{"id":29856,"date":"2019-01-09T21:41:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T21:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2019\/01\/09\/the-army-and-marine-corps-are-looking-at-what-troops-will-need-to-fight-in-megacities-underground\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:00:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:00:42","slug":"the-army-and-marine-corps-are-looking-at-what-troops-will-need-to-fight-in-megacities-underground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/intel-geoint\/sensors\/2019\/01\/09\/the-army-and-marine-corps-are-looking-at-what-troops-will-need-to-fight-in-megacities-underground\/","title":{"rendered":"The Army and Marine Corps are looking at what troops will need to fight in megacities, underground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A recent Army and Marine war game that included engineers, academics and other defense representatives evaluated how troops could use experimental technologies<\/a> to fight in dense urban areas and underground<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Army Subterranean and Dense Urban Environment Materiel Developer Community of Practice is a working group that has conducted three prior workshops that set the challenges of fighting in those environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFighting in dense urban environments and the unique challenges it presents is still not totally understood, and this study was the front-end look at identifying and defining those materiel challenges to drive where investments need to be for this operational environment,\u201d said Bob Hesse, technical lead coordinator for the Community of Practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most recent \u201ctabletop\u201d exercise looked at the gear troops might need to get through those intense battle scenarios, according to an Army release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soldiers and Marines worked as friendly and enemy forces during the exercise, evaluating 48 experimental future technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such piece of tech would be using sensors that attach to the exterior building wall to help troops visualize the interior layout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And every advantage in these terrains can help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything that Marine formations or Army formations have to do is more difficult when you take it into an urban environment,\u201d explained Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Christian Wortman, commanding general of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, and vice chief of Naval Research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marines recently launched Project Metropolis II, a five-year effort to better prepare Marines for likely future urban battles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAcross the warfighting functions \u2014 whether it\u2019s intelligence, surveillance or reconnaissance, collections, maneuver, force protection, command and control, logistics and sustainment \u2014 all of those things are complicated and challenged by the compartmentalized terrain that\u2019s present in the urban environment and the three-dimensional nature of the urban environment,\u201d Wortman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t