Army spending a half-billion to teach soldiers to fight in sewers and subway systems
by Russ Read
| August 01, 2019 03:29 PM
The Army is preparing soldiers for the wars of the future by training them to fight in subway tunnels and sewers common to big cities.
Army leaders intend to spend $572 million to train and equip 26 of its 31 combat brigades to do battle in underground complexes, according to a report by Military.com.
"We did recognize, in a megacity that has underground facilities — sewers and subways and some of the things we would encounter ... we have to look at ourselves and say 'OK, how does our current set of equipment and our tactics stack up?'" said Col. Townley Hedrick, commandant of the Infantry School at the Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia. "What are the aspects of megacities that we have paid the least attention to lately, and every megacity has got sewers and subways and stuff that you can encounter, so let's brush it up a little bit."
The United Nations has predicted that two out of every three people will be living in cities or urban centers by 2050, many of them in growing metropolises like Delhi, Shanghai, and Los Angeles. Military leaders and national security experts believe that future wars will likely be fought in these megacities, so they want soldiers on the front lines to be prepared to do battle in the dark, tight corridors found in subterranean urban centers.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/army-spending-a-half-billion-to-teach-soldiers-to-fight-in-sewers-and-subway-systems
