosing between multiple applicants for a single promotion.

Officers and UNISTAFF

The Role of UNISTAFF has changed over the years, and currently we just wanted to make you aware that all UNISTAFF Meetings are and have been for the last 2 months Officer/UNISTAFF meetings. What this means is that the Officers in addition to UNISTAFF are having the majority of policy discussion. This group of 5-6 members of the Senior Staff meet on a weekly basis and officially every other week.

Public Server

A very quick note on the public server. It is currently not working but if anyone would like to work on fixing it, they are more than welcome and we'll put it back up as normal. That is the Liberation server, for anyone not versed.

Daesh Dawn Campaign Replacement

We are currently working on a new concept for a deployment, probably called a 'Patrol'. In the latest ORGCOC meeting we discussed having a non-Zeus driven server which is private and persistent, MSO style for anyone versed in Arma 2. The server would be it's own campaign, ran just like any other UNITAF deployment except that there would be no mission support roles by default. Using an automated persistent mission file, Field Leaders could plan and execute patrols in a insurgency style server storyline.

We feel this is a great way to increase the number of smaller ORBATs, specialist missions with Snipers, Aircraft and the like, without burning out our Game Masters.

Discussions and work are still underway - this was touched on in TAFFCAST 3 as well - and if youre interested please speak to Capt Kevin for more information.

Automatic Rifleman (2IC) - Second in Command - Policy Change

For a while now the ORGCOC have wanted to change the default 2IC policy away from the AR role. Effective from the issue of this SITREP, the 2IC role is now dynamic, and you can find the new policy in P3-3 Roles in the fireteam and as below.

Patreon

A special mention to those who have supported UNITAF on Pateron, please do let me know if you have, as I know some people have done it under a name not related to UNITAF, which makes it very hard to thank you personally. But it is nevertheless, much appreciated.

Slot Priority

A big topic from previous SITREPs has been the slot priority system. There has been a slight lack of progress on this front this month, but I do hope to have a rather substantial update in the coming weeks for that. Along with some unique tools such as a tool that will tell you who is "next in line" for a slot and so on. So keep your eyes peeled. That said a lot of work has been done in the background on this.

UNITAFs 2nd Birthday Celebration

UNITAFs Official 2nd Birthday will be Celebrated on June 1st 2021. We will look to plan a number of special events from June 1 to June 6 to celebrate this milestone.
Not withstanding the potential of seeing the following event!

None to report

It's been another great month for UNITAF, please do let us know your feedback, including the new Podcast on Discord.

Major James
Headquarters
United Task Force

Good afternoon all. This month with lots of little changes taking place to some key systems I wanted to issue a minor SITREP with updates to progress with the Tiering, Progression and Slot Allocation systems.

Aircrew

As planned, Aircrew has been split into fixed-wing and rotary-wing Tiers. Obviously this is a logical step forward - however this has given the opportunity to update our roles and SOP in these areas.

Changes in Tiers

Prior to the split, fixed-wing roles were considered the higher tier aircrew roles, but with fixed-wing gone, Rotary roles have been rebalanced. Attack helicopter roles were doubled in base tier requirement, but can be 2-UPed if needed from Tier 2 in Rotary.

• Rotary Pilot (General) base tier requirement increase from T-I to T-II
  • Pilots at a base level, should have observer experience before flying
     
• Rotary Weapon Systems Operator (Attack) base tier requirement increase from T-II to T-III
  • Weapon Operators of Attack Helicopters (Cobra/Apache) should have more experience than that of dumb-fire assets.
     
• Rotary Pilot (Attack) base tier requirement increase from T-II to T-IV
  • Pilots of Apaches/Cobras to have a higher base tier requirement than that of dumb-fire assets.

New Roles Introduced

Both aircrew tiers have received new roles to provide better guidance for ORBATs, but also more refined experience expectations.

• Rotary Observer (General) new role introduced at T-I
  • This role is a multi role, co-pilot/observer, to be used in assets such as the AH-6, MH-6, UH-60 and UH-1Y, the observer is learning how we use aircraft in combat, but also navigating, observing with optics and assisting the pilot. They may also fly as a co-pilot under instruction.
     
• Rotary Pilot (Multi) new role introduced at T-III
  • Classifying a AH-6 pilot and a AH-64 pilot in the same tier needed to be addressed, and now we make a distinct difference between 'Attack' helicopters or Gunships and 'Multi-role' or 'Multi' aircraft, which we will define as any aircraft with Pilot operated weapons rather than gunner operated weapons, and that are specifically dumb-fire. These pilots need more experience than un-armed pilots, and can perform a number of different roles in addition.
     

• Fixed-wing Pilot (CAP) new role introduced at T-II
  • Provides ORBAT clarity, in the Aircrew Review CAP is Junior to CAS
     
• Fixed-wing Weapons Systems Officer new role introduced at T-II
  • Similar to the Rotary Observer, junior member of the aircrew who can learn in a combat environment, while operating weapon systems or optics.
     
• Fixed-wing Pilot (Multi-role) new role introduced at T-IV
  • The highest tier for fixed-wing are now multi-role aircraft, i.e. dual CAS/CAP capability.

Special Forces / Minimum Rank Operations

Instead of rolling out our special operations orbats as PFC+, we've decided to take a Tier-led approach to this going forward. This has an added benefit of the ability to deploy special operations units on larger conventional ORBATs.
 

These roles belong to their respective combat areas, and are generally the highest tiers in them. We've also planned to make these 'Qualified Roles' more on that in the next section.

The following roles have been added:

• SF Commander (T-V Field Leadership)
• SF Team Leader (T-IV Field Leadership)
• SF Sapper (T-IV Combat Support)
• SF Medic (T-IV Medical)
• SF Missileman (T-IV Anti-vehicle)
• SF Marksman (T-IV Marksmanship)
• SF Operator (T-IV Core Infantry)

You can see these with full descriptions on the roles center.

Qualified Roles

The tier system is an experienced based system, not a capability based system. We'll soon start to phase in a capability based system which will track people who we deem capable of a role, even if they don't have the tier for it. 

Priority will always be given to those who have the most experience, but priority outside of that will be given to people who have the capability those will the experience and the capability are always first.

A number of roles (or role areas) in the future will have a mandatory capability requirement. The best way to look at this is like the Twitter verification tick. Roles like pilots, and field leaders will be verified at each tier by someone senior in that area to confirm they are competent in that role. 

These roles will be listed on the Roles Center, and ORBATs clearly, such as:
Tier IV Qualified instead of Tier IV

How would this effect ORBAT priority?

