The worst policy is to attack cities; attack cities only when

there is no alternative.

—Sun Tzu

Urban warfare

1. Urban warfare is the type of warfare which is conducted in urban areas

such as towns and cities. Urban combat is very different from combat in the open
at both the operational and tactical level. Complicating factors in urban warfare
include the presence of civilians, sewage tunnels, narrow alleys and buildings of
all sorts. Fighting in an urban landscape can offer some advantages to a weaker
defending force or to guerrilla fighters. History is replete with examples of Urban
Warfare e.g. Operations Stalingrad and Warsaw during World War II, Israel in
Lebanon (1986), Russian attack on Grozny (1999) and USA in Falluja (Iraq)
since 2003.

2. There are two terms i.e. close-quarters-battle (CQB) and urban operations
(UO) which are related to urban warfare. UO refers mainly to the
macromanagement factor (i.e. sending troops, using of heavy armoured fighting
vehicles, battle management). CQB refers to the micromanagement factor—
fighting methods within buildings, streets, narrow alleys and other places where
visibility and maneuverability are limited.

Fig -1 : US 4th Infantry Division troops engaged in urban warfare in Iraq,

December 2003.
Challenges

3. Urban warfare provides many challenges to the attacking force as

described below:-

a) The clutter of buildings in urban terrain creates unlimited fighting

positions for defending forces, therefore, the attacking army must account
for three-dimensions more often than two as shown in figure-1.

b) Buildings can provide excellent sniping posts while alleys and rubble-
filled streets are ideal for planting booby traps, roadside bombs.

c) