Route Reconnaissance is the intelligence assessment of the operational environment in reconnaissance operations of routes for military use, including methods of reconnoitering and classifying them for other troops. In a Tactical Area of Responsibility

Tactical Area of Responsibility

Tactical Area of Responsibility is a prescribed area in a theatre of combat which has been assigned to a unit commander who is responsible for, and has the authority to act on, the development and maintenance of installations and the conduct of tactical operations, area defence, coordination of...

 during combat operations the primary purpose of conducting route reconnaissance is to find and report all enemy forces that can interfere with movement along a route, and to identify the limit of direct-fire range and terrain that dominates the route. Route reconnaissance includes creation of reconnaissance overlays to identify land and water features, bridge reconnaissance and classification, road reconnaissance and classification, special terrain reconnaissance such as that used during cross-country movement, at the landing areas, on the inland waterways, or when using footpaths and trail

Trail

A trail is a path with a rough beaten or dirt/stone surface used for travel. Trails may be for use only by walkers and in some places are the main access route to remote settlements...

s, engineer reconnaissance

Engineer reconnaissance

Engineer reconnaissance is the reconnaissance operations performed by combat engineers to enable forward movement of own troops, in war usually over territory previously occupied by the enemy...

, and use of military route signs (standard signs, sign lighting, bridge signs). A significant part of route reconnaissance is the ability to identify choke point

Choke point

In military strategy, a choke point is a geographical feature on land such as a valley, defile or a bridge, or at sea such as a strait which an armed force is forced to pass, sometimes on a substantially narrower front, and therefore greatly decreasing its combat power, in order to reach its...

s that prohibit military traffic by using conversion factors and tables to identify non-standard surfaces or inadequate load bearing in structure. To do so, military load classification

Military Load Classification

The Military Load Classification is a system of standards used by NATO and the United States Department of Defense to classify the safe amount of load a surface can withstand. Load-carrying capacity are shown in whole numbers for vehicles, bridges, roads, and routes. Vehicles are classified by...

s are used for standard vehicles of a given armed force. Route reconnaissance is typically conducted by a foot, horse or vehicle-mounted route reconnaissance patrol, sometimes with aid of aerial reconnaissance aircraft. The patrol would include regular reconnaissance

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....

 elements and a combat engineering

Combat engineering

A combat engineer, also called pioneer or sapper in many armies, is a soldier who performs a variety of construction and demolition tasks under combat conditions...

team.