Urban / City Warfare (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

Just discovered this 2007 Australian paper by Professor Michael Evans, of the Australian Defence College, which was reviewed on SWJ Blog in 2008 by General Jim Molan (SWJ Blog link now redundant).

Jim Molan's Foreword ends with:

As this fine Occasional Paper demonstrates, fighting in cities is a tough proposition, but it is not an impossible task for modern armed forces. What is required above all else is preparation and forethought. Dr Evans’ comprehensive study represents a valuable and important analysis of an area of the military art that is likely to exercise our minds increasingly in coming years. This is a publication that deserves a wide readership and I commend it to fellow military professionals.

Link to article:http://www.defence.gov.au/adc/public...withoutjoy.pdf

Link to SWJ Blog:http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/city-without-joy

In the Spring 2015 Parameters Michael Evans responded to other authors on megacities, in 'The Case against Megacities':http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute...15%20v45n1.pdf

I expect the two articles are best read together.

Finally Professor Evans and I have been friends since 1985, when he was in Zimbabwe, with the ZDF.

[AdamG]

Even as the Army continues to sharpen its core warfighting skills inside tightening, unpredictable budgets, the service also must look to the future to prepare for a quickly changing, increasingly volatile battlefield, the Army’s top general said.

“We prioritized the present, and we mortgaged the future,” said Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. “Frankly, the biggest challenge is having a predictable, steady stream of money to work with industry, [science and technology], and research and development, to accelerate, advance and explore these opportunities and options for the future.”

To start, the world is “rapidly urbanizing,” Milley said. Today, between 50 percent and 60 percent of the world’s population live in urban areas, he said. By 2050, Milley predicts that will jump to 80 percent to 90 percent.

“You’re seeing a massive growth right now, as we speak, of megacities,” Milley said. “Today, an example of a megacity is Seoul, South Korea, with 27 million people, that has urban sprawl essentially from the [demilitarized zone] all the way south of Seoul, and it is this massive urban belt and complex.”

The Army has been designed, manned, trained and equipped for the last 241 years to operate primarily in rural areas, Milley said.

“In the future, I can say with very high degrees of confidence, the American Army is probably going to be fighting in urban areas,” he said. “We need to man, organize, train and equip the force for operations in urban areas, highly dense urban areas, and that’s a different construct. We’re not organized like that right now.”

http://www.defensenews.com/articles/...-in-megacities

[AdamG]

The year is 2030. Forget about the flying cars, robot maids, and moving sidewalks we were promised. They’re not happening. But that doesn’t mean the future is a total unknown.
According to a startling Pentagon video obtained by The Intercept, the future of global cities will be an amalgam of the settings of “Escape from New York” and “Robocop” — with dashes of the “Warriors” and “Divergent” thrown in. It will be a world of Robert Kaplan-esque urban hellscapes — brutal and anarchic supercities filled with gangs of youth-gone-wild, a restive underclass, criminal syndicates, and bands of malicious hackers.
At least that’s the scenario outlined in “Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity,” a five-minute video that has been used at the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations University. All that stands between the coming chaos and the good people of Lagos and Dhaka (or maybe even New York City) is the U.S. Army, according to the video, which The Intercept obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/13/...iggest-cities/

[Windows97]

I don't get it (then again I don't get a lot of things) but I still don't see or, rather, cannot envisage, why a military would want to operate in cities. I can understand a domestic COIN / Law enforcement operation or counter-terrorism mission but seriously if you are an invading army why not just isolate a city and exhaust the offending inhabitants. No city can survive without a hinterland. Hell, if it worked for Caesar why not now? All I read and hear is a regurgitation of attritionist fetishes.

[Windows97]

Dr. Russell Glenn, Australian National University, presents, "Megacities: The Good; The Bad and the Ugly" during the 2016 Megacity Mad Scientist Conference at Arizona State University April 21-22, 2016


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgWm9BOVT3E

[davidbfpo]

Windows 97,

Thanks and cited in part:

Dr. Russell Glenn, Australian National University, presents, "Megacities: The Good; The Bad and the Ugly"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgWm9BOVT3E

Having watched most of Dr Glenn's talk I do wonder if sufficient attention has been paid to relatively recent 'Third World' conflicts in large cities, I exclude the Soviet / Russian experience which has been looked at.

Two civil wars come to mind, one with significant external intervention and the second with IIRC with none. The fighting for years in Beirut, in the Syrian Civil War being the first; secondly the civil war in Congo Brazzaville:

Congo's democratic progress was derailed in 1997 when Lissouba and Sassou started to fight for power in the civil war. As presidential elections scheduled for July 1997 approached, tensions between the Lissouba and Sassou camps mounted. On June 5, President Lissouba's government forces surrounded Sassou's compound in Brazzaville and Sassou ordered members of his private militia (known as "Cobras") to resist. Thus began a four-month conflict that destroyed or damaged much of Brazzaville and caused tens of thousands of civilian deaths.

Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_the_Congo

Yes mega-cities are 'talent magnets', surely they are also "poor people magnets"?

I expect anyone who ends up fighting in most 'Third World' cities will strive to reduce any uncontrolled electronic communications - if only to prevent global media reporting. No imagery, no news. Presumably some are watching what media lessons there are with the Syrian Civil War.

[AdamG]

CNN journalist discovers what it's like to be on the wrong side of a sophisticated MOUT ambush.
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2016/...ped-isis-mosul

[AdamG]

I don't get it (then again I don't get a lot of things) but I still don't see or, rather, cannot envisage, why a military would want to operate in cities.

Because the enemy always gets a vote, particularly on where the game is played.