The limits of visual communication

Visual signals are of course, limited to range and reliability. As such, weather elements and possibly terrain, can disrupt use of hand and arm signals when line of sight is disrupted.

Hand and arm signals are easy to misunderstand which is especially problematic when non-standard hand signals are used by the participants.

Lastly, hand signals may be vulnerable to enemy interception and allow the possibility that the visual communications is received and properly interpreted by the foe, possibly even without your knowledge that the communication was intercepted.

Uses for hand signals

Despite their limitations, hand and arm signals are useful in military and survival situations and are especially useful when participants remain relatively close together. Hand and arm signals may be used by participants to coordinate movement and actions in a silent manner and may be used by leaders to control movement of their team during patrol or combat movement. Hand and arm signals are also useful for hunting or tracking parties who must maintain silence to avoid alerting their target to their presence.

Common hand signals

Below are the various hand and arm signals that can be used when visual communication is required. When receiving hand signals, be sure to pay attention to the signalers facial expressions too. Eyes and head movement may be used to add emphasis or additional communications (e.g. nod of head for “yes” or “no”, tilt of head to indicate direction). Recognize too that multiple hand signals can be combined in sequence in order to more accurately communicate the thought or action.

Counting and numbers hand signals

One	Two	Three	Four
Five	Six	Seven	Eight
Nine	Ten

People hand signals

You

Me

Movement hand signals

Come	Hurry up	Stop	Freeze
Go here or Move up	Rally point

Actions hand signals

Listen or I hear	Watch or I see	Cover this area	I understand
I do not understand	Crouch or lie down	Breach (or breacher)

Animals, people, and circumstances hand signals

Enemy	Hostage	Sniper	Dog
A leader

Articles and items hand signals

Pistol (arm bent)	Rifle (arm straight)	Shotgun (pumping action)	Ammunition
Vehicle	Gas	Door	Window
Point of entry

Formation and position hand signals

Column formation

File formation

Line abreast formation

Wedge formation

United States Army FM 21-60 Hand Signals

The U.S. Army’s FM 21-60 manual, albeit dated, provides many useful hand signals too, most of which are more sophisticated and complex than the examples above. Some Army signals even have variants that can be used during nighttime activities.