{"id":30077,"date":"2018-07-20T19:04:56","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T19:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/20\/commentary-the-missing-link-to-preparing-for-military-operations-in-megacities-and-dense-urban-areas\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:50:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:50:25","slug":"commentary-the-missing-link-to-preparing-for-military-operations-in-megacities-and-dense-urban-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2018\/07\/20\/commentary-the-missing-link-to-preparing-for-military-operations-in-megacities-and-dense-urban-areas\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: The missing link to preparing for military operations in megacities and dense urban areas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the global trends of rapidly rising populations<\/a>, urbanization, urban crime and political violence, military personnel will find themselves deploying into dense urban areas<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many senior military <\/a>and civilian leaders recognize the need to do much more to prepare for these operations<\/a>. But while the military has a long history of evolving its doctrine<\/a> and training for urban combat<\/a>, and the field of urban studies is well established in civilian academic institutions, it is only a recent development that soldiers will be able to intellectually prepare for cities as much as train for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, over 50 percent of the world\u2019s population lives in urban areas<\/a>. By 2050<\/a>, two out of every three humans on the planet will reside in a city. The U.S. military will continue to be asked to conduct a full range of operations in major cities \u2014 whether it is assisting in offensive operations against insurgents like ISIS in Mosul<\/a> and Raqqa<\/a>, peace-keeping operations in Sarajevo and Mogadishu<\/a>; or humanitarian aid operations in Port-au- Prince, Haiti<\/a>, or Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. It is not a matter of if, but when again, we will send Army units to conduct missions among the populations of dense urban areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Army senior leaders have made it clear that the Army will begin preparing for operations in dense urban areas. The chief of staff of the Army, Gen. Mark Milley, has said<\/a>, “In the future, I can say with very high degrees of confidence, the American Army is probably going to be fighting in urban areas,\u201d and with readiness as his number one priority<\/a>, Milley believes the Army \u201cneed[s] to man, organize, train and equip the force for operations in urban areas, highly dense urban areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Army senior officer whose views on urban operations are relevant and important is Gen. Stephen Townsend, currently the commanding general of Training and Doctrine Command. He was previously the commander of the Combined Joint Task Force\u2013Operational Inherent Resolve in Iraq during the U.S. supported mission to recapture Mosul from ISIS in 2017. Townsend not only believes<\/a> the enemy will continue to pull the U.S. into dense urban areas in the hopes of gaining an advantage over American forces, but also that \u201cwe\u2019re going to see battle in megacities and there\u2019s little way to avoid it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how do you train for operating in a megacity with over 10 million residents like Seoul, Mumbai, or Lagos or even urban area with populations over a million like Tripoli, Tijuana, or Taipei?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FORT IRWIN, Calif. \u2013 Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment maneuver through the town of Barasu in the National Training Center while attempting to recapture the city held by the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Feb.20, 2017. The purpose of this training exercise was to challenge the 2\/1 ABCT\u2019s ability to combat dismounted opposition while defending an urban objective. (U.S. Army photo by Pvt. Austin Anyzeski, 11th ACR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gen. Townsend\u2019s recommendation for preparing for operations in dense urban areas includes not only training the ability to fight in cities, but also to better understanding their \u201cflow.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flow<\/a> is the movement of people, resources, information, or things in and out of a city through a network of lines and systems similar to the blood stream, nervous system of a living organism. Some urban experts believe a city\u2019s social infrastructure is more important than its physical infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But understanding the social infrastructure, demography, governance, economics, power hierarchies, and security systems of how a city works goes beyond Army capabilities and tactics for urban combat. It requires a formal educational program provided by experts. That is exactly what study groups and urban scholars such as Alice Hills <\/a>and Michael Evans <\/a>have recommended for a long time. Hills has gone as far as to say that the military\u2019s lack of understanding of how cities work and their human architectures will lead to strategic incoherence and operational failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\t