Since the beginning of the city, the war with the city has never stopped.
has entered modern times, due to the new military technological changes, urban warfare has added new elements, and various cutting-edge weapons have begun to appear frequently in the battles around cities. At the same time, various non-military factors such as humanitarianism are also mixed in...
As an inevitable model for future wars, urban warfare has become a new topic for military research in various countries. Uncle Ku shared three latest articles released by Global magazine, starting from the strategic position of the city and modern urban warfare techniques to fully understand urban warfare.
This article is compiled from the WeChat public account "GlobeMagazine" (ID: GlobeMagazine), and the original article was published in the 10th issue of "Globe" magazine published on May 18, 2022.
Previous article
A single fight lasts for months or even years. Why do wars in ancient and modern times have to fight to the death of the city?
The most difficult thing to fight in modern warfare is the city battle, especially the street fighting, which is extremely fierce, which is daunting. The side guarding the city not only established relatively complete fortifications, but also deployed heavy troops to guard it to form a relatively complete defense system. If the attacking side wants to win the city battle, it often has to pay a significant price for casualties and equipment losses.
However, cities that are being attacked often have important political and military value and are in an important supporting position in strategic battles. If the hostile side can seize these cities, it can fundamentally destroy a country's political system, destroy the country's military potential, and master a large number of population and resources, thereby achieving its goal of destroying a country or seizing a large number of resources. This also determines that the city's tough battle is necessary.
text | Shi Hong "Ship-based Weapons" Executive Editor
1 Cities are an integration of the development of a country's national strength and are of great value
In the historical process of human production and life, the importance of cities is becoming increasingly greater. Especially after entering the industrial age, urbanization has become a common development trend. The urbanization level of developed countries in the world is mostly above 75%. The reason for urbanization is that industrialization requires the intensiveization of many factors such as labor, production, logistics, and capital, which is an inevitable requirement for development.
Almost all important cities in the world are hubs for the economic development of the country and even the world. Not only that, many cities can also form industrial belts. For example, the urban agglomerations in Japan form the Keihin Industrial Belt, Nagoya Industrial Belt, Hanshin Industrial Belt, Seto Inland Sea Industrial Belt and Kitakyushu Industrial Belt. It can be said that the essence of Japan's economy is concentrated in the cities to which the five industrial belts belong, and the capital Tokyo is an undisputed economic center. The same is true in New York, the United States and London, the United Kingdom. It not only has many industrial enterprises, but also a world-renowned financial center.
There is no doubt that in modern society, cities are the gathering place of industries and wealth in every country and region. It is particularly important to emphasize that many modern cities are gathering places for military enterprises. For the party that takes military action, if it cannot control the other party's city, it will be impossible to weaken the other party's war potential; and if the other party's city is taken down, it will not only greatly weaken the other party's economic and war potential, but also the industrial enterprises, transportation, communications, finance, human resources, etc. owned by the other party's city can be used by oneself, significantly increasing one's strength.
2 Many cities have important strategic positions and cannot be detoured
In many ancient wars, cities were often attacked, and they fought for months or even years. Both the offense and defense will pay a huge price for this. Many people may ask, why do you not go around the city when you encounter a city, but instead insist on carrying out a tough battle?
In fact, there were many examples of ancient wars. For example, when King Yan Zhu Di encountered a city in the battle of Jingnan in , he could go around the city when he encountered it; Huang Taiji led his army to face a strong city like Shanhaiguan, and also robbed it from other places. However, many important cities in cannot be bypassed and must be overcome.
