It is estimated that up to 90% of the world's population will live in densely populated urban areas by 2050, and therefore the military is focusing on fighting in limited and densely populated built-up areas.
Military commanders responsible for conducting operations in a city face many challenges, ranging from positively identifying enemy forces to organizing and maintaining appropriate levels of communication capability in underground and high-rise environments.
In addition, they must be able to rely on highly accurate means to eliminate any risk of friendly fire and shelling of the local population, in particular if the enemy uses the local population as a human shield.
Densely populated area
Many of these questions were addressed in a research report published last December by the Joint Special Operations University (JSOU). It describes "the operational and political consequences of military action in densely populated urban areas."
In this document, JSOU warns of increasing migration flows to urban and peri-urban areas in 2020-2050, with the result that "urban density will continue to grow steadily."
The document notes that the possible consequences of this, whether in the context of traditional large-scale, counterinsurgency or counter-terrorism operations, humanitarian aid or disaster relief, is very difficult to predict.
On the one hand, large-scale attacks on central cities with traditional weapons or weapons of mass destruction can lead to outbound migration flows that block major transport arteries and impede military mobilization and response. On the other hand, urbanization over time transforms the political structure of a society, which can lead to insurgency or terrorist operations against friendly governments.
In other cases, the military may be called in to provide humanitarian assistance to city-level entities in connection with the failure of local authorities caused by a natural disaster. In each of these cases, the military will need concepts to operate and analyze social reality in densely populated areas.
The JSOU paper, following the problem definition, explores how next-generation technology could support military forces seeking to improve combat effectiveness in urban environments through increased use of social media and simulation tools, as well as the use of small drones.
Future operations
Many of these issues are already being addressed by DARPA, which continues to implement the PROTEUS (Prototype Resilient Operations Testbed for Expeditionary Urban Scenarios) program aimed at identifying and adapting modern commercial technologies for military forces operating in such conditions.
As the Office says, as government and non-government actors continue to use their own new technologies, the Expeditionary Force is facing "diminishing benefits in future potential military conflicts that are likely to be fought in coastal (seaside) cities."
"The goal of the PROTEUS program is to create and demonstrate tools for the development and validation of concepts for maneuverable expeditionary urban operations based on dynamically assembled combined arms temporary teams", - says the DARPA document, which also lists special areas of interest.
These include software development to support real-time organization of task forces, weapons and materiel, as well as tactics, methods and methods of warfare suitable for armed forces operating in densely populated areas in 2030-2040.
Another area is the development of virtual test conditions in order to "test and demonstrate these capabilities" through detailed reproduction of the urban combat space.
These tests will demonstrate that the ability to dynamically shape the structure, capabilities and tactics of a small unit can dramatically obtain superior performance in combat conditions, expressed by such parameters as, for example, fire efficiency, combat stability and economic feasibility.
In case of successful results, the software tools and concepts developed in the PROTEUS program will allow evaluating and applying new approaches to combined arms operations, including the coordination of damaging effects in different environments.
In December 2019, DARPA awarded Cole Engineering Services a $ 2.3 million contract to support PROTEUS. The official contract announcement described how the company would carry out R&D to meet the objectives of the first phase of the program.
The declared work includes the organization of a storage of parametric data of models, the nature of their change, tactics, methods and methods that will be demonstrated in a series of exercises of the US Marine Corps.
The US Army Information Gathering and Intelligence Directorate (I2WD) is also considering combined operations in a variety of settings, including urban warfare, with a particular focus on the development of “one-stop” sensor packages for information gathering that are integrated into inhabited and uninhabited platforms.
According to a general statement from I2WD, the army's intelligence and intelligence communications command center is developing a number of new technologies to improve the efficiency of dismounted small units involved in urban operations.
According to the statement, the work includes "the development and testing of prototype devices and subsystems and potential interfaces in existing and / or future configurations in a simulated operational environment."
As a result, the military is looking at a range of sensor systems to improve and shorten end-user targeting cycles using sensor-to-sensor and sensor-to-arrow circuits. Much of these efforts are focused on size, weight, power consumption, and communications.
Lessons learned
The need for new principles of combat use, tactics and methods and materiel to support future urban operations has been clearly identified in the conflicts of recent years, especially in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
In 2017, Iraqi counter-terrorism security forces, with the support of the international community, conducted various urban operations during the liberation of the Iraqi city of Mosul.
According to the US Department of Defense, published in 2018, during this campaign, Iraqi special operations forces suffered 40% of "combat losses", which included tactical vehicles, weapons, other materiel, as well as wounded and killed.
In these operations, Iraqi forces and Kurdish formations performed a variety of tasks, the ultimate goal of which was to clear and hold territory previously occupied by IS. They had to clear out underground tunnel complexes mined with improvised devices, designed for the covert penetration of small groups with weapons and IEDs.
The Philippine military is also seriously studying the urban combat experience gained in the battle for the city of Malawi.
Throughout the second half of 2017, the Philippine army carried out operations in this city against extremist organizations. One of the senior officers told how the power units, adjusting to the real situation, were forced to "innovatively and on the fly" retreat from combat manuals and instructions, change the purpose of weapons, as well as tactics and methods of combat.
An example is the use of 105-mm artillery for direct fire from close range to militants entrenched in buildings. The calculations of the Philippine army used homemade sighting devices made from boxes of noodles and thread, which acted as sighting devices. In addition, 12.7 mm heavy machine guns were also used in close combat at distances of up to 50 meters.
The units of the Philippine army also pre-installed the M111 armored personnel carriers as high as possible, including on the first floors of buildings with large openings in order to give the commander and crew a better view of the battlefield, since in conditions of high-rise buildings the field of vision of personnel and sensors is significantly impaired …
The debris that appeared after the battles was used to protect the movement of their forces from snipers, in turn, the militants often used the local population as a human shield.