Priority is always highest tier first, and in the case of multiple persons with the same tier - then hours can be used to work out priority. In Tier Qualified roles the priority order is;

1. Tier+Qualification
2. 1UP+Qualification
3. 2UP+Qualification
4. Tier, no qualification
5. 1UP, no qualification
6. 2UP, no qualification

Please note that the 'Qualified roles' and they way it works with auto-up-tiering will not start immediately - but consider this a heads up of what to expect on that front. As with any of the requirements it is recursive, so all slots will always be filled with the next most experienced person, irrespective of whether anyone is qualified or not.

Slot Allocation Priority Update

Ensuring newer members of UNITAF have access to the first wrung of the progression ladder is important, and the following changes from SITREP/9 are upcoming in the next 1-2 weeks.

'L' Plate slots

Limited to 1-2 per ORBAT, 'L' plate slots only let someone with no combat hours slot into that role for that role area, they are limited to entry level roles in each combat area, and will ensure everyone gets a chance to build their Tier 1 hours across any area. They must have practice hours though, to use it. 

If the 'L' plate slot is not filled, then it will open as normal.

Penalty for Reprimands

If you receive a reprimand for a policy violation you currently loose UP-tier privileges for 7 days. We will extend this penalty to adding a delay to ORBAT releases, initially around 90 seconds will be added to give a time advantage to those with accounts in good standing.

Penalty for Activity

Some conversations have taken place about 'slot-hogging' and while we hope the 'L' plates will really help here, we will add small time penalties to someone who's been in a specific combat area slot for a large part of the last 30 days, to try to give a chance to those who haven't. This will be a minor time penalty and will only apply to the specific combat area. It won't effect the UP-tiering system since the penalty is seconds.

This only applies when your level of activity, exceeds the average of the entire active force, this is measured with something called the 'Activity Index'.

Manual Assignment Guidance

To better communicate when we have manually assigned someone to an ORBAT, ORBATs will now show the method of manual assignment. The valid MA reason codes are;

• MA - Manually Assigned (this person does not have the requirements of the role, but is under the instruction of a supervisor)
• MA-S - Manually Assigned Supervisor (this person is supervising someone else in their immediate ORBAT unit)
• NMQ - Next most qualified (this person doesn't have the role requirements, but is the next most qualified person, and has been slotted manually)

Welcome to this month’s monthly SITREP from Headquarters. If you're joining us in the last 30 days or so Welcome to UNITAF - I hope you're enjoying your time here so far. The SITREP is a monthly to bi-monthly update which contains a range of changes both past and upcoming as well as the discussions and focuses from up and down the chain of command, it's designed to keep everyone up to speed with the thoughts of the senior Chain of Command.

For more meat on the below summary, you'll find it further down in this SITREP.

- UNITAF completes a record breaking February

- More information on current and future slot allocation progress

- Updates on general recruitment

- Updates on ORGCOC / NCO recruitment status

- Two new campaigns and current campaign plans

- Forthcoming plans for UNITAFs 2nd Birthday and the Easter Special

-  Some updates on UNITAF Merch

- Numerous SOP changes and planned changes

Activity and Recruitment

The upward attendance trend continues into another record high in February, with close to 700 slots completed, with the total force strength holding steady at 94.

Deployment wise we see our second month running with over 30 deployments, again holding steady, and no significant movements in AARs.

TAFFCAST

TAFFCAST is back this month, and in a slightly tweaked format based on some feedback from the first episode. Each episode of TAFFCAST will carry a theme of some sort, and while it will touch on parts of the SITREP from the same month, we'll focus more on the theme and will also have a guest on relevant to that theme. This months guest is SFC Mattjamco, on-duty celebrity and long time Zeus turned Field Leader. We talk about Mission Development in UNITAF.

Upcoming episodes will touch on Leadership and another on the work thats involved in making the UNITAF machine work.
If you'd like to be a guest on TAFFCAST, or have questions you want to be addressed on it, fire them over to podcast cheif SFC Zero on Discord.

Or use this feed URL in iTunes and other Podcast players
https://feed.podbean.com/unitaf/feed.xml

Promotions

In the last 30 days or so, I was pleased to approve the following promotions. It see's some major movements in the ORGCOC, as we've been paving the way to double up seniority at every level, from Sections to Troops and very soon, the Task Force HQ as well.

Plenty of new joins have blessed us this month as well, and some really promising talent too.

A massive congratulations to all of the above, well deserved.

NCO Applications

As always we are always happy to hear from people who'd like to dedicate more time to UNITAF by joining the ORGCOC, speak to your COC to let them know your interested and they will try to point you in the right direction.

Changes to the Administration SOP and SOP on Leadership

The Code of Conduct has been moved to a new section of SOP under the 'administration' heading, this section houses SOP on all major functions of the ORGCOC, from the Code of Conduct to how the ORGCOC functions.
You can find this section here: https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/administration

Alongside this, we've added a 'Principles' section which talks about what we expect from our Leadership, and what it means to be an effective leader in UNITAF, both in and outside of the game.

(P15-133) Principles: Introduction
(P15-134) Principles: Micromanagement
(P15-135) Principles: Chain of Command
(P15-136) Principles: Praise in Public, Correct in Private
(P15-137) Principles: Ownership
(P15-138) Principles: Relationships, trust and ego
(P15-139) Principles: Dealing with conflict
(P15-140) Principles: Summary
(P15-141) Advice for Leaders
 

you can find them here

Update to Mission Planning SOP

To make it clearer what is expected in the mission making process, the mission planning SOP under Field Leadership has been split into 4 new and updated SOPs - a useful read (or listen) for both mission developers and leaders;

(P1-84) Mission planning: Process
(P1-142) Mission planning: SMEAC
(P1-143) Mission planning: METT-TC
(P1-144) Mission planning: Making the Plan

you can find them here

A new ORBAT slot allocation policy

P15-145 Policy: ORBAT Slot Allocation condenses years of SITREP updates to the slot allocation system to provide a central policy and location. This is something that has been requested and we want to ensure that fairness and transparency is provided here. You can find the policy linked on all ORBATs and you can read or listen to it here.

ORBAT Release times

Release times typically have been 4 days exactly before an operation execution time, but this often resulted in ORBATs releasing during other missions, so by default this is now 90 minutes before the execution time. So many releases will now happen around 1730 UTC.

Annual Survey Results
 

While I won't go through the full rundown of the survey, I did want to share some of the responses from this years, compared to last years results.

(Below) 2021 Survey - Progression

(Below) 2020 Survey compared to 2021 - Personal Progression

2020

2021

(Above) These two demonstrate the work done over the last year to improve personal progression, work that is ongoing and we hope over this year, to improve this even further with a robust Advanced Core Infantry Training program.

(Below) 2020 Survey compared to 2021 - Progression Paths

2020

2021

(Above) It's promising to see that efforts to improve clarity in the progression paths with the tier system are bedding in, and result in a much more decisive opinion this year.

The general feedback this year, as with last year have been incredibly useful, and with a large focus on the slot allocation system we addressed last month, and so continue to expect work to be done on these systems going forward.