Take the ancient city Shouchun (now Shouxian County, Anhui) as an example. It is located on the south bank of Huaihe , on the southern foot of Bagong Mountain, with a flat terrain and developed water and land transportation. It is at the critical moment of north-south transportation. It is a hub in the East China region and its military strategic position is very important. The ancients called "controlled Huaiying, tied with Jiangtuo, and was the key to the northwest and shielded in the southeast", "Shielding in Jiangdong, the throat of the Central Plains", "There is a heavy and dangerous solid, and those who get it are safe" . Therefore, Shouchun has been a must-fight for military strategists throughout the years. According to statistics, from the Qin Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, more than 30 wars occurred in Shouchun with more than 50,000 people, including more than 200,000 wars. The more famous wars include : The Battle of Qin to destroy Chu, : : The Battle of Feishui: : : The Battle of Qin to destroy Chu, : The Battle of Feishui: :
The battle between Qin and Chu occurred in 223 BC. Wang Jian led 600,000 Qin troops to attack Shouchun and defeated almost the same number of Chu troops. King Chu was captured and Chu was destroyed. The Battle of Feishui took place in 383 AD. Fu Jian, the monarch of the Former Qin Dynasty, personally led a total of 900,000 infantry, cavalry and Yulin troops to attack Shouyang (Shouchun). At the same time, 70,000 navy troops were sent from Bashu to the east along the Yangtze River, with the purpose of sweeping the Eastern Jin Dynasty and achieving unification. At the suggestion of Prime Minister Xie An, the Eastern Jin court sent 80,000 Northern Palace troops to meet the enemy, defeating the Former Qin army on the bank of Feishui in Shouyang. Fu Jian escaped alone, and the Former Qin was destroyed not long ago.
There are many important ancient cities like Shouchun. They are often built in key positions and guarding the important traffic roads. If the attacker wants to bypass it, he basically puts himself in an unfavorable situation. If you are not careful, you will suffer a catastrophe. Therefore, even if the attacking party knows that it is difficult to attack the city, it has to fight. Only by fighting can you support your actions and use all the resources of the city to replenish yourself.
Shu Han Prime Minister Zhuge LiangWhen he went out of Qishan, walked on Chencang Road, left Sanguan, and surrounded Chencang Ancient City, but after attacking for nearly a month, he could not defeat Chencang, who was defending Hao Zhao. Seeing that the Wei reinforcements sent by Cao Zhen from Chang'an were coming again, Zhuge Liang had to lead the Shu army back to Hanzhong . Zhuge Liang had to attack Chen Cang because Chen Cang Ancient City was stuck in the key position of Chen Cang Road and could not get around at all. Only by capturing Chen Cang can you enter the Guanzhong Plain.
In modern times, the city's transportation, communication and other infrastructure has become more developed, making the key cities' control over surrounding areas more and more powerful. If the city is not taken down, the military will have no way to discuss if it wants to effectively control the vast area. For example, the reason why the German army attacked Stalingrad during the Second World War was because Stalingrad was the transportation throat of an important economic region in the southern Soviet Union. Only by taking Stalingrad could they enter the main production areas of Soviet food, coal and oil. However, the German attack on Stalingrad led to the annihilation of a large number of elite combat forces, and the battle became the turning point for the German army to decline from prosperity on the Soviet-German battlefield .
3 Cities are a gathering place for a country's livelihood. If you don't fight, you can't do it. Under normal circumstances, many cities will also have key organs and considerable numbers of troops of various military branches. Once you enter the wartime state, the number and equipment of the troops gathered in the city will be more.
In other words, the vital forces of a country are mainly gathered in cities during wartime. If the attacking party does not attack the city, it will be difficult to achieve the purpose of annihilation of the enemy's heavy army groups during combat. On the contrary, the opponent can constantly send troops from the city to harass and ambush the attacking troops outside the city. Moreover, if the attacking troops choose to go around the city, the defenders in the city may send a large number of troops to pursue, and even encircle and annihilate the attacking troops in the movement with the defenders in other directions.
Take Kiev Battle in the early stage of the Soviet-German War as an example. The Soviet army deployed Southwest Front , Bryansk Front and a part of the Southern Front with Kiev as the core, with a total force of 850,000; the German troops attacked were part of the "Southern" Army Group and the "Central" Army Group, with a total force of 500,000.
The battle started on July 7, 1941 and ended on September 26, and the entire southern front of the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving the German "Southern" army group without any worries and was confident and bold in attacking the Donbas area, while the "Central" army group attacked Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union.
Although many scholars believe that the German attack on Kiev was only a tactical victory, strategically, due to the large number of troops of the "Central" army group used to assault the flanks of the Soviet Southwest Front, its attack in the main attack direction, that is, the Moscow direction, was delayed, thus allowing the Soviet Command to gain valuable time and concentrate a huge strategic reserve team in the Moscow direction, laying the foundation for the victory of the Moscow battle later.
