"We Band of Brothers" The Call for Joint Urban Operations Doctrine
Abstract
Growing interest in military operations on urbanized terrain (MOUT) has spawned a review of U.S. force readiness to conduct missions during such undertakings. Units have too frequently been found to be less able during MOUT training than is desirable. The resultant identification of shortcomings, in turn, has revealed areas requiring improvement. The causes for this condition are multifold, but diagnoses readily point to inadequate training and doctrine as fundamental weaknesses. As training in considerable part takes its lead from doctrine, a thorough review of U.S. service and joint doctrine is in order. This report is an element of that review. As it was readily apparent that there was little in the way of joint MOUT doctrine, the J8 Urban Working Group (UWG) requested that RAND determine whether such doctrine was necessary at the operational level of war. Initial work and interviews revealed that the question as asked circumscribed the issue too narrowly. Analysis was therefore expanded in the following ways: Rather than limit consideration of joint doctrinal concerns to the operational level, the study was expanded to encompass tactical issues. * Instead of simply answering the question as to whether a joint doctrine was called for, RAND sought to specifically identify requirements that should be a part of any joint MOUT doctrine. * If joint MOUT doctrine was found to be necessary, should the resulting guidance be added to future revisions of current joint manuals, or was a new, separate joint publication dealing exclusively with MOUT called for?
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA363998
Entities
People
- Russell W. Glenn
Organizations
- RAND Corporation