A couple of quick notes as time is of a premium this week...

It was a pleasure to meet Jack Kelly and Bill Roggio and have them participate in Joint Urban Warrior 06 (JUW 06); albeit for a small portion of the overall program. Jack had to depart Monday and I saw Bill off on Tuesday evening.

The annual JUW program is preceded by a year-long series of what are called "pathway events" that feed and shape the week-long "big event".

JUW 04 and 05 were traditional seminar-style tabletop war games that pitted "Blue" coalition forces (Combined Joint Task Forces) against "Red" forces (asymmetric "bad guys") with a focus on planning for and executing operations in an urban environment. Moreover, these war games concentrated on the "hard part" of urban ops - a complex and fluid Three-Block War.

"In one moment in time, our service members will be feeding and clothing displaced refugees - providing humanitarian assistance. In the next moment, they will be holding two warring tribes apart conducting peacekeeping operations. Finally, they will be fighting a highly lethal mid-intensity battle. All on the same day, all within three city blocks. It will be what we call the three block war."

- General Charles Krulak, USMC

Both war games also included what was termed "Green" players who represented the indigenous population (non-combatants), the media, U.S. and Coalition governmental interagency other than military, regional and international organizations, non-governmental organizations and others who could influence friendly operations and a desired end-state in a Small Wars environment.

JUW 06 took a different approach - attempting to take the vast body of knowledge gained through the previous two war games, Emerald Express seminars (insights and observations from operators with Small Wars / Urban Operations experience); and joint, service and other agencies lessons learned and after action reports - and "drill down" on some of the most critical issues to include:

  • Urban Operations (Three-Block War / Continuum of Operations)
  • Interagency
  • Coalition
  • Influence / Information
  • Cultural Awareness


Each of these focus areas includes sub-focus areas intended to aid the participants in addressing the most critical capabilities required by a coalition force. For example - urban operations includes counterinsurgency operations, stability and security operations (to include humanitarian operations), training and education, intelligence, the operating environment... influence / information includes counter-IO (countering the adversary's information campaign), the media...

The format for JUW 06 is Emerald Express seminars (Sunday - Monday - Wednesday) intended to "set the scene" for the six working groups (Tuesday - Thursday) that have been asked to apply their expertise and operational experience and produce a series of short (1-5 page) "how to think about Small Wars and urban operations" papers for planners, operators, concept developers and students.

Bottom-line here is the environment we operate in is complex and ever-changing and rather than attempt to create a one-size fits all procedural "check-list" - that may not be relevant from one operation to the next - is to compile the results from JUW 06 into a multi-media based product that addresses the mind-set necessary and critical considerations associated with the conduct of Small Wars and urban operations.

The JUW 06 multi-media report will include the working group papers, videos of all the Emerald Express seminars (including the healthy discussion and Q&A periods), video interviews of participants, and other material that supports or otherwise reinforces the issues and considerations addressed by the working groups.

More later as time permits...