But this can only be said to be an after-study analysis from the perspective of God. In fact, if the German army did not attack Kiev at that time, how could the German "Central" army group dare to boldly attack Moscow and "Southern" army group attack the Donbas region? After all, the nearly one million Soviet troops in Kiev are not decorations. Once they divide their troops north to attack the German "Central" army, it is another matter whether they can delay the German attack, but it will inevitably lead to a restraint.
Generally speaking, offensive operations are all about leaving one's favorable position and going deep into the enemy's territory. They are inherently not advantageous in terms of time, place, people, etc., and the main thing they rely on is military strength advantages. If you do not attack the city defended by the enemy with heavy troops, you will inevitably fall into a dangerous situation of no way to attack and trapped supply.
The army is stationed in the field, with no support on all sides. Once surrounded by the enemy, the consequences will be disastrous. Therefore, the attacking party must carry out a city attack, annihilate a large number of enemy live forces, gain a foothold, and use all the city's resources to supplement it, so that the results of the battle can be continuously expanded.
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Modern urban warfare strategy also emphasizes "attacking the heart first"?
"Build a city to protect the king, and choose a map to protect the people." runs through ancient and modern times, looking at the world, since the emergence of cities, offensive and defensive wars around cities have occupied an important position in the history of human wars. As the economic, political, cultural and military center within a certain area, the city is a gathering place for people to produce, live and live, and has special military value and status.
20th century, due to the small scale of urban development, the battlefield area and strategic depth were relatively small, the warring sides often concentrated all their forces to determine the outcome of a battle or even the war around the offense and defense of the strong city. The battle of Suiyang defense in the Tang Dynasty, the battle of Xiangyang defense in the Southern Song Dynasty and the battle of Diaoyu City, the 13th century British king Henry III besieged Bedford city, and the Ottoman Turkey's capture of the Byzantine Empire, the capital of Constantinople, etc., are all typical examples of urban battles in ancient times.
As the economy and technology accelerate forward development, cities will further expand. It is estimated that by 2030, the urban population will be nearly 5 billion, accounting for about 70% of the world's total population. cities will become an important strategic support for the survival and development of the region and even the country, and will be a place where both sides of the war will compete for and protect. Military operations will increasingly revolve around the cities. As an important modern combat style, urban combat will continue to evolve with the development and changes of science and technology and war concepts.
text | Liang Haijun Doctor of Army Command Academy Li Ju Professor of Army Command Academy
1 The city has gradually become an important battlefield
Urban warfare is called "war in hell". During the Second World War , more than 40% of major campaigns on the European battlefield took place in urban areas. The famous Kiev offensive and defensive war, Stalingrad defense war, Battle for Stalingrad, and the Berlin battle had an important impact on the process and ending of the entire war. Relevant data show that since the end of World War II, , more than 300 armed conflicts and military interventions around the world led by major countries, 90% of which involve cities. Whether cities can effectively seize control often means victory or defeat in the war. In recent years, the Iraq War, the Afghan War, the Pakistan-Israel conflict, the Syria-Israel conflict, etc. have all had distinct urban warfare characteristics, and the main combat operations and competition between the two sides have been concentrated on the cities.
Modern cities are a concentration of science and technology, culture and education, industrial bases, etc., a hub for the rapid circulation of funds, population, information, materials, etc., an important support for the sustainable development of the country's economy and society, scientific and technological progress, and cultural undertakings. They are the focus and key of the national combat system. The city has a very rich combat resources and can provide a steady stream of logistics supply and equipment technology for war. It serves as a hub for regional network communications and transportation roads, making it an important indicator of war potential. Once destroyed or controlled by the enemy, the function and potential of the war system will be destroyed and paralyzed, the lifeline of the army will be cut off, and the army will lose its freedom of movement and initiative, resulting in the loss of national resources and wealth, affecting the morale of the army and the will of the people.
