Four Transformational Steps the US Army Should Take to Get Serious about Urban Operations
John Spencer | 07.21.20
By almost any metric, the United States has the world’s most powerful military. It is expected to be prepared to answer any call by the US government in the pursuit of national interests—anywhere around the world and in any domain. The Army, as the military’s chief landpower service, is expected to be able to conduct a range of operations as broad as liberating enemy-captured cities in foreign lands to supporting civilian agencies at home, and everything in between. It must be trained and ready for the full spectrum of potential operations in any environment, especially the most complex environments—dense urban areas.
Conflict, instability, and political unrest are all more urban than ever before. Despite clear trends in the increasingly urban character of warfare, the US Army has not made any major changes to prepare for urban operations around the world. There have been no significant efforts to adapt its force design, force structure, or any other aspect of the Joint Capabilities Integration Development System DOTMLPF-P framework—doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, facilities, and policy. To be sure, there have been recent minor changes to US Army urban operations doctrine, training exercises, and materiel developments, but these efforts do not match the scale of changes in the character of warfare and are far short of what is needed to make the Army ready for any mission in dense urban terrain.
https://mwi.usma.edu/four-transformational-steps-the-us-army-should-take-to-get-serious-about-urban-operations/