Slot Allocation

In March, we'll start to introduce the following planned changes to the ORBAT system;

- Aircrew will be split into Fixed / Rotary (and hours re-distributed)

- Reprimand Reports, No-shows will have a time penalty to Deployment buttons

- Additional formulas to give some time advantage (in seconds) to people who are less active than others in deployment release times

- 'L' Plate slot functionality, so that certain slots can be reserved for people who don't have the tiers yet.

New Campaigns

As mentioned last month Operation Eiche will commence shortly, a German campaign in Russian Invaded finland, using the popular BWMOD. 

We'll also deploy on Operation Typhoon, which is a USMC campaign in a Russian backed Coup of Jamaica

you can find more information about both, on the Campaign Center

UNITAFs 2nd Birthday and the Easter Special

On Easter Weekend, we'll have a Special Operation that's all about tanks, alongside our normal Sunday Operation. We'll also start to ramp up plans for UNITAFs second birthday in a couple of months time.

UNITAF Merch

As mentioned a little while ago, we expect to be in a position to launch the UNITAF Merch in the coming weeks (hopefully) 

Advanced Trainings and SOP

Alongside the upcoming changes to Aircrew, there is a desire to really beef out an advanced core infantry training to run every couple of weeks and so if this is something you think you can help with please get involved. The same can be said about some other areas, such as communication in relation to FAC/FO that could do with some SOP updates. A new training map on Altis is underway, and due to replace Malden soon also.

- External radio nets are now set automatically, but unlike before are not enabled by default as an additional channel

Special Mentions

Congratulations to Pvt Chelmy, who raised over £500 for Children with Cancer UK as part of a 24 hour live stream this month on TwitchTV. Part of which featured Operation Parabole, thank you to everyone who contributed with their support by donating, I understand that their employer will double the final amount, so great work.

Mods for Approval

A seperate update will follow in the coming days, dedicated to a Mod review, including suggestions.

None to report

It's been another great month for UNITAF, please do let us know your feedback, including the new Podcast on Discord.

Major James
Headquarters
United Task Force
 

Welcome to this month’s monthly SITREP from Headquarters. If you're joining us in the last 30 days or so Welcome to UNITAF - I hope you're enjoying your time here so far. The SITREP is a monthly to bi-monthly update which contains a range of changes both past and upcoming as well as the discussions and focuses from up and down the chain of command, it's designed to keep everyone up to speed with the thoughts of the senior Chain of Command.

For more meat on the below summary, you'll find it further down in this SITREP.

- UNITAF completes a record breaking December/January

- We address slot supply and demand plans for 2021

- We talk about the campaign center plans

- We launch TAFFCAST for the first time

- Liberation gets an Update with a new map, new faction

Activity and Recruitment

As we close out January we see some incredible levels of activity across the force with new records across the board, as of writing we are at 110 strong. All January figures below do not include today (January 31). 92 Members of the active force have deployed so far in January, at an average of 6.8 deployments per month. We will likely put a hold on recruitment in the coming month, if at least temporarily while we see how things balance out with operations.

We've continued the trend of over 25 deployments per month for the 4th month running, and for the first time ever, deployed more than once per day for the entire month of January 21.

Overall AAR ratings remain stable, with Operation Brimstone starting in the strong 90s for it's first few Sunday deployments.

TAFFCAST

Due to popular demand, and for the first time ever, we will be releasing a Podcast episode alongside each SITREP, the TAFFCAST is hosted by UNISTAFF members and will discuss in detail topics from the SITREP. In EP001 we discuss;

- What is UNISTAFF
- Slot Supply and Demand
- Training and Tier Systems
- Liberation Server
- Campaign Center
- Future Plans for the Podcast

Or use this feed URL in iTunes and other Podcast players
https://feed.podbean.com/unitaf/feed.xml

In future episodes we will be inviting guests on, and various other topics, it would be great to get your feedback on this new resource, on Discord. If you'd like to come on the podcast in a future episode, or have topics you want us to discuss, please for now at least, speak to SFC Zero.

Promotions

In the last 30 days or so, I was pleased to approve the following promotions. Some of these are related to the opening of 7 and 8 Section and the future 4 Troop.

Plenty of new joins have blessed us this month as well, and some really promising talent too.

A massive congratulations to all of the above, well deserved.

NCO Applications

The ORGCOC will continue to seek more NCOs in expectation of the opening of 4 Troop in the coming months, so we will consider all interested persons and help to develop those with potential as this process unfolds, what we're looking for is people with the ambition to lead, being in an NCO gives you basically, guaranteed Leadership time, and likewise for Instructing as well as a number of other things. We know we've got some great potential in our newer members who might even still be CDT, Recruit or Private, and we just encourage you to reach out to your COC with that ambition, as we're more than happy to fast track the right candidate - check out our ORGCOC Policy and speak to your Troop or Section Commanders for more information.

UNITAF Strategy
The Campaign Center

The CC takes a slight backstep in development due to the prioritisation of changes to the ORBAT system. The main framework changes have been completed, and the next modules to be released will be the POI and Intel Modules.

Contributors

We've recently added a new discord channel called #contributor-info which contains a whole host of information on how to get involved in pushing UNITAF forward, so I highly recommend checking that out. This month also sees some changes to Joint Task Groups (JTGs) and Staff Task Groups (STGs) which are detailed in that channel.

Operations Schedule and Campaigns

We've kicked off to a great start with Operation Brimstone, with Parabole returning eariler this month, and a number of well recieved Daesh Dawn deployments, as well as the return of our historicals in both December and January, Panther and Giantsbane. In February we will continue with Brimstone, Parabole and Daesh Dawn, but we look to new campaigns to bolster operations, and we welcome our talented mission developers and game masters to come forward to plug future schedule gaps. Active teams are looking at German campaigns, amongst others.

Liberation Server

Next week, the liberation server will be updated, this cycle will see us on Chernarus Winter, deployed as the Russian Forces.

Slot Supply and Demand

In TAFFCAST we discuss the fact that UNITAF has a much greater demand currently for slots than we have a supply of, hence the intent above to spin up additional campaigns as and when possible, as well as increasing the number of missions and their frequency across all campaigns. We will also make small interventions to the ORBAT system over the coming months, and it's important to note we will do this incrementally and each time communicate ahead each change, so we can monitor the effects, but our intent is to do the following;

- Introduce 'L' plate slots across some ORBATs, which are dedicated to those who have training, but no combat experience in a role, to make it easier to get your first foot on the ladder
- Introduce more operations with minimum and maximum ranks, for example Operations targeted at Recruits, with minimal Private+ slots will give Recruits access with less competion to other roles, contrasted with an equal number of the opposite, for example (Private+) operations, possiby run at the same time on the same day.
- Introduce alternative methods of role access based on capability, not experience, so newer members who are overly capable of a role, but lack the Tiering, still have a fair chance at accessing them, without making the tier redundant. In short, priority will be given to those with both, and then recurse from there.
- Split Aircrew into two Tiers, Rotary and Fixed, and move JTAC/FAC roles into Aircrew from Communications.
- Make the deployment buttons fairer, by factoring in how many times you've deployed in a role to give you an advantage if you've not been able to get one in the past - so long as you have the requirements of course.
- Introduce new ways of indicating your status on specific ORBATs, such as "100% Reserve" "Reserve Maybe" and collecting information about how many people would have attended an operation if they could have.

