PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND MILITARY ENVIRONMENT IN A TRANSECT OF THE UTAH AND COLORADO ROCKIES
Abstract
The crests and slopes of mountain ranges, and basin floors intervening between them, along U.S. Route 40 between Salt Lake City and the Denver-Boulder area, are described here by means of text, 70 photographs, and 8 maps with climatic and topographic data. The bibliography contains 570 entries. All of the highly varied terrain of the study transect is found to be accessible to military forces, and it could all be involved to one degree or another in any warfare which might occur there. Actual warfare in the study transect is not envisioned, but combat in analogous Eurasian terrain is a possibility which cannot be discounted for various reasons. Particular features of the terrain are examined and discussed here with respect to the nature and extent of their characteristic environmental rigors, their trafficability, the prevalence of defile problems, and the potential usefulness of aerial mobility. It is concluded that small irregular forces are at great advantage in high mountain terrain as compared with large regular formations, and that the military advantages of advanced technology have until now been minimal there, but that aerial mobility, which bypasses defiles, will alter that situation in the near future.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1969
- Accession Number
- AD0693244
Entities
People
- Will F. Thompson
Organizations
- United States Army Soldier Systems Center