In the Iraq War, although the Saddam regime claimed to put the US military in the quagmire of street fighting and called on the whole people to dig trenches to prepare for war, it was always lucky, believing that the Americans would not really attack the capital Baghdad , and the city defense preparations were not actually implemented. However, before the war started, the US military believed that as long as the major cities such as Baghdad were taken down, the Iraq war would end soon. Therefore, it proposed the guidelines for a quick and quick decision of "Baghdad First" and concentrated its efforts to attack Baghdad and other important cities in Iraq. Under the strong attack of the US military's "three non-" combat methods (the "three non-" combat refers to asymmetric combat, non-linear combat and non-contact combat, which is a summary of the combat characteristics under modern high-tech conditions) and the strong attack of multi-way centripetal capture, the war started only 20 days ago, Baghdad, a thousand-year-old ancient city with a population of nearly 5 million, fell. As the US Marine Division Expeditionary Forces entered the central square of Baghdad city and captured Saddam City, the Iraqis completely lost the will to repel the US military, and the US military thus took all the initiative in the battle situation.
2 Urban offense and defense are developed in three-dimensional multi-dimensional space
urban above-ground, ground, underground buildings and other complex spatial structures, buildings, blocks, road networks, underground facilities and other various elements. makes the city a battlefield for three-dimensional offense and defense. The dense buildings and complex neighborhoods in the city are the main support and battlefield of urban combat. Medium and low-rise buildings such as industrial factories and warehouses are suitable for armored targets to carry out hidden assaults, and can also become a shooting support for anti-tank missiles, mortars, and other equipment. High-rise buildings provide convenience for light weapons, snipers, and can also be used as a launching position with a wide view of artillery, and air defense weapons. A developed road network is an important channel for urban combat, meeting the requirements of both offensive and defensive parties to launch rapid attacks, detours, counterattacks, and retreats. It is also a condition for armored combat vehicles to implement maneuvers and assaults. It is also a route for full-depth attacks and various logistics equipment replenishment.
The first conflict in Chechnya was in a tragic situation. The picture shows the Russian construction department clearing the ruins of war on the streets in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya,
. Due to the obstruction of tall buildings, barricades, ruins, etc., the road network is the best mobility space for the troops. The offensive party usually concentrates superior forces to compete for road control. In order to block the opponent's maneuver and seek fighter jets to counterattack, the defense party uses firepower, troops, obstacles, fortifications, etc., and combines the actual situation of the road to build a solid defense support point at hubs such as intersections and overpasses to strengthen control of the road.
In addition, modern urban underground spaces such as subways, parking lots, civil defense projects, tunnels, sewers, etc. are strong, strong, well concealed, complete supporting facilities, good ventilation, water supply and drainage, lighting, diet and other conditions, and have developed transportation networks. Some can form an underground street network that lasts dozens of kilometers. These have expanded the space for urban combat, so that combat operations are no longer limited to the surface and the air. What is more important is that these underground spaces can be used to store military supplies and carry hidden commands, providing convenience for defenders to defend the city for a long time, becoming a support for the defenders to defend themselves, and also a secret realm for the attacking side to penetrate assaults.
The multi-dimensional three-dimensional characteristics of urban combat space can provide conditions for a variety of tactical actions. The defense party can fully utilize bridges, buildings, ruins, etc. to implement hidden, sudden guerrilla, attacks, sniper, counterattack, ambush, etc. The offensive party can split the defense system and adopt blockade, siege, air raid, unmanned strike and other tactics. Diversified operations such as combat and maneuver can be carried out simultaneously in multi-dimensional space, making three-dimensional comprehensive confrontation a common combat style.
Compared with other fields, urban combat can present the characteristics of hybrid warfare. When is targeting, it is not only a pure fire strike, but also a variety of combat methods such as public opinion warfare, legal warfare, psychological warfare, and cyber warfare. When organizes offense and defense, it comprehensively adopts a variety of operations such as ambush and counter-ambush, air strikes and anti-aircraft attacks, sniper and counter-snipers, blockades and counter-blockades, no-man and anti-unman.
The unique geographical environment and human environment of urban operations determine that "those who win the hearts of the people win". If cannot effectively promote the legitimacy and correctness of its own actions, and at the same time pay attention to the use of information warfare, cyber warfare, electromagnetic warfare and other means to strengthen preparations, the offensive side will have to put themselves under pressure from the defending side who work together and defend the city to the death; for the defensive side, it will fall into an unfavorable situation of being attacked by the enemy from both sides and being attacked from both sides and inside and outside.