Mods for Approval

A seperate update will follow in the coming days, dedicated to a Mod review, including suggestions.

UNITAF Mod

The UNITAF Mod was released this month, and continues to be updated.

Remember that the UNITAF Annual Survey closes today at 23:59, so if you have not submitted it yet, please do so here
 

It's been another great month for UNITAF, please do let us know your feedback, including the new Podcast, and we look forward to reporting the Survey Results in SITREP/9 in a months time.

Major James
Headquarters
United Task Force
 

Believe it or not folks as we approach our 2nd Birthday it's time for the UNITAF annual survey.

UNITAF has a robust platform of feedback analysis, with over 3,500 After Action Reports submitted comprising of over 600 A4 pages of feedback.

Alongside the chain of command feedback channel, this will be our second annual survey. We are interested in understanding how you feel about the ongoing development of United Task Force.

This is an opportunity to feedback directly to the headquarters, top-level non-mission specific feedback and ideas to be considered for the Strategy for the 2021 period.

We greatly appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.

The closing date for submissions is 00:01 UTC on Sunday January 31st.

Click here to take part.

We recently updated our Activity, Discharge & Participation Policy to Version 2. This policy controls how UNITAF classifies members into the Regular, Reserves and Inactive groups.

The main changes you'll find are;

• The default inactivity state is now Inactive (known as a standard Discharge)
• Discharge applies for members not active within 60+ days
• Reserves applies for members not active in operations for 30+ days (but who are contactable)
• Discharged members no longer retain access to Discord or the Website

We've added a new method for Inactive members to return to Regulars or Reserves called a re-induction. The re-induction is like a new member induction but for returning members.

We've added proper on-leave statuses to allow members who cannot be active for 60+ days to apply to have their accounts remain open.

We've added new guidance to the Retired state, the Retired state can now be applied for when you expect to go inactive. Retired members retain access to most all of UNITAFs services.

You can find the updated policy here: P15-125 Activity, Discharge & Participation Policy

Welcome to this month’s monthly SITREP from Headquarters. If you're joining us in the last 30 days or so Welcome to UNITAF - I hope you're enjoying your time here so far. The SITREP is a monthly to bi-monthly update which contains a range of changes both past and upcoming as well as the discussions and focuses from up and down the chain of command, it's designed to keep everyone up to speed with the thoughts of the senior Chain of Command.

For more meat on the below summary, you'll find it further down in this SITREP.

- Big changes to 1UPs (Up Tiering) and Tier Progression

- A New After Action Report System with Reputation

- Upcoming Contribution Center & Campaign Centers

- Our new Sunday Campaign

- A new Core Infantry Course to follow on from Recruit Training

- An update on the ORGCOC

Activity and Recruitment

Total attendance is, believe it or not up another 20% on October, setting yet another new record. That means on average 7.6 deployments per person in this period!

November was (unsuprisingly) a record month for Deployments, with 27 deployments, a record set to be beaten this December.

Total Force Strength is the best indicator of the health of the unit and is stable at 70, this is the result of some purging done by the ORGCOC, which also explains why the total force activity is higher (with the 7.6 deployments PM up from 6.6, and 4.3 pre-COVID)

Promotions

In the last 30 days or so, I was pleased to approve the following promotions. You'll notice a couple of Senior ORGCOC promotions, this is due to the On-Leave status of 2Lt Zero and SSgt Attackbee, which causes a ripple promotion effect. But some worthy candidates have joined the ORGCOC in recent weeks, and more will do so soon as well.

Plenty of new joins have blessed us this month as well, and some really promising talent too.

A massive congratulations to all of the above, well deserved.

NCO Applications

The ORGCOC is still seeking more NCOs in what will become more of a continuous process, what we're looking for is people with the ambition to lead, being in an NCO gives you basically, guaranteed Leadership time, and likewise for Instructing as well as a number of other things. We know we've got some great potential in our newer members who might even still be CDT, Recruit or Private, and we just encourage you to reach out to your COC with that ambition, as we're more than happy to fast track the right candidate - check out our ORGCOC Policy and speak to your Troop or Section Commanders for more information.

UNITAF Strategy
The Campaign Center

Those long-time members of UNITAF will note the campaign center has been planned for some time, it will better tie together campaign missions by providing a central place for mugshots of HVTs, intel feeds and imagery as well as logistics, finance and other matters. The intention is to launch this alongside the new Sunday campaign on January 10th, it will be a massive change for UNITAF towards our long term goals.

The Contribution Center

Probably a little known development, the contribution center aims to communicate what UNITAF is working on at any time, and better facilitate people joining our working teams that cover all of the key functions of UNITAF, again more information will be forthcoming, as it is released.

Operations Schedule and Campaigns

As mentioned previously, Vertex ends this Sunday, and we're kicking off 2021s first Sunday with a Operation Panther mission, on January 10th, we'll be deploying to our new Sunday campaign, which I'm really excited for, and an announcement will be forthcoming with details very soon.

Update: Minimum Rank Operations

You'll notice as promised in SITREP/6, and as part of the Quality Strategy that the minimum rank operations have been fully implemented, and all combat deployments now require a minimum rank of Recruit, as do all advanced Trainings, and you may occasionally see higher minimum requirements, such as for Special Forces deployments, or ORGCOC sessions.

Update: Reputation

Again, part of SITREP/6 and the Quality Strategy was the introduction of the Reputation system to extend the AARs. This Sunday, Vertex 14 will be the first deployment to issue the new AARs, while we're not doing anything with the Reputation system right now, we're going to monitor how it is used first, before we implement any systems around it's data. The purpose of the system is to identify anybody who needs correcting on mild policy or behavioural issues by using a crowd sourced reputation system, but also to use it for issuing the new Good Conduct medals too.

An example of the updated AAR system can be seen below, note that you can only rate people in your immediate team.

Update: Tier System and UP-tiering (1UP/2UPs)

Field Leaders in the past have been inundated with requests for 1UPs and the system has also not been the most fair either, to bring it in line with other UNITAF systems, you'll notice the Automatic UP-tiering system was recently released and is being used on a all upcoming deployments.

