How we doing hard-chargers!!!

May you all enjoy the beginning of this wonderful spring weather, of course depending on where you are in the world. (sorry mid-west) 

So word was passed a few days ago that U.S. Marines, and Army Soldiers, are prepping for more urban combat. This will allow our brothers in arms to be more efficient in the art of war in urban cities.

Now I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, “well what about Iraq,” as Marines were going house to house and used a high volume of rounds to dismantle enemy fighters.Since then we Marines, and Army Soldiers, have peered away from urban combat.

One of the most notable lessons we may not forget anytime soon would be the Battle of Hue City which was intense urban combat for U.S. forces.

In comparing the older wars with todays time, many see urban warfare as slow and an awful amount of destruction.

 Army Chief of Staff General, Mark Milley and U.S Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller, have both publicly pushed for more urban focused efforts.

Over a decade the U.S. military has fought in Baghdad, a place with a population of 6.5 million people, not even a decade from now statisticians have summed up numbers that show there will be 37 cities that are two to four times that size.

Cities of interest due to tensions growing are North Korea that has a huge city called Seoul, with over 23 million people.

There is also Russia, with encroachments that threaten Lituania, Estonia, Tallinn and a few other places. As well as Africa who is also growing in urban areas, Lagos, Nigeria, Somalia, etc.

** Focus On Task

Milley stated that the Army is not necessarily ready for fighting in megacities. He did, however, mention that fighting in Aleppo, Fallujah, and Mosul is the future of conflict.

Now being that these fights were bloody and very destructive they don’t reach the level of a large city that would equate to a neighborhood in Seoul.

Being a U.S. Marine infantryman, with the training that took place for urban warfare, we learned very quickly that during those times you have to keep moving, often and fast or you can lose your life.

There really is no time to be stationary during engagements as death is imminent and around every corner.

Experts agreed that neither service is sufficiently prepared for operational or strategic-level urban combat.

Returning attention to the urban fight is not a new idea, its been a topic of discourse for quite some time now.

Retired Col. Russell Glenn, while on a temporary assignment to the RAND Corporation, he chose urban operations as a research topic. He was told there wasn’t much interest in that area of research.

Later that year, Army Rangers and Delta Force operators were caught in the bloody Battle of Mogadishu. Nineteen U.S. service members were killed and 73 wounded. The fight led to the withdrawal of U.S. and U.N. forces.

 Then, all of a sudden people became interested…

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Charles Krulak revealed his concept of the three-block war and the strategic corporal. This pushed decision making down to the lowest levels of the noncommissioned officer corps.

** New Technology On Battle-Field

U.S. forces have long held a wide margin of technological superiority over their foes, from precision-guided weapons to sensor systems and drone surveillance capabilities.

Marine Brig. Gen. Robert Sofge, stated that enemy forces in Mosul adapted drones to drop 40mm grenades from above.

They also used advanced vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices to deter Iraqi forces early in the fighting.

Department of Defense research programs and industry partnerships are working with drone swarm technology, drone delivery to reduce logistics chains, increased electronic jamming of enemy sensors and networks, and pulling data from every corner of the battlefield into a digestible form.

Many don’t seem to understand that simple equipment considerations pay huge dividends in an urban fight. For instance tracked vehicles, while heavier than wheeled, produce less ground pressure, which is important on bridges.

Tracked vehicles can also make tighter turns in narrower urban lanes and don’t get stuck as easily as wheeled vehicles.

Despite the focus on urban combat preparation, changes in doctrine and an increased focus from top leaders have caused a vast amount of encouragement.

The encouragement alone is not enough for us as a military to be successful via urban warfare.We have great training centers, however, these centers still aren’t as vast and complex as the actual destinations where we are placing our troops. Then again it’s very hard to mimic war as war is unpredictable which can make it nearly impossible to replicate for training purposes.

Isaac J. Hall II

#SemperKill