Editing Patrolling (section)

==Aviation patrol types==
A '''[[combat air patrol]]''' (CAP) involves fighter aircraft flying a defensive screen over a critical area, for instance a [[carrier battle group]], for the purpose of intercepting and destroying hostile aircraft before they reach their target.<ref>{{cite web |title=Combat Air Patrol IAF |url=https://defencedirecteducation.com/2022/09/16/combat-air-patrol-iaf-all-you-need-to-know/ |website=Defence Direct Education.com |access-date=12 March 2025}}</ref> There are numerous specific variations of the basic CAP, for instance HVAACAP or "High Value Airborne Asset CAP", designed to protect highly vulnerable [[E-3 AWACS]] or [[Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS|E-8 J-STARS]] aircraft whilst airborne.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Samborowski |first1=Leonard J. |title=The Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System: Can Procedures be Developed to Support the Requirements of the Land And Air Component Commanders? |url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a255555.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101131138/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a255555.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=November 1, 2019 |website=Defense Technical Information Center |publisher=U.S. Army Command and General Staff College |access-date=12 March 2025 |date=1992}}</ref>

A '''contact patrol''' in aviation terms, was a term used by British and French forces around 1915–18 during [[World War I]]. Aircraft would fly low over the battlefield searching for the position of friendly ground units that had advanced to where they were no longer in direct contact with their own HQ. These ground units would identify themselves to the aircraft by means of flares, mirrors, signalling lamps, strips of cloth and signalling panels. In some cases infantry wore shiny tin discs on the back of their equipment, designed to be visible from the air.
Contact patrol aircraft found that the infantry was much more willing to light flares when called forth by klaxon and observers found that they could identify troops at {{convert|700|feet|metres}}. Messages from the signalling panels could be read up to a height of {{convert|6,000|feet|metres}}.
In turn these aircraft would relay updated positions and any messages back to Brigade HQ, sometimes using early wireless equipment (morse), but also by dropping hand-written notes or maps to pre-arranged report centres on the ground.<ref>{{cite book |title=The War in the Air, Being the Story of the Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force |volume=II |last=Jones |first=H. A. |year=2002 |orig-year=1928 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=London |edition=Imperial War Museum and Naval & Military Press |url=https://archive.org/details/warinairbeingsto02rale|url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive|access-date=12 March 2025 |isbn=978-1-84342-413-0|pages=179-181}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Canadian Airmen and the First World War |series=The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force |volume=I|page=382|last=Wise |first=S. F. |year=1981 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto |isbn=978-0-8020-2379-7}}</ref>