Here is the low down of how it works;

On ORBAT release, only those with the required tiers can slot into those roles, but they will see buttons which indicate when they will be able to 1UP or 2UP to a role, the ORBAT will tell you exactly when you will be able to 1UP or 2UP to a role.

24 Hours after initial release of an ORBAT (or 48 hours for 2UPs), having given enough time for qualified persons to deploy, the ORBAT will automatically seek those who are in the tier below for all roles, to help with this we've added two changes.
The first is a release time, so you know when the ORBAT was released, to the right hand side.

Next is a non-pinged message into mission-pings by the bot, which will inform everyone when 1UP and 2UPs are possible for any given operation.
In any case, when possible, the ORBAT will show you either a 1UP or 2UP button in place of the deploy button.

UP-tiering is a privilege though and not a right; so we've also added some further fallbacks to prevent UP-tiering in some circumstances;

- UP-tiering is not possible on FTXs
- You can't UP-tier if you've recieved a reprimand in the last 7 days (such as a no-show)
- You can't up-tier to a certain combat area if you've been flagged for not following a certain SOP in that area
- You can only UP-tier 2 levels in total
- You'll need to have attended at least 1 FTX in the respective area

In each case, you'll be given a warning, examples below;

Ability to Swap ORBAT positions without Cancelling a Deployment

Another nifty change you may have noticed above is the ability to swap your ORBAT position without having to cancel your current one first, this is especially useful for 1UPs, re-deploy buttons have an apt UNO-REVERSE icon so you know you are switching roles.

None to report.

UNITAF Mod

The UNITAF mod has been under regular testing in the last few weeks, and we intend to launch this alongside the new campaign on January 10th, again there will be a dedicated announcement when this happens, but we very much look forward to replacing the table with the tablet.

If you don't already have an avatar, check out this ping to find out how: https://discord.com/channels/573494917998051348/637195879375175681/780369912191123466

I'd like to especially thank this month SSgt Attackbee and 2Lt Zero for their service over the last 18 months, and we hope to see them deploying again soon.

It's been another great month for UNITAF, and I'm especially excited to see the UNITAF Mod and Campaign Center launched in early 2021.
 

Welcome to this month’s monthly SITREP from Headquarters. If you're joining us in the last 30 days or so Welcome to UNITAF - I hope you're enjoying your time here so far. The SITREP is a monthly to bi-monthly update which contains a range of changes both past and upcoming as well as the discussions and focuses from up and down the chain of command, it's designed to keep everyone up to speed with the thoughts of the senior Chain of Command.

For more meat on the below summary, you'll find it further down in this SITREP.

- This month, we're celebrating surpassing 10,000 hours of operations!

- New campaigns: Operation Parabole, Operation Panther, Operation Giantsbane

- Some new US Timezone Operations.

- Updates on the UNITAF Strategy for Player Quality and Medical

- Update on NCO Recruitment

- MERT Review

Activity and Recruitment

Total attendance is up 37% on September, setting a new record. That means on average 6.4 deployments per person in this period.

As anticipated last month, October sees an increase of over 30% in the number of deployments. This follows a number of Mission Support practices, and the launch of a number of new campaigns.

Total Force Strength is the best indicator of the health of the unit and is also up 15%, and is the start of another upwards spike going into November.

Promotions

This month, I was pleased to be able to approve the following promotions, including our first ever E-4 Specialist Promotion. 

Other promotions worthy of note are 1Lt Kevin, as 2 Troop adds it's 3rd SECTION and Cpl BigRed and Cpl Cross

A massive congratulations to all of the above, well deserved.

Changes to Promotions Ceremonial

Prior to SITREP 6, Promotions were usually authorized by the Commanding Officer on a Saturday, and announced on a Sunday. It's been decided that from November 2020, Promotions up to that of PFC will be Authorized and actioned by Troop Commanders as they desire, and announced by the Commanding Officer on Sundays. All promotions above PFC will still follow this process, but generally require approval from the Commanding Officer first.

Medal issue will likely move to monthly, as part of a medals update coming later this year.

NCO Applications

The ORGCOC is still seeking more NCOs in what will become more of a continuous process, what we're looking for is people with the ambition to lead, being in an NCO gives you basically, guaranteed Leadership time, and likewise for Instructing as well as a number of other things. We know we've got some great potential in our newer members who might even still be CDT, Recruit or Private, and we just encourage you to reach out to your COC with that ambition, as we're more than happy to fast track the right candidate - check out our ORGCOC Policy and speak to your Troop or Section Commanders for more information.

Medical Changes and MERT Review

The recent changes to the medical system have been overwhelmingly positive, and while we'll continue to make minor adjustments we are happy with progress, and the training that is underway. Furthermore, one other change to SOP is that the use of MERT, must be in accordance with METT-TC. In short, if ground vehicles are already deployed, the primary medical treatment off-field should be a medical MRAP or APC. MERT should be used in cases where ground based medical support is impractical, and when escorted by an Attack Helicopter or operating in non-threat AOs.

Acknowledgements

- A shout out to Pvt Mectus who built an entire campaign from his first Mission Support practice, Operation Parabole scored very highly on AARs too.

- Sgt Mattjamco for 2 incredible Halloween Operations

UNITAF Strategy

Our focus last month was medical, and this month we're shifting our focus to quality of membership. We already have some great tools for reviewing missions, and for dealing with conduct violations and SOP violations, but as we continue to grow, we're going to add some more features to give you options in relation to the quality of missions. These features will include roadmapped plans such as operations with a minimum rank requirement (i.e. Special Operations and NCO Ops) to systems that track specific player reputations, which I'll cover off more below.

Operations Schedule and Campaigns

I'm really pleased to announce, that alongside Op Herrick, Op Vertex and Op Daesh Dawn, we've just launched Op Parabole and today we're announcing the reactivation of Op Giantsbane and a new campaign, Op Panther. Both of which are part of a new operation type 'Historic'.

Finally, we're going to be scheduling some secondary objectives from our main campaigns into the primetime US timezones, around 0030hrs UTC, on Fridays (likely alternate weeks to Parabole).

Let's break this down a little;

Operation Vertex (Conventional US): Sundays 1800hrs UTC, Company sized
Operation Herrick (Insurgency BAF-RM): Alternate Tuesdays 1900hrs UTC, Squad/Platoon sized
Operation Daesh Dawn (Insurgency BAF-RM): Alternate Tuesdays 1900hrs UTC, Squad/Platoon sized
Operation Parabole (Direct action US JSOC): Alternate Fridays 1900hrs UTC, Squad sized
Operation Giantsbane (1944 Historic WW2): Every other month (alternate to Panther), uncapped
Operation Panther (1969 Historic Vietnam): Every other month (alternate to Giantsbane), uncapped

Quality Strategy: Minimum Rank Operations

As part of our focus on quality operations, one of the upcoming changes you will notice is the ability for field leaders to set a minimum rank requirement to an operation. This is something only currently possible for NCOs, as we occasionally deploy on NCO only deployments, in order to bring the leadership together, people who are often leading their own callsigns. I suspect this will be limited, as we do not want most operations to be capped, but you could see minimum ranks of Recruit being set on most deployments, and some smaller, specifically SPECOPS style missions starting at Private, or even PFC. Again, we're only able to do this due to the fact we're doing almost 30 deployments a month already.