Therefore, urban combat must pay attention to attacking the mind and seizing the will, strengthen the deterrence effect, give full play to the effects of "soft war" and "hybrid war", and place combat attempts on the psychological deterrence of "beating the enemy without fighting", comprehensively use physical hard destruction and information soft killing, deprive the enemy of their will to resist, and achieve the goal of defending and controlling the city. During the Battle of Fallujah, the US military first used air-ground precision firepower to destroy the city's communications, networks, electricity and other infrastructure, causing great psychological panic to the military and civilians in the city, and then the troops advanced and quickly achieved combat effectiveness.
3 Weapon usage is restricted
Given the special geographical environment of the city, its combat mode and weapon usage have their own distinctive characteristics. The crisscrossing roads in the city naturally divide the combat area into different blocks. Each block is full of buildings and a large number of underground facilities, which are both interconnected and independent to a certain extent. The forward formation of the attacking party was split by the terrain, so it was difficult to carry out large-scale concentrated combat. Each team and group were scattered in different blocks, air or underground to carry out relatively independent battles, and competed for houses, streets, and roads at close range. Due to the limitation of the area capacity of the block, the defense party cannot allocate more troops in a certain area. It can only rely on bridges, large buildings, intersections, etc. to build defense support points, build basic defense organizations based on blocks or large buildings, and use the size of teams below the battalion as the norm, such as a squad or platoon to defend independent buildings.
With the development of equipment technology, unmanned and intelligent combat platforms such as drones, unmanned sensors, and unmanned vehicles will further reduce the scale of urban combat power with their advantages of concealment, fear of danger, and flexible maneuverability. The combat operations in different blocks of are carried out in an orderly manner under the support of the network information system. By dispersing close to the predetermined targets to achieve the goal of precise control, the grouping and support of offensive operations must serve decentralized combat, street combat, and close combat. During the Afghan War, the US military used drones to observe the surrounding terrain many times to carry out effective and precise strikes on the opponents.
However, the artificial terrain environment unique to cities will inevitably weaken the combat effectiveness of information equipment. For example, reconnaissance and surveillance equipment cannot conduct real-time and efficient situational awareness due to rows of buildings and barricades; communication equipment and combat command platforms are difficult to maintain stable communication and safe and reliable command and control due to enemy special electromagnetic suppression, building shielding, civil electromagnetic signal interference, etc.In addition, since multiple small-scale combat units conduct independent and decentralized operations in multiple directions of multi-dimensional space, regular and informal combat are carried out simultaneously, and various combat forces such as air combat forces and ground combat forces jointly operate. Traditional combat forces and unmanned intelligent new combat forces have participated, which greatly increases the complexity of coordination relationships, making it difficult to dynamically control combat operations, and it is difficult for commanders to understand the overall operation of the troops in a timely and accurate manner, and the difficulty of command coordination has become greater. The war caused serious damage to the city. The restrictions on blocks, buildings, barriers, etc. also greatly narrowed the range of fire-killing on both sides. attacking parties find it difficult to detect and attack defenders who are defending on ground buildings and underground facilities in a timely manner. The dense buildings and staggered roads limit rapid maneuvering, and building barriers and electromagnetic interference in affect their stable communication. The defense parties also find it difficult to coordinate the control of combat forces that defend and wait for an opportunity to counterattack in multi-dimensional space, and cannot sense the situation of the attacking party's operations in a timely manner, so it is difficult to organize efficient command and coordination. During the battle in Mogadishu, Somalia, although the US military was well equipped, the Delta unit failed to communicate with the support troops in a timely manner, and the combat forces failed to maintain real-time communication. Three Black Hawk helicopters fell, and the combat goal was finally failed to achieve.
It is worth mentioning that modern cities have strong political combat and high public opinion orientation requirements. Military goals and non-military goals in cities are close to each other, and special sensitive goals are difficult to accurately distinguish. Once accidental injury and bombing occur, they may fall into a passive morality and attract condemnation and sanctions from the international community.
Specifically, joint ventures or foreign-funded enterprises, foreign affairs institutions, international organizations and offices in cities are directly related to the international community and have high economic and political sensitivity; religious places such as churches and temples and sect leaders are the beliefs and spiritual sustenances of the general public. The historical heritage of specific ethnic groups such as historical cities, cultural relics and monuments records the culture and characteristics of the city. Once these are destroyed, they will arouse resentment and hatred from religion and nation. This leads to the intensification of religious and ethnic conflicts, and even extreme terrorist actions; once urban residents rely on for their survival and living, public infrastructure such as water supply, power supply, hospitals, schools, and residential areas, etc., will suffer casualties and property losses of innocent civilians, causing psychological panic among the people, arousing people's anti-enemy sentiment. If it cannot be properly handled, it may lead to national resistance, cause greater humanitarian risks, and suffer from international public opinion pressure, military and economic sanctions. For these special sensitive targets, neither the offense nor the defense dared to "take the blame" and use "extensive" combat methods to seize and control them.
