Combat in Built up Areas Subcourse IN0531(1).pdf

COMBAT IN BUILT-UP AREAS

Subcourse Number IN0531

United State Army Infantry School

Fort Benning, GA 31905-5593

8 credit hours

Effective Date: December 1992

OVERVIEW

In this subcourse you will learn the principles governing military operations in urbanized

terrain, specifically how to wage combat in built-up areas.

There are no prerequisites for this subcourse.

Unless otherwise stated, the masculine gender of singular pronouns is used to refer to

both men and women.

TERMINAL LEARNING OBJECTIVE:

ACTION: You will identify the principles of combat in built-up areas.

CONDITION: You will be given information from FM 90-10-1.

STANDARD: To demonstrate competency of this task, you must achieve a

minimum of 70 percent on the subcourse examination.

REFERENCES

The material contained in this subcourse was derived from

the following publication:

FM 90-10-1

Table of Contents

Subcourse Overview

Lesson 1: Principles of Combat in Built-up Areas

Part A: Introduction to Combat in Built-up Areas

Part B: Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield

Part C: Offensive Operations

Part D: Defensive Operations

Practice Exercise

Lesson 2: Combat Techniques in Built-up Areas

Part A: Fundamental Combat Skills in a Built-Up Area

Part B: Employment and Effects of Weapons in Built-up Areas

Part C: MOUT Techniques

Practice Exercise

IN0531 Edition D Examination

LESSON 1

PRINCIPLES OF COMBAT IN BUILT-UP AREAS

OVERVIEW

LESSON DESCRIPTION:

In this lesson you will learn the principles guiding combat in built-up areas and military

operations on urbanized terrain (MOUT). You will learn about the offensive and

defensive operations of potential adversaries, our own concept of the offense and defense

in an urban environment with examples of battalion task force, company, and platoon

attacks on defended built-up areas. You will also learn the characteristics of built-up

areas, and defensive operations at the battalion, company, and platoon levels.

TERMINAL LEARNING OBJECTIVE:

ACTION: Identify the principles of combat in built-up areas.

CONDITION: You will be given information from FM 90-10-1.

STANDARD: The principles of combat in built-up areas will be identified

in accordance with FM 90-10-1.

REFERENCES The material contained in this lesson was derived from the

following publication:

FM 90-10-1

INTRODUCTION

The increased population and accelerated growth of cities have made the problems of

combat in built-up areas an urgency for the U.S. Army. This type of combat cannot be

avoided. The distribution of smaller, built-up areas within the urban complex make

isolation by encirclement increasingly difficult. Military operations on urbanized terrain

(MOUT) can now be defined as the future battlefield in Europe and Asia with brigade

and higher-level commanders focusing on these operations. At the tactical level, the

battalion commander and his subordinates must focus on the actual combat in built-up

areas. This subcourse provides the infantry battalion commander and his subordinates a

source for tactics, techniques, and procedures for fighting in built-up areas.

PART A - INTRODUCTION TO COMBAT IN BUILT-UP AREAS

1. Background.

Friendly and enemy doctrine reflect the fact that more attention must be given to urban

combat. Expanding urban development affects military operations as the terrain is

altered. Although the current doctrine still applies, the increasing focus on low intensity

conflict (LIC), urban terrorism, and civil disorder emphasizes combat in built-up areas is

unavoidable.

a. AirLand Battle. AirLand Battle doctrine describes the Army's approach to

generating and applying combat power at the operational and tactical levels. It is

based on securing or retaining the initiative and exercising it aggressively to

accomplish the mission. The four basic AirLand Battle tenets of initiative, agility,

depth, and synchronization are constant. During combat in built-up areas, the

principles of AirLand Battle doctrine still apply -- only the terrain over which

combat operations will be conducted has changed.

b. Cities. Cities are the centers of finance, politics, transportation, communication,

industry, and culture. Therefore, they have often been scenes of important battles

(Figure 1-1).

(1) Operations in built-up areas are conducted to capitalize on the strategic

and tactical advantages of cities and to deny those advantages to the

enemy. Often, the side which controls a city has a psychological advantage

which is usually enough to determine the outcome of larger conflicts.

(2) Even in insurgencies, combat occurs in cities. In developing nations,

control of only a few cities is often the key to control of national resources.

Thus, urban guerrilla war is quickly replacing rural guerrilla war as the

most common form of insurgency. The city riots of the 1960s and the

guerrilla and terrorist operations in Santo Domingo, Caracas, Belfast,

Managua, and Beirut indicate the many situations which can result in

combat operations in built-up areas.

(3) Built-up areas also affect military operations because of the way they

alter the terrain. In the past 40 years, cities have expanded, losing their

well-defined boundaries as they extend into the countryside. New road

systems have opened areas to make them passable. Highways, canals, and

railroads have been built to connect population centers. Industries have

grown along those connectors creating "strip areas." Rural areas, although

retaining much of their farm-like character, are connected to the towns by

a network of secondary roads (Figure 1-2).

Figure 1-1. Cities contested during 20th century conflicts.

(4) These trends have occurred in most parts of the world, but they are the

most dramatic in Western Europe. European cities tend to grow together to

form one vast built-up area. Entire regions assume an unbroken built-up

character, as is the case in the Ruhr and Rhein Main complex. Such growth

patterns block and dominate the historic armor avenues of approach, and

decrease the amount of open maneuver area available to an attacker. It is

estimated a typical brigade sector, will include 25 small towns, most of

which would lie in the more open avenues of approach (Figure 1-3).

(5) Extensive urbanization provides conditions the defending force can

exploit. Used with mobile forces on the adjacent terrain, antitank forces

defending from built-up areas can dominate avenues of approach, greatly

improving the overall strength of the defense (Figure 1-4).

(6) Forces operating in such areas may have elements in open terrain,

villages, towns, or small and large cities. Each of these areas calls for

different tactics, task organization, fire support, and combat service

support (CSS).

Figure 1-2. Urban terrain sprawl

c. The Threat in Built-up Areas. The Commonwealth of Independent States and

other nations using former Soviet doctrine, devote much of their training to urban

combat exercises. Indications are, they too believe such combat would be

unavoidable in future conflicts. During the late 1980s, they published hundreds of

articles on combat in built-up areas.

(1) The stated preferred form of attacking a city is from the march to

quickly neutralize the city. Should that attack fail, the units would be

organized for an attack by storm, attaching armor, artillery, and engineers

to their motorized rifle battalions. They would probably have assaulted

built-up areas with strong forces, because the loss of men and equipment

was considered less important than the loss of time.

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