Posted on 01/31/2017 6:43:16 AM PST by C19fan
Every year, more and more of the world’s population moves into cities. The number of megacities is growing exponentially. Both of these global patterns and their inevitable consequences for military operations are well documented. Yet we still do not have units that are even remotely prepared to operate in megacities. If we want to find success on the urban battlefields the US Army will inevitably find itself fighting on in the future, that needs to change.
(Excerpt) Read more at realcleardefense.com ...
I would agree whole heartedly but I still hear little voices in my head! ;)
Nothing I’d like to see more than at least rubber bullets, full auto style, used on protesters lately!! but as far as the Muslims, it’s not their style to organize and contain... hold large areas and control it. Their style is solo random slaughters of innocence. This is where your words above hold value. my fear.... you can call it paranoia, is if Military does join force with Localities, and we have a severe Democrat back lash in the next 4 to 8 years, and these military laws are in effect, then I only can sense Danger on the horizon.
Heavy the cops up like you say but keep the military where its at.
It’s called the B52.
When the electricity, food and water stop going into a mega-city, the problem will self-correct with no rubble or radiation left behind.
A clever enemy can even shift the blame to a 3rd party. Hard to do with ICBMs or B-52s or 155 howitzers.
Which is why it is much more likely to happen. There is no MAD to a false-flagged cyber attack that manages the top three effects, that is, cutting off electricity, food and water.
A modern mega-city is a tech-construct as vulnerable as a moon-base under a glass dome that runs everything on a nuke plant. Break the dome or shut the plant off and the moon-base or the mega-city will die.
Don’t even need to encircle them. Just cut off the power.
See 24, cprrectomudo.
“Correctomundo.” touch-typing.
The only “mega-city strike force” should be a surgical unit that goes in on snatch or targeted assassination raids, PERIOD.
We’re just observers, history will evolve as it will evolve.
Wow!! lol... youre getting old! but yer right I guess...
Like Jim Morrison sang, no one here gets out alive.
True. The 21st Century version of encirclement- Cut off power, cell tower transmissions, electronic transactions and internet access. It becomes a dark hole.
The reason that sending infantry in to fight in an urban environment has been considered a bad idea in the past is that it really is a bad idea and is likely to be a bad idea in the future, training and equipment regardless. One might as well put red uniforms on the troops and march them in files through a forest full of camouflaged hunters, which come to think of it, has been tried with somewhat disappointing results for the fellows involved. Those were trained infantry, the best in the world. It didn't help.
This isn't even close to a new concept. Siege has been used from time immemorial in this situation for precisely the reasons listed above. It is slow, ugly, and cruel, especially to the civilians entrapped with the combatants. It doesn't always work: Leningrad, for example. But urban combat brought us Stalingrad, also a failure. The bottom line is that war is ugly and cruel and there isn't a great deal to be done to pretty it up.
What we should avoid is announcing to the enemy that we're going to invade an urban area, delay the operation to allow him time to prepare, and then sent in the infantry. That we won the Fallujah engagement anyway is a testimony to the courage and fighting spirit of the men involved. It was not a testament to planning.
Cannibal City in under a month.
Amen. And Fallujah was largely depopulated of civilians for those battles. A mega-city battle would have cameras all over, magnifying daily “atrocities” committed by the “invading storm troopers.” No way to win. Just cut it off (no electricity means no food or water also) and wait for them to come out and beg for surrender terms.
See 23, 24 etc.
“A modern mega-city is a tech-construct as vulnerable as a moon-base under a glass dome that runs everything on a nuke plant. Break the dome or shut the plant off and the moon-base or the mega-city will die.”
Vulnerable to whose detriment? How many enemy combatants are there to be destroyed?
A Megacity has a minimum of 10 million residents. And the strength of the enemy combatants will be what, Platoon, Company, Battalion, Brigade, Division, Corps, Field Army?
Let’s say it’s a heavy Corps, 100,000 personnel at the outside (depending on whose Army is at play). That’s one percent of the people in the Megacity. If you take action detrimental to the whole population, the whole Megacity, to get to the one percent, I’d guess that something more than ninety percent are going to try to leave. They may even be forced out by the one percent to save food and water and so on. Something will have to be done with all those refugees, to include vetting them so that no enemy combatants can get through.
Now you can certainly cut electricity. And you can cut food and water to a large extent, but can you cut it completely? Can you cut it enough? I know that in past wars cities have been put under siege till they were conquered, but they weren’t Megacities.
The smallest Megacity is a little over 400 square miles. The largest is over 5000 square miles. That’s a lot of perimeter to secure against the infiltration of supplies. What size force do you have to accomplish this?
And there are undiscussed things like geography (does a river run through it, does it have sea access?). And whose city was it to start with, the enemies, or one of ours that was captured? If it was the enemies, we might not care about the detriment of everyone in it. If it was ours, we might.
Significantly, the objectives of the larger war this action is a part of are undiscussed. If it’s a fight to the finish that’s one thing. If the objectives are more limited that’s something else.
Much of the above has assumed an occupying force of 100,000 in a Megacity of 10,000,000. What if the enemy only occupies part of the Megacity? What if the occupying force is only 10,000 strong?
I believe there are way too many undiscussed variables to dismiss the idea of a Megacities Combat Unit out of hand and just say nuke or besiege the Megacity to the detriment of all within.
I see 100X more downside than upside in trying to fight a Stalingrad or Leningrad today. We are long past throwing 100,000 KIA at a Berlin like the Soviets. It’s long past 1945. I can see a small elite force going in to grab or kill high value targets, but beyond that, it’ll be drones, or it’ll be cutting off the power. You don’t need a 1945 style land force to cut off electricity. You might even accomplish it deniably / false flagged from another continent.
100%!!! let nature take it's course
Just wait for all the vultures to disappear.
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