In addition, by maintaining the stubborn enemy and resisting stubbornly, they may also be mixed with ordinary people, intending to escape in the chaos, or hijack foreigners, international organization personnel, religious leaders, and important foreign-related assets as "human shields" and "hostages", conduct stalemate or as bargaining chips for negotiation, forcing the other party to "go to the mouse and be afraid of the weapon."
Based on the above considerations, urban combat must use military firepower carefully, and flexibly choose reasonable strike methods according to different combat situations, such as selecting precisely guided munitions, strictly controlling the scale of the combat around the purpose of the combat, etc., with the aim of minimizing collateral damage that may be caused to civilians and other civilian facilities.
Next article How to conquer a city at the minimum cost?
City is a "huge equalizer" for both sides of the war. On the one hand, the city will weaken the advantages of the offensive side, especially the advantages over the defense side in terms of armor, heavy artillery or air support; on the other hand, the defense team equipped with anti-tank bazooka and light anti-tank missiles can destroy modern armored columns through ambush.
As the offensive side of the city's tough battle, how to control a city at the minimum cost (including minimizing the losses of civilians and their own personnel) is a topic that many armies have been studying in recent years.
text | Zhang Xuefeng Military commentator
1 Occupy the "command heights" of the city
An important feature of urban warfare is that a large number of buildings block the line of sight and radio signals, seriously hindering reconnaissance, surveillance, command, control, communication, and direct and indirect firepower strikes. In this case, the offensive side of the city war occupied and grasped the "command heights" over the city - in fact, it was air supremacy , which became a priority for the entire operation. With the continuous development and widespread use of drones, 24-hour surveillance and precise strikes on urban battlefields will become a reality.
A basic principle of modern army combat is to find and destroy enemy troops as far away as possible from their own troops. This often depends on satellite and technical equipment such as aerial reconnaissance tools, precision guided munitions and long-range artillery. But in urban terrain with dense architecture, these equipment have much worse impact than in open terrain. For example, during the battle between Syria and Iraq, the "Islamic State" armed forces trapped deep in the city also fully recognize the threat of advanced reconnaissance surveillance and intelligence systems. In order to counter reconnaissance, they hung bed sheets, plastic sheets, plastic nets and other items on the roof, and enabled them to move from one building to another without worrying about being seen by most aerial reconnaissance equipment. As a result, the hundreds of millions of dollars of satellites were "blinded" by garbage strung on the roof.
and is equipped with various sensors - synthetic aperture radar , infrared imaging , charge-coupled device (an image sensor that converts optical images into digital signals), drones are a better option because they can "float" over the target for a long time and can maneuver in time. Whether during the day or at night, in thick fog or heavy snow, synthetic aperture radar and thermal imaging systems can effectively detect small targets. These drones can not only provide real-time battlefield situations for commands and combat units, but also laser lights the targets and guide artillery troops to conduct precise strikes. In the
operation, the large and medium-sized reconnaissance and strike drone will be located at the highest point at a height of about 3,000 meters, responsible for 24-hour and wide-area reconnaissance and surveillance, providing commanders with intuitive battle-level image intelligence - of course these images can also be distributed to tactical teams. These large and medium-sized drones can also carry out rapid strikes on the most pressing targets.
small and medium-sized and micro-drones located at the bottom of the battlefield airspace can wander around in every corner and provide video intelligence to front-line commanders and even front-line teams. This is a new feature reflected in the participation of drones in combat in recent years. these drones can participate in every battle, providing a "God's perspective" for combat teams. realizes one-way transparency on the battlefield, greatly reducing the advantage of defending one side familiar with the environment, and even directly dropping micro-bombs.