Quality Strategy: Reputation

One of our latest observances is the lack of any method for you to indicate how deploying with specific people was for you. This is something we want to have an outlet for, bearing in mind how well After Action Reports work. We already have a great tool in MYCOC for NCOs to administrate through the ORGCOC, but we want to build on this by providing a way for you to, as part of your AAR, indicate what your experience was like with members of your team. This will be an anonymous system that will produce what is effectively a Reputation score which the ORGCOC will use to track any potential long-term issues. When this launches, there will be a specific report about how it works.

Suffice to say, we are comitted to tracking behavior and dealing with it, to ensure that everyone acts in accordance with our values and procedures.

Quality Strategy: Upcoming Tier System 2.0

A final focus of our quality strategy is an update to our Tier system. You'll notice as with Vertex 8 and 9, we've locked slots such as MBT Crews and A-10 pilots to those selected at a corresponding FTX. This is essentially because the Tier system is not a perfect assessment of someones ability, but it does demonstrate experience. Upcoming changes to expect are an alternate assessment based system, that will allow you to bypass the tier requirement for a rule by passing an optional assessment. Call it a fast track if you will, these methods will be intensive but thorough, and ensure that any holder of it is 100% capable of the role in question.

The tier system itself still remains the primary driver, and priority is still given to those with the tier, and even more so to those with both. Certain roles, such as pilots are specific to certain airframes, and so expect to see this used across the Aircrew role set, whereby being assessed in a certain aircraft may become a requirement for a given slot.

This is only a very basic indication of the direction of travel with the tier system, but there will be an entire update on this subject alone, when it comes around.

Recruitment

Recruitment is an ongoing process, but it's not something we're massively struggling with right now, but we are always looking for exceptional people, and while we're not aiming to grow right this second, we will continue our efforts to keep out current size - so if you have any friends who you'd think would be a great fit, why not send them an invite?

The medical settings have been finalized according to the last announcement.

Immerse

Currently under operational testing, Immerse essentially adds camera shake for explosions, and flash effects from your personal weapon, as well as some punchy animations for weapon kick.

While primarily a immersion mod, this will stop some of our more trigger happy ARs, and help people to stick to bursts per SOP.

It's settings are being tweaked and It's use will be reviewed prior to SITREP 7

Suppress

Currently under operational testing, Suppress is another example of a intent to build upon our medical system to provide a more obvious warning to being under fire, and to force a player under fire to take immediate action. Being shot at by a high caliber weapon will be an issue, even if you are not directly hit. As a result, we hope to see more thoughtful planning from junior leaders and senior leaders alike. As well as more realistic movement and usage of cover. It also provides a unique option to GMs.

It's settings are being tweaked and It's use will be reviewed prior to SITREP 7

The following mods were approved for use;

- Immerse
- Suppress
- BettIR
- MW3 NVG Effects
- Unsung
- Nam
- USAF Fighters

If you know anyone who you think would be a great fit for UNITAF, why not send them an invite?

It's been another great month for UNITAF, with some really exciting developments on the horizon, and a growing, happy force.
 

Following the Roadmapped announcement about "Make Medics Great Again!" with this being quite a core mechanic change we've had some further discussions within the ORGCOC today and we've updated those plans which we're going to deploy to Operation Vertex 5, here are all the important details. We'll review this from AARs from Vertex 5, for subsequent operations.

Background

This relates to Roadmap Item #47, Medical System Update the purpose of which is "To review the medical system to ensure it is challenging enough to players and rewarding enough for medics."

The initial proposed settings for Vertex 5 involved the reduction of access to medical equipment to non-medics both in loadouts and in the arsenal. This was assumed to be the easier path to take versus changing medical settings. On-review, this appears not to be the case and so further revision is needed. To be clear, no change will now be made to the arsenal, although loadouts will have minor changes.

Medical Settings (click for link to full settings)

• Wound Re-opening has been enabled and we've reduced the chance of this happening by 50% so we can monitor gradual changes. This means you'll need to see a medic at some point to deal with any wounds for a more permanent solution but that you can continue to bandage yourself to deal with it in the mean time. The most effective bandage for non-medics now is the QuickClot, so all default loadouts have been changed to this. Stitch kits are set as re-usable and are usable by both CLS and Squad/Platoon Medics who have one.
   
• Combat Lifesavers now have a defined function which takes up the majority of their core combat load, so to help with that and to give Squad and Platoon Medics a more defined function in addition to Personal Aid Kits, Combat Life Savers cannot administer IVs such as Blood, but Squad Medics can and Squad and Platoon Medics will carry the blood supply, while all personnel continue to carry Personal Aid Kits, the senior medics will carry a few spare.

Loadouts

• Replaced default loadouts which contained Elastic Bandages with QuickClots, they are more effective against reopening.
   
• Combat Lifesaver loadout is updated; (click for link to full loadout)
  • 6 White Smokes
  • 4-6 Purple Smokes
  • 60x QuickClots
  • 30x each specialist bandage type
  • 20x Morphine
  • 10x Epinephrine
  • 20x Splint
  • 1x Stitch Kit
  • 15x Tourniquet

• Senior (Squad/Platoon) Medic loadout is updated; (click for link to full loadout)
  • 6 White Smokes
  • 4-6 Purple Smokes
  • 10x 500ml IV
  • 5x 1000ml IV
  • 5x Personal Aid Kit
  • 30x QuickClots
  • 25x each specialist bandage type
  • 15x Morphine
  • 10x Epinephrine
  • 10x Splint
  • 1x Stitch Kit
  • 10x Tourniquet

ORBAT Changes

• Each infantry squad should have as a minimum 1 Squad Medic and 1 Combat Lifesaver, the Squad Medic can roam to service one of the fireteams as required, but if demand is there, or the Field Leader anticipates a requirement, a CLS can be in both teams, for a total of 3 Medics per Squad (1 SM, 2 CLS).

Summary

Summarised below, are the per-role differences. Which have the added benefit of interlocking with the current triage states, each level of medical ability aligns with a triage state.

• Non-medical personnel, no major change from normal but there is a chance that your wounds will now re-open; so without a medic to stitch them, you will use more medical supplies. QuickClot should be your all-rounder bandage unless you know which specific bandages to use. A combat lifesaver from your Fireteam or Squad will stitch you to stop wounds from re-opening.
  
