Tag: Close Quarters Battle CQB

CQB stands for Close Quarters Battle which refers to short range physical confrontation between two or more opposing military units or law enforcement forces. When two enemy forces confront in narrow and restricted areas especially in urban warfare, close quarter battle is the most convenient combat option.

Close Quarters Battle is one of the vital components in overall tactics in most of the military units, special forces and law enforcement forces. For this very reason this combat system has been a vital part of any Armed Forces training. For example, CQB is a regular part of the training of the US Armed Forces and other special forces of USA.

The history of QBC is thousands of years old. CQB has always been one of the battle options that are generally employed in combats though the techniques have undergone gradual changes over the years. Traditionally close quarters battles involved combats with hand held or hand thrown weapons like knives or swords, but recent CQB includes both unarmed hand-to-hand battles and battles with fire arms. After the Second World War the techniques of CQB has undergone some remarkable changes.  William E. Fairbairn the organizer of Shanghai Municipal Police’s famous Shanghai Riot Force devised a special combat system for close range battles that incorporates the use of knives, firearms and the techniques of unarmed martial arts. The system is named as   “the Fairbairn System” and is frequently used as a part of CQB training throughout the world.