SALUTE is the standard format for transmitting observations about unknown or hostile personnel in a structured, repeatable way that any receiving station can copy, record, and act on. It exists because unstructured reports — “hey, I saw some guys with guns near the gas station” — lose critical detail, waste airtime, and force the listener to ask follow-up questions that burn more time and generate more radio emissions. The format compresses what you saw into six fields that cover everything a decision-maker needs.
The Six Fields
| Letter | Field | What to report |
|---|---|---|
| S | Size | Number of personnel or vehicles observed |
| A | Activity | What they are doing right now — patrolling, staging, digging, stationary |
| L | Location | Grid coordinate, terrain reference, or clear landmark description |
| U | Unit / Uniform | Any identifiers — uniforms, insignia, patches, vehicle markings, affiliation |
| T | Time | When the observation was made, not when the report is sent |
| E | Equipment | Weapons, radios, vehicles, optics, body armor, or anything tactically relevant |
Each field answers a distinct question. Size tells how big the problem is. Activity tells what kind of problem it is. Location tells where the problem is. Unit tells who it might be. Time tells how stale the information is. Equipment tells what capabilities they bring to the fight.
A common briefing variation reorders the fields to TSUALE — Time, Size, Unit, Activity, Location, Equipment — which some operators find flows more naturally when speaking over a radio net. The content is identical; only the delivery sequence changes. Use whichever order your group standardizes on, but pick one and drill it.
Transmitting a SALUTE Report Over Radio
Structured reports over radio follow the same brevity discipline as any other transmission: short segments separated by pauses. When sending a SALUTE report, separate each element with “Break” so the receiving station can copy one field at a time. This does two things: it reduces the chance of garbled information forcing a full retransmission, and it shortens any single transmission burst — which matters for direction-finding exposure. A long, continuous transmission is easier for hostile signals intelligence to locate than several short ones.
An example transmission:
“Overwatch, this is LP-1, SALUTE report follows, Break. Size: five military-age males, Break. Activity: patrolling east along Main Street, Break. Location: intersection of Main and Third, grid 123 456, Break. Unit: wearing tan chest rigs, possible local militia, Break. Time: 1435 local, Break. Equipment: small arms only, no observed vehicles or radios. How copy, over.”
“How copy” at the end prompts the receiving station to confirm receipt. The receiver can optionally read the report back field by field for verification, which is good practice when the information is high-priority or the net is noisy. For more on radio procedure and structured message formats, see Radio Procedures, Net Operations, and Message Formats.
What a Single Report Reveals
A SALUTE report looks like raw data, but experienced analysis can extract surprising depth from even one observation. Five personnel patrolling in a loose file with chest rigs and rifles tells you they have some level of organization and training. If they are carrying radios, they are networked — which implies a larger element and a command structure. If they are not carrying radios, they may be unsophisticated or operating under emission control. If their weapons are mixed (shotguns, hunting rifles, one AR), that suggests ad hoc organization. If they are uniformly equipped, that suggests supply chain and standardization.
The Time field is critical for intelligence analysis downstream. A single observation is a data point. Multiple SALUTE reports with timestamps create a pattern — patrol routes, shift changes, reaction times. This is where SALUTE feeds directly into the broader SALUTE and DRAW-D framework, where individual reports are aggregated to build a picture of enemy disposition and likely courses of action.
SALUTE Within the METT-TC Framework
SALUTE reporting is the primary input for the Enemy variable in METT-TC planning. You cannot analyze the enemy if you have no structured observations to work from. SALUTE reports feed the intelligence preparation process by providing consistent data that can be plotted on maps, compared across time, and used to develop enemy courses of action. Without the format, intelligence analysis devolves into anecdote and assumption.
For a deeper treatment of how enemy observations feed operational planning, see Adversary and Enemy Analysis and Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield.
Civilian Application
The prepared citizen is unlikely to be filing SALUTE reports to a tactical operations center, but the format remains directly useful in any scenario requiring structured observation — neighborhood watch during a disaster, reporting suspicious activity to a group net, or simply training yourself to observe with discipline rather than vague impression.
The format forces completeness. Most people who see something concerning remember size and activity but forget time and equipment. Drilling the SALUTE framework means that when you do need to report, you capture everything a decision-maker needs without a back-and-forth interrogation. This matters whether the “decision-maker” is a buddy on a handheld radio or a 911 dispatcher.
For those building community communication plans, integrating a standard report format like SALUTE into your PACE plan ensures that everyone on the net knows what to listen for and how to record it. A report format that nobody has practiced is a report format that nobody will use under stress. Practice it during dry runs the same way you practice your drawstroke — repetition until the structure is automatic.
Recording and Dissemination
SALUTE reports should be written down, not just heard. The receiving station copies each field into a log — ideally a waterproof notebook like the Rite in the Rain format carried in an admin pouch. Logged reports with timestamps become the raw material for pattern analysis. A single SALUTE report tells you what happened once. A stack of them tells you what the enemy does habitually — and habitual behavior is exploitable.
For teams running digital tools, SALUTE data can be plotted directly into ATAK, giving every networked member a shared picture of reported observations overlaid on the map. This bridges the gap between voice reporting and visual common operating picture.
Training the Format
The fastest way to internalize SALUTE is to practice it during everyday observation. Watch a group of people at a park and mentally compose a SALUTE report. Do it while driving past a construction site. The goal is to make the six-field structure reflexive so that under stress — when your brain wants to say “there’s a bunch of guys over there with guns” — the format imposes discipline and completeness.
Pair SALUTE practice with radio procedure drills. Transmitting a structured report under time pressure, with break segments and proper call signs, is a perishable skill that degrades without repetition. See Radio Fundamentals, Protocols, and Programming for foundational radio skills, and Intelligence Reporting, ISR, and Information Requirements for how SALUTE fits into larger intelligence collection frameworks.
The SALUTE format is simple enough to teach in five minutes and powerful enough to anchor an entire intelligence collection effort. The barrier is not complexity — it is practice.