In addition, occupying the "command heights" also helps control the spectrum. By carrying a wireless communication center by a drone, it can relay communications for troops with far distances in different urban areas and can suppress and interfere with the other party's communication system. While effectively using drones,
must also effectively counter the other party’s use of drones, realize the exclusive use of drones, and master the “right to control drones.” In the past, counter-dirty micro-drones often used navigation spoofing, navigation interference, or interference and suppression of control links. How to avoid this confrontational measure from interfering with its own small drone, thereby achieving compatibility between anti-drone means and its own drone is obviously a problem that must be solved in future urban combat.
2 Resolving the challenges of complex battlefields
The important difference between cities and other combat environments is that the battlefield is intertwined with civilian life, and the mix of military goals with civilian and civilian goals. The battle in the city brought legal, moral and tactical challenges to both sides. If the hostile sides establish a defense among civilians, use the targets protected by International Humanitarian Law for military purposes, or even use civilians as human shields, the situation will be even more complicated.
Maretnuman, the second largest city in Idlib Province, Syria, has been destroyed and riddled by war
Therefore, a large city battle first requires consideration of how to treat civilians. usually requires evacuation of civilians and avoiding military action in the presence of concentration of non-combatants, especially when strong resistance is encountered and heavy firepower has to be used heavily. At the same time, evacuating civilians can also reduce hostility, combat constraints and casualties. Measures taken usually include establishing a safe evacuation route for civilians who leave voluntarily, pre-notification and evacuation of upcoming civilian facilities containing military targets, providing medical services to civilians and injured combatants, disposing of remains, removing unexploded ammunition, etc.
. Fighting in cities also faces a multi-dimensional ground battlefield environment. Both parties in the warring world must consider the activities of external spaces (external buildings and underground areas) and the hidden activities occurring in the internal spaces (inside buildings and underground systems).
In the First Chechen War, Chechen separatists mainly adopted group operations. These groups are equipped with AK-47, grenade and RPG-7 or RPG-18 bazooka, and fight Russian armored vehicles and tanks on the basement or high-rise buildings. Once the Russian army falls into a trap, the ambush will attack the vulnerable points of the tanks and armored personnel carriers, hitting the front and trailing vehicles quickly retreating, then going upstairs, continuing to strike the paralyzed Russian column. From January 1 to January 3, 1995, the 131st Motorized Infantry Brigade of Russia lost 102 of 120 armored vehicles and 20 of 26 tanks. Only one of the 31 T-80BV tanks sent to Grozny by the 3rd Tank Battalion of the 6th Tank Regiment, survived the battle.
deals with this complex environment, an often cited example is the Israeli attack on the town of Nablus in 2002 by "reversing the map" or "through the wall". This tactic regards roads as obstacles rather than passages, treats the interior of a building as a road rather than a series of airtight walls, understands the alley as a place forbidden to walk through, and understands the door as a place forbidden to walk through. Because there may be a sighting muzzle in the alley, there may be a trapping device behind the door, waiting for the soldiers passing by.
Urban warfare also requires the use of appropriate weapons and tactics to implement precise strikes. , especially in low-intensity conflicts with civilians, in order to avoid collateral damage, the accuracy of fire strikes is emphasized. Even when civilians have been evacuated, urban warfare has high requirements for strike accuracy. Because the large number of reinforced concrete buildings in the city are themselves natural fortresses for the defense party, and they must be effectively killed by implementing precise strikes.
3 Force capabilities surpass scale
Regarding urban warfare, a very traditional concept is deeply rooted - urban operations are extremely labor-intensive and require a huge force scale, because "cities are the sponges that absorb troops." It depends on the size of the city, the three-dimensional space and the complexity of the building. The Soviet General Staff once calculated based on its experience during World War II that the best ratio of attackers to defense in urban environments is 10 to 1. However, other major battles in the war point to a opposite, or at least a more subtle conclusion: capabilities outweigh scale, or quality outweigh quantity.
In October 1944, two battalions of the 26th Infantry Division of the United States completely defeated a German army of 5,000 people in the nine-day battle in Aachen, Germany, while only 75 people were killed on the US side. In April 1945, troops affiliated with the 2nd Canadian Division defeated a German army of the same size that tried to defend the Dutch city of Groningen. In that battle, only 100 civilians, 43 Canadians and about 150 Germans died. Given that civilians were present throughout the fierce battle, this was already rare and the battle did not cause massive damage to civilian infrastructure.