  This means non medical personnel mostly deal with casualties in the MINIMAL triage state.
  For a breakdown of triage states click here
  
   
• Combat Lifesavers your primary function is to stop bleeding, using your advanced knowledge of the types of wounds and applying the most effective dressings to treat them, and then stitching the patient to prevent the re-opening of wounds. For immediate and delayed casualties, you also continue as before administer morphine and Epinephrine as required to resuscitate. You can no longer administer blood unless you are onboard medical vehicle or facility, so in the field you'll need the Squad or Platoon medic. So there is incentive to prevent blood loss. The space in your loadout used for blood previously, allows you to carry purple smokes to mark mass casualty sites, and plenty of bandages, splints and a stitch kit.
  
  This means Combat Lifesavers deal with casualties in the DELAYED+ triage state.
  For a breakdown of triage states click here
  
   
• Squad / Platoon Medics your new role is to provide IV to deal with heavy blood loss of IMMEDIATE and DELAYED casualties, you can also provide the same function as a CLS, meaning you'll also carry a stitch kit - and an assortment of bandages, as well as additional PAKs. As before, you'll be able to PAK patients at the medical facilities. You carry the sole blood supply for the Squad. Because the Senior Medic role includes the abilities of it's junior ones, when required, you can perform all other medical proceedures as needed.
  
  This means Medics deal with casualties in the IMMEDIATE- triage state.
  For a breakdown of triage states click here

Practices / Re-training

Medics for Vertex 5 and beyond will be briefed during the pre-deployment phase, and a Medical Practice will be forthcoming once the SOP is settled, as alterations may need to be made based on Summary of AARs. There is a minimal change, since we've been using Advanced Wounds for over 10 months, so switching your default bandage from Elastic to QuickClot negates the majority of this re-training once the Surgical Kit is used. However understanding which bandage to use, yeilds ultimate efficiency and so this is what we'll focus on.

Obviously, we've used this system before the ACE Update in January 2020, so it won't be new to most people, but some refreshers will be needed no doubt.

After Action Reports

Please ensure that you place a summary of this system in your After Action Report for Operation Vertex 5, if you are on the ORBAT. Alterations to this may be made for subsequent operations as required and based on AAR Summary from each.

Welcome to this month’s monthly SITREP from Headquarters. If you're joining us in the last 30 days or so Welcome to UNITAF - I hope you're enjoying your time here so far. The SITREP is a monthly to bi-monthly update which contains a range of changes both past and upcoming as well as the discussions and focuses from up and down the chain of command, it's designed to keep everyone up to speed with the thoughts of the senior Chain of Command.

This update is a week or so late, so I'll cover things such as this months Joint Operation, in next months SITREP.

UNITAF will be adjusting for Daylight Savings inline with the United Kingdom on Sunday
Operations from Sunday will be +1 hour than normal, if you're in the UK, UNITAF time becomes UK time, and if you're elsewhere you may have already adjusted and/or will adjust soon - you will see this take effect on the operations center already, if you look at the time for Vertex 5.

So without futher ado, let's get started. 

For more meat on the below summary, you'll find it further down in this SITREP.

- Acting on AAR feedback we are due to deploy some changes to the medical system to "Make Medics Great Again" starting around Vertex 5, and this includes reducing access to medical equipment for non-medics

- We're trying to hold stable at our current size without growing too quickly - we are looking internally for more Field Leaders

- We're in the need of Game Masters quite urgently to support the growing schedule

- We're happy with the T-GAG review, so it'll be staying for now

- We're going to be bringing future changes to the Tiering Progression System to address some issues with it

- Updates on the Progress of the Contribution and Campaign Centers

- We'll be adding a bunch more awards and medals soon

Activity and Recruitment

September saw a small decrease in total attendance, something we expect will bounce right back in October.

This was primarily due to the fact we depoloyed less in September than in August

Total Force Strength is the best indicator of the health of the unit, which is roughly stable in September, but is increasing rapidly in October.

In respect of overall after action reporting, we're seeing the start of a slight downward trend in September, which recovers in mid-October, due to primarily a double change in campaign and mod sets for Vertex and Herrick, typically once campaigns stabilise this will also.

Promotions

This month, I was pleased to be able to approve the following promotions, this month again see's some further ORGCOC promotions as we open 3 TROOP, as well as a large number of new Privates and Recruits.

This month we also changed the way that Recruits and Candidates are handled, which also effects privates, so we will generally have more of them at any one time than before, as the promotion is more difficult to achieve, in line with higher promotions.

A massive contgratulations to all of the above, well deserved.

The Schedule

In the last SITREP we were just announcing the first time we had a consecutive campaign and it's already looking like a third will be on the way, in terms of anchor days, Herrick and Daesh share alternate Tuesdays with Vertex firmly planted on Sundays in place of Ember, Vertex is generally un-capped wheras Daesh and Herrick sit at the 20-30 mark, in theory we're keen to look at a third anchor day for either a new campaign, part of a current one or even look at doing an alternate WW2 continuation for Operation Giantsbane, at least now that the mod has stabilised. Again, if you'd like to get involved with this, please contact me initially via the #j5-offical-op-planning channel on Discord.

Other things to look out for on the schedule will be Public Server nights, as well as some more Core Infantry trainings' which will be coming soon.

Game Masters

To keep on top of the schedule, we're going to need to expand our roster of Game Masters, we have some fantastic GM's across UNITAF, but supporting a growing schedule is going to be challenging, so similar to our approach with Leadership, we're reaching out to those interested in the fields of Mission Design, Zeus to get in touch or get involved. As long as you have the ambition, then even if you aren't sure how the systems work right now then that's something we can help with, and if you're a dab hand in Eden and Zeus then just getting your head around the Mission Support SOP might be all you need. 

NCO Applications

The ORGCOC is still seeking more NCOs in what will become more of a continious process, what we're looking for is people with the ambition to lead, being in an NCO gives you basically, guaranteed Leadership time, and likewise for Instructing as well as a number of other things. We know we've got some great potential in our newer members who might even still be CDT, Recruit or Private, and we just encourage you to reach out to your COC with that ambition, as we're more than happy to fast track the right candidate - check out our ORGCOC Policy and speak to your Troop or Section Commanders for more information.

T-GAG Review

The recent addition of the T-GAG and the threat of forced-push-to-talk from Ember 10 seems to have stemmed most but not all of our concerns on voice discipline, although we want everyone to continue to monitor it, and furthermore we think that DUI Squad Radars HUD features relating to voice and radio activations will help to identify any other issues on this front, so for now, we will leave it to a wider review in the future.