Preparing for victory
The Singapore Armed Forces, which have established close contacts with the Philippine Army, are eager to learn a lot from this experience.
Last June, the Singaporean army detailed plans to build a "next generation smart training center" to meet the future operational requirements of small units preparing for combat operations in localities.
According to the Singapore Army, the SAFTI City concept provides for the modernization of the existing urban combat training center, built in the 90s, which, according to the command, no longer meets modern requirements and trends.
The existing center (a group of low-rise buildings that recreates traditional shops with living quarters but no instrumentation) met operational needs until early 2000. An army spokesman emphasized that they want to create "the best training ground in the city to successfully deal with the new threats and challenges that Singapore faces today."
First presented to the Minister of Defense in 2017, the SAFTI City concept should be phased in starting in 2023. The joint development of the Singapore Army and the Directorate of Defense Science and Technology will "meet the evolving defense needs of the army and provide training for a wide variety of operations, both peacetime and war."
According to plans, in the first phase of the program, more than 70 buildings will be built, including three 12-storey apartment buildings, underground structures and training grounds for preparing for an urban war with a total area of more than 107 thousand m2. Upon completion of the first phase, the training campus will initially be able to provide training at the brigade level.
Among the main features of the future town is an integrated transport hub, including a bus station, a metro station with multiple exits to the surface, high-rise buildings interconnected by passages, densely populated neighborhoods and a developed road network, as well as a number of public places, including shopping centers, which will make it possible to recreate “Realistic and challenging training conditions”.
The city will also have several reconstructed buildings and road networks, which will allow each time the personnel arrive for training to change the layout in order to exclude any possibility of successfully predicting the situation and scenario during the complex preparation period.
The official statement said that “these activities will include national security, counter-terrorism and rescue operations. The infrastructure of SAFTI City will provide a realistic and challenging yet interesting training environment for soldiers."
The project will also use a variety of smart technologies designed to improve learning ability and program effectiveness. An example is smart targets that are capable of maneuvering around the battlefield, as well as returning fire on training soldiers. Technologies will also be integrated to create various effects on the battlefield, including smoke and explosion simulators to increase realism during training scenarios.
Finally, the SAFTI City will also use technology to analyze data from multiple video cameras, which will allow in real time to interrupt the work of the fighters participating in the scenario in the event of improper actions or a critical situation.
“The training process will be matched and processed by the analytics system to provide students with accurate information on their individual and group actions,” the Singapore Army said in a statement. - With gamification integrated into the learning process and detailed individual reports, individual soldiers and groups will be able to compare their actions, which will motivate them to further improve. These technological improvements will enable the army to train more efficiently and efficiently.”
Generation "next"
As the armed forces strive to maximize their effectiveness in order to successfully carry out future urban operations, they seriously rely on new technologies in combination with evolving principles of combat use and tactics, methods and methods of warfare.
Examples include the US Special Operations Command's Hyper-Enabled Operator (NEO) program, which officially launched at SOFIC Florida in May 2019 as the successor to the six-year TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit).
The NEO program will use many of the technologies developed for the TALOS project. which was launched in 2013. Its goal was to increase the fire efficiency, combat stability, mobility and communication capabilities of the MTR, conducting raids in the urban environment.
TALOS was stuck in trouble as the JATF Joint Logistics Task Force advocated for the design and development of an exoskeleton that would carry a variety of cargo and navigate the complex battlefield in populated areas.
The JATF director explained his desire to provide operators with as much information as possible without the risk of any cognitive overload while performing complex tasks.
“The availability of new technologies empowers our competitors to predict and act faster than us. We, of course, must be ahead and exceed all their capabilities. We also need to understand the importance of providing as much information as possible to our soldiers on the front lines.”
The JATF Director says:
“While we want to have as much data as possible, we must manage and limit it efficiently; it is necessary to translate this gigantic amount of data into information that the operator needs exactly in the given form, at the exact time and in the exact place. The team must quickly and efficiently use information for forecasting and action, while leveraging the decentralized flexibility of the MTR.”
The JATF team continues to explore solutions to enable combat units to operate effectively in urban environments based on four “technical pillars”: fusion and augmented data; increased channel bandwidth in both directions; advanced computerization; and human-machine interfaces.
New advanced concepts include: combining personnel and automated command and control centers into a single network with the addition of machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms, as well as the use of light all-terrain vehicles MRZR-4 Light Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle with integrated satellite antennas to create “reliable and high-performance computing nodes required for machine learning and artificial intelligence systems installed in small vehicles."
See through
Another interesting avenue is through-wall technology, which was showcased at the Association of the US Army in Washington in October 2019.
This is Lumineye Lux ultra-wideband (UWB) ultra-wideband radar, which is designed for applications such as making passageways in buildings, detecting false walls and secret rooms, observing through shaded windows, and cynological calculations.
The end-user device can also operate remotely so that assault teams can remain in cover while simultaneously conducting surveillance and reconnaissance. Radar Lux is currently being considered by the US Special Operations Command as one of the candidates.
Iceni Labs' SafeScan Tactical handheld device (or wall visor) is being evaluated by the MTR units of an unnamed European NATO country. The final product with a high level of technological readiness should be shown already this year, which will give the assault teams an ultra-wideband radar capable of detecting living beings behind the walls. The company is also exploring the possibility of integrating this wall visor into broader combat control solutions available on the market.
Military operations in populated areas remain one of the most difficult for commanders in the entire modern combat space. At the current pace of technology development and the increasing likelihood of collision with equal rivals, their importance will only grow in the future. The command of the armed forces, as well as the defense industry of Western countries, should already think about this.
