Tactics, command, leadership

it may be necessary to reconfigure units. A unit is, then, not a
permanent entity, but can be configured and defined to suit the
immediate situation. If some form of permanent or temporary
change occurs in the risk situation, for example, through a threat
of some kind, the reconfiguration of units should perhaps be con-
sidered. This can, for example, be done by splitting a unit into
smaller ones or by combining several units to form a larger one.
The formation of units can, for example, be based on the most
common types of incidents. A problem can sometimes be solved
very easily, by, for example, providing an appropriate vehicle for
the purpose with the applicable crew at a suitable location. In
order to maintain flexibility during an ongoing operation, it must
be possible, as necessary, to combine units to execute a common
task. It also needs to be possible to detach personnel from a unit
so that they can work individually. The configuration of units
must be founded on manageability and personnel safety plus the
flexibility needed to provide the best possible assistance. Conse-
quently it is important to remember that it is not for the sake of
the unit itself that at particular formation is decided upon. Units
are defined and exist primarily on the bases of the normal risk
situation in the municipality.
In some cases several vehicles may proceed to an incident site
to provide versatility even if there are not sufficient personnel to
man all the functions. Along with alternative configurations there
should also be a plan for an easy return to the original forms.
It can, for practical reasons, be best to hold a unit together, for
example, in a relieving situation. This means that when a sector
is allocated to a unit during an ongoing response operation, the
unit takes over from and relieves an equivalent unit. In major
operations, this kind of setup presents the opportunity to manage
large resources on purely logistical grounds, but it can also be the
case that the resource availability rules out this type of working
method.
For the aim of a unit configuration to be best achieved, the unit
should be independent in some way. A suitable basis for this is the
expectancy that a task, of one or more measures, could be execu-
ted relatively independently. It is the concrete execution of the
task that one would expect to be carried out independently. This
would then have the effect of easing the work load on the next
level up of command. It also implies that a member of the unit
must be made responsible for distributing work within the unit.