Joint Countermobility Capabilities in the Department of Defense

Abstract

Today's military leadership is faced with the changing culture of a financially constrained environment. The Department of Defense has noted a shortcoming in countermobility capability and emphasized a shift from COIN to small scale wars in a variety of environments and has also emphasized the use of interorganizational capabilities. This thesis examines if US land forces (US Army and US Marines) are properly trained, equipped, and manned to support countermobility operations. Both the US Army and the US Marines have fundamentally similar doctrine and training for countermobility operations. Historical studies of conflicts in the Philippines, Korea, and Vietnam are used to show how countermobility operations can be applied to today's capabilities. Reductions in manning will have potential impacts to countermobility. Although challenged, both the US Army and the US Marine Corps are able to conduct countermobility operations without conventional mines on a variety of battlefields.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 13, 2014
Accession Number
ADA611711

Entities

People

  • Nathan J. Smith

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter IED
  • Counter WMD
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anti-Personnel Mines
  • Anti-Personnel Weapons
  • Anti-Tank Mines
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Doctrine
  • Fire Control Systems
  • Military History
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • Minefields
  • Munitions Testing
  • Networked Munitions
  • Ordnance Laboratories
  • Scatterable Mines
  • Second World War
  • Students
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.