Force Protection in Urban and Unconventional Environments
Abstract
This Defense Science Board report recommends improvements for protecting military forces engaged in counterinsurgency, stability, and related operations. These protracted operations have no front lines and entail U.S. forces distributed and intermingled within the local populace; the same populace that adaptive enemies attempt to hide within. While its subject is force protection, the task force has little to say about armor, fences, portals, and other defensive measures. Such defensive measures are only one ingredient of force protection. At least as important are offensive mind set, information, and "winning trust, hearts and minds." It is these other elements of force protection that are the focus of this report. There are two major themes: empowering the "strategic corporal" and transforming the Department of Defense (DoD) into an adaptive learning organization. Stability and counterinsurgency operations place huge burdens on junior officers, non-commissioned officers (NCOs), and the units they command. Today they are making decisions traditionally considered far above their pay grades. For these missions, small unit performance represents the key to success since tactical actions inevitably have strategic implications. Success in these type of operations also requires that DoD adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and the action of dangerous adversaries who themselves are highly adaptable. U.S. military forces are making progress toward becoming such a learning organization, but much more needs to be done. Within the Pentagon there is often excessive focus on materiel as "the solution" and technology applied solely to materiel development. In contrast, this task force has centered its attention on training, leader development, professional military education, and how those factors contribute to enhancing small unit effectiveness, cultural awareness, tactical intelligence, information operations, and rapid learning and sharing of experiences.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA444190
Entities
People
- Theodore Gold
- William Hartzog
Organizations
- Defense Science Board