Landmine Warfare and the Marine Corps' Warfighting Concept for the 21st Century
Abstract
The rapid evolution of landmine warfare over the last decade is the primary reason why the Department of Defense is searching for alternatives to the current inventory of landmines. One dimension of this evolutionary change is the speed at which the modern battlefield has transformed. The second dimension of the evolution in landmine warfare is the metamorphosis of its fundamental tenets. In an effort to address these changes in landmine warfare, the Department of Defense is seeking to develop politically acceptable munitions that will replace the landmine on the modern battlefield while enhancing its basic advantages. The evolution in landmine warfare was caused and sustained by three events. First, the demise of the Soviet Union and decline in the possibility of the classic massed armor and mechanized battle changed the form of the threat that U.S. landmine doctrine traditionally sought to counter. Second, the rapid rate of technological advancement made a wide range of landmine alternatives available. Third, the global effort to ban anti-personnel landmines provided the political will to develop landmine alternatives and reassess U.S. landmine doctrine. The combination of all three above factors made the rapid evolutionary changes in landmine warfare possible. Marine Corps? future warfighting concept assumes that the nature of war will continue to change and will be dominated by war in the littorals. Current and future trends of landmine warfare evolution and munitions development are examined within this context. Such an examination should validate current trends and provide other characteristics that will increase the utility of landmine alternatives to the future Marine Corps. This is best done by examining the four areas of Operational Maneuver from the Sea that landmines will have the greatest impact: ship to objective maneuver, anti-armor operations, military operations in urban terrain and military operations other than war.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 13, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA511242
Entities
People
- Erik B. Kraft
Organizations
- Marine Corps University