Acknowledgements

- This month saw a couple of NCOs step down due to other commitments, a massive thanks' goes to PFC Sharkhus and PFC J "Willy" Wilson for their time served in the ORGCOC as Corporals

- Pvt Milky for his delectable videos from Operation Herrick

UNITAF Strategy

Having just come out of a UNISTAFF meeting, our focus is very much on building and adapting our systems based on what we've now learnt from our current size, so we can be better prepared for a even busier schedule, so we're aiming to hold UNITAFs active force at it's current size, until we are comfortable we are able to support it fully. Those systems predominately relate to the Campaign and Contribution Centers, the recruitment of more Leaders and NCOs and Game Masters and finally, a review of the Training and Progression systems, and by extension the 1UP system.

Campaign Center

The campaign center has had to take a development back seat due to other items on the roadmap, but is still underway, and will likely fall into the Winter, after the Contribution Center is released.

Contribution Center

The contribution center is a new area of the website which will take all of the contribtion units from J1-J10 and break down the roadmap for each, showing everyone what's planned, and also detail out anything you can do to help UNITAF in any of those areas, it will also track contributions made by you similar to the Operation Tiers and also will replace the Discord Bot ?suggest, creating a better management and visibility of suggestions on the website. The CC should be live by the time the next SITREP goes out.

Tier and Progression System Changes

When we put the current tier system in replace of the old assessment system, we knew there would be some issues. Primarily that some people can be capable of something without having the experience, and some people can actually have the experience but still be not fully capable of a role. We have recently roadmapped changes to the Tier system which mean that in the future, we will seperate Experience and Capability systematiclly through the system, but building on the Tier system with a SOP coverage tool. Essentially this additional system will show you all the roles you have unlocked, and those which you haven't and why. It will mean that in some cases you can deploy to roles you don't have the tier for if you are deemed "Capable" and in other cases visa-versa.

This will be linked to the 1UP system, automatic 1UPs will prefer people that are deemed capable of a role even if they don't have the experience, although it prefers people that have both. All roles will have specific SOP attached to them, rather than the general area, and SOP coverage would be required to keep the role unlocked, especially when large SOP changes come due to game mechanics or mod changes.

What this means for you ultimately is we want to ensure always that capable people are in ORBAT roles at all times, and a full video will go out, with a detailed explaination when this change is realised, but with the development queue at the moment, that could be a month or so, so I'll just raise it here, and know that we'll be back with more information soon.

You can of course, discuss this in j6-training-and-sop.

Recruitment

Recruitment is an ongoing process, but it's not something we're massively struggling with right now, but we are always looking for exceptional people, and while we're not aiming to grow right this second, we will continue our efforts to keep out current size.

DUI Squad Radar

DUI has replaced STUI due to it's Discontinuation, we'll be refining it's settings over the next few operations, at the moment the only known issue is for those with Custom FOV settings.

"Make Medics Great AGAIN!"

We've been monitoring AARs for some time now to address the medical system, a consulation has been underway, and the results are that there will be, starting this week a 2 Phased change to the medical system.

Starting this week, we're going to start to reduce access to medical equipment to non-medics, what this means is if you are in a non-medical role, you will no longer have access to medical equipment in the arsenals or in LOGPAKs, the default loadouts will be revised in order to reduce the CCL (Core Combat Load) carrying down to a small number of medical items. 

Without any substantial changes to any settings, this change will make Combat Life Savers a valuable and useful asset to the fireteam, as the only person carrying medical supplies and hopefully result in them dealing with most things we would normally deal with ourselves, allowing us to maintain sectors of fire at all times.Squad, Platoon and MERT Medics maintain their useful stance.

Looking forward, we're going to monitor the first few operations on the above changes (the earliest is likely to be Vertex 5) and adapt as required, this is likely to involve the re-enagement of Advanced Wounds and bandages, as well as wound re-opening, but more on that, soon.

If you've not already checked out the new Medals and Citations area you can find it here, and we're about to add a whole bunch of new Medals to it, as it's looking a bit bare, but if you have any ideas for some, you can dump those into J10-website.

- Nothing to report/request

It's been another great month for UNITAF, with some really exciting developments on the horizon, and a growing, happy force.
 

Following the Forced PTT changes announced in the last SITREP, both NCOs and UNISTAFF have consulted with you and also the huge amount of feedback we recieved about PTT in AARs from Ember 10.

We've discussed all the alternate options and we have settled on the below solution, which we again will trial going forward and adapt as needed to achieve the required results. This has been added to the General Unit Policy (Version 7). Taking effect immediately.

If you have any questions, please use #j6-training-and-sop

Voice activation

In UNITAF, you can openly choose between using voice activation or push-to-talk during operations. Voice activation allows for free-flowing natural communication and for many people allows you to multi-task much better. However, sounds emitting from you; irrespective of whether they come from your mouth or from the ambient background must not be disruptive to operations. In order to maintain a great all-round experience, please adhere to the following guidelines

Guidelines

• When using voice-activation, set-up a "push-to-mute" key, so you are able to mute your microphone in the event of unexpected noises such as coughs/sneezes, eating or drinking, your neighbors chainsaw etc.
• Ensure you activate your push-to-mute when you go AFK, when you don't need to talk, during briefings and as required to avoid any unintended transmission or disruptions.
• Set your voice activation level appropriately so it picks up your voice and not background music, ambient noise, cutlery etc
• If you have a directional microphone, ensure it's pointed at your mouth, and not where it will pick up non-vocal sounds
• If your microphone has a pop-filter or sponge, ensure it does not rub against the microphone

Disruptive Communications

• Any noise coming from your microphone that is
  • not your voice
  • not understandable
  • not considered to be reasonably accidental
     
• Or any comment or communication you make that is;
  • not observing a BREAK COMMS or HOLD COMMS procedures
  • considered excessive in nature; such as shouting or repeated loud reactions or comments to battlefield events

Tactical Gag

Should you not follow the above guidelines, in order to preserve the immersive and structured nature of UNITAF operations, any UNITAF Officer, SNCO or NCO is able to apply a Tactical Gag (T-GAG) to you. A T-GAG will remove your ability to use voice activation immediately, and for the remainder of this operation you'll need to use push-to-talk in order to communicate.

• When on-deployment
  • You'll be verbally warned once by the Officer, SNCO or NCO to give you an opportunity to cease disruptive communications
  • It's the sole discretion of the Officer, SNCO or NCO in question as whether to apply a T-GAG or not
  • The T-GAG cannot be removed in the same operation by any other Officer, SNCO or NCO than the one that applied it
  • At the end of the operation and when out of game; you can ask the Officer, SNCO or NCO who applied the T-GAG if it can be removed and they will offer you advice and or guidance on how to avoid this in the future.
     
• Outside of deployment
  • An Officer, SNCO or NCO may additionally apply through the COC to have your T-GAG applied for up to 2 future operations
  • If you continue to violate the guidelines set here you'll either receive a permanent T-GAG, or further escalating action will be taken by your COC.

TFAR - How to update your Plugin Version

In other news, just a quick video to explain how to update your Teamspeak Plugin now that the teamspeak plugin to 326 from 325.