cover image

Reconnaissance

Military observation of enemy activities / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:

Can you list the top facts and stats about Reconnaissance?

Summarize this article for a 10 years old

SHOW ALL QUESTIONS

In military operations, military reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnaissance is abbreviated to recce (British, Canadian, Australian English) and to recon (American English), both derived from the root word reconnoitre.[1]

US_Marines_on_reconnaissance_exercise_2003.jpg
U.S. Marines on a recon mission during a field training exercise in 2003

The types of reconnaissance include patrolling the local area of operations and long-range reconnaissance patrols, which are tasks usually realized in the United States of America by U.S. Army Rangers, cavalry scouts, and military intelligence specialists, using navy ships and submarines, reconnaissance aircraft, satellites to collect raw intelligence; and establishing observation posts. Moreover, espionage is different from reconnaissance, because spies work as civilians in enemy territory.