Some examples of this century also show that urban warfare "has high demands on manpower" are exaggerated.For example, in early April 2003, when some experts predicted that the Iraqi capital would be subject to protracted bloody siege and an Iraqi government spokesman also announced that the city had "no US troops", tanks and armored personnel carriers of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army were advancing along the main road in Baghdad. Baghdad, a densely populated city, was occupied by an armoured force of about 1,000 people, causing only a small number of casualties in the process.
If the Battle of Baghdad involves morale and bribery, let’s take a look at the battle of a brigade-level combat team of the US Marine Corps in Ramadi, Iraq. This force was responsible for clearing the "al-Qaeda" armed forces in Ramadi City from 2005 to 2006. The final result was that at the cost of 83 US troops killed, the city's Al Qaeda personnel were eliminated and about 1,500 people were shot dead. The US military's approach is that first separates the "insurrectionists" from external support as much as possible by setting up checkpoints on the main transportation routes, then cleans up the communities one by one, and hand over the controlled areas to Iraqi police. The technology used by the US military in Operation Ramadi was very time-consuming and the entire operation took 9 months.
A counterexample is that Chechen separatist forces defeated Russian mechanized forces in Grozny at the end of December 1994 and early January 1995. During this stage of the battle, two Russian mechanized brigades were almost completely destroyed, at least 200 armored vehicles were burned, and 1,500 Russian officers and soldiers were killed. The advantage of Russian weapons was weakened, and the mobility of their armor proved to be fragile. The number and effectiveness of weapons are one aspect, and most importantly, the capabilities of the relevant combat forces.
4 Training
in the correct environment efficiently thwarts the opponent's defense, requiring more coordination, including but not limited to air-ground coordination and synergistic collaboration. But how to coordinate and how much coordination is, these are summarized by the armies of various countries through actual combat or approaching actual combat training. The cost of actual combat of
is huge, which highlights the important role of training. In January and February 2001, the U.S. Marine Corps Operations Laboratory conducted a series of battalion-level urban warfare exercises known as the "Metropolitan Project" based on experiments in the early 1990s, which initially highlighted the astonishingly high casualty rates in urban environments. But the high casualty rates that the U.S. Marine Corps initially experienced dropped sharply after hard and realistic training. The report details some other technical and tactical improvements, but the point is that training plays a role, and training in urban warfare requires the right environment.
As for what is the "correct" environment, it boils down to 3 elements: authenticity, scale, and repeatability of lessons learned.
Authenticity refers to the combat conditions in the training area that are close to the real world, which look like a real battlefield environment, including vision, sound and smell. It is complex enough to accurately simulate the effects of various weapons, and the soldier who is "hit" will have some feedback - he will have to experience slight pain or inconvenience, or at least lose his pride because he is defeated.
scale means that the training facilities are large enough to accommodate large joint forces with logistics, medical and intelligence support elements, and are sufficient to allow large units to practice macro-level joint weapons and support capabilities at the same time, rather than just combat drills for micro-individuals or small units.
Repeatability of lessons learned means that drills can be recorded and played back so that all commanders can learn from mistakes and successes and sum up their experiences, whether from themselves or others.
The best existing urban warfare training facility is located in a military base in the Negev Desert, Israel, nicknamed "Baladia" (Baladia, meaning "city" in Arabic). The training facility was partially built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2005 and costs $45 million. It consists of more than 60 different buildings, including 5 mosques, an Islamic building, a clinic, a town hall and an 8-storey apartment building. The training environment achieves a highly realistic recovery of Middle Eastern towns and even includes a sound and fireworks system that can reproduce the ambient sounds of civilians' daily lives (such as prayer, music, road noise, etc.), as well as indirect fire attacks and IED device explosions.The entire facility is controlled through a central monitoring station that can track and record all elements of the large force for post-action review.
After visiting the base, a Western inspector was writing notes at a bar in Tel Aviv, the bartender, who was also an IDF reserve, recognized the rough sketch the inspector had drawn on the notebook and said he had been there for many weeks.
Nowadays, many countries, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, etc., are building or already owning similar facilities. Many tactics of are also explored from these facilities. More importantly, these facilities allow the troops coming to rotate to master the tactics of urban warfare.
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