{"id":44886,"date":"2018-03-06T16:24:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T16:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/03\/06\/the-future-battlefield-army-marines-prepare-for-massive-fight-in-megacities\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:49:11","slug":"the-future-battlefield-army-marines-prepare-for-massive-fight-in-megacities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2018\/03\/06\/the-future-battlefield-army-marines-prepare-for-massive-fight-in-megacities\/","title":{"rendered":"The future battlefield: Army, Marines prepare for \u2018massive\u2019 fight in megacities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the midst of the Vietnam War<\/a>, U.S. troops were rocked by an offensive that saw conventional and irregular enemies sweep over territories and entrench themselves in areas of South Vietnam<\/a> previously untouched by the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would follow would be the most intense urban combat<\/a> U.S. forces had faced since World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A half century later, lessons from the Battle of Hue City<\/a> are still being absorbed by today\u2019s war fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much has changed, but much has remained the same. As Bing West, a Marine combat veteran and former assistant secretary of defense wrote, when comparing Hue and the battle for Mosul<\/a>, Iraq, \u201curban warfare remains characterized by slow, massive destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long time, both the Marines and Army failed to do anything substantial to prepare for large-scale urban combat \u2014 other than to avoid it whenever possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But both services are now updating their urban operations doctrine for the first time in years, and their leaders, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley<\/a> and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller<\/a>, have publicly pushed for more urban-focused efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than half the world\u2019s population lives in urban areas, according to a 2016 United Nations report. That\u2019s only expected to rise in coming decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. military spent a decade fighting in Baghdad, a city with a population of about 6.5 million people. In slightly more than a decade there will be 37 cities that are two to four times that size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With ongoing tensions in North Korea, any attack would likely include devastating effects on Seoul, a megacity of 24 million people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encroachments in Europe by Russia in the Baltic region directly threaten the capitals of three nations \u2014 Riga, Latvia; Tallinn, Estonia; Vilnius, Lithuania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And growing urban areas in Africa, such as Lagos, Nigeria, and Mogadishu, Somalia, where U.S. troops deployed in the early 1990s, show a different face to urban combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\t