History Main / RadioSilence

* During the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, division commander Xu Feng refused to carry out orders to move in on the city, instead pretending that the radio was malfunctioning and therefore never received the order.

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* Done in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', but for different reasons than normal--they were trying to get rid of the AI O'Malley, who is able to BodySurf through radios. The plan was to maintain radio silence so once they forced him out of his host body, he'd have nowhere else to go. This being ''Red vs. Blue'', of course it doesn't work.

** In "The Menagerie", Spock uses faked Starfleet orders to steal the Enterprise, and uses this trope to prevent anyone calling Starbase 11 or Captain Kirk for clarification.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Balance of Terror", the Romulan ship heads home under cover of a [[StealthInSpace cloaking device]] and comm silence. Unfortunately for them, one of the officers violates orders to call home base to report the success of their mission, and the transmission is detected.

* ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes2'' features this as a doctrinal ability for one of the Oberkommando West commanders. At the cost of some munitions, your units disappear from the enemy's minimap... [[DevelopersForesight And then you hear absolutely no radio traffic from any of your units or rearguard spotters.]]

* ''VideoGame/CompanyofHeroes2'' features this as a doctrinal ability for one of the Oberkommando West commanders. At the cost of some munitions, your units disappear from the enemy's minimap... [[DevelopersForesight And then you hear absolutely no radio traffic from any of your units or rearguard spotters.]]

* This is how UsefulNotes/ColdWar Soviet tank units operated, combined with formation drills, arm and flag signals when appropriate. One tactic used was for Soviet radio units to play tape recordings of their normal radio traffic, while the rest of them moved to an attack position under radio silence.

* This is how UsefulNotes/ColdWar Soviet tank units operated, combined with formation drills, arm and flag signals when appropriate.

* In ''Film/DrStrangelove'', GeneralRipper issues radio silence on his airbase, making his men think that they're under attack. After Captain Mandrake, while shutting off his own radio, discovers that civilian stations are still broadcasting music, he gradually begins to realize that there is no emergency at all, and Ripper is deliberately trying to fool the airbase into starting WorldWarThree.

!!Examples

-->I'm going radio silent.

* A few missions across the ''AceCombat'' series impose this for storyline reasons, sometimes combined with altitude restrictions or avoiding enemy radar. At most, this is just a break from your wingmen's chatter.

[[RuleOfDrMa For dramatic purposes]], this often ends up backfiring by turning a regular order into an IrrevocableOrder.

* In ''DrStrangelove'', GeneralRipper issues radio silence on his airbase, making his men think that they're under attack. After Captain Mandrake, while shutting off his own radio, discovers that civilian stations are still broadcasting music, he gradually begins to realize that there is no emergency at all, and Ripper is deliberately trying to fool the airbase into starting WorldWarThree.

* In ''BattleLosAngeles'', the Marines have to observe radio silence once the realize that the aliens are able to home in on their radio transmissions. They use this fact to [[spoiler: lure an alien drone into investigating a radio planted in a petrol station, and then chuck a grenade into the station. Kaboom.]]

* This is how ColdWar Soviet tank units operated, combined with formation drills, arm and flag signals when appropriate.

* The ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' Interactive VCR Board Game uses this as a gameplay mechanic involving a set of pin-backed communicator badges. If you didn't want the Klingon holding the ''Enterprise'' hostage to know where you were, you had to take your communicator off. On the other hand, when he calls you have to put the badge back on or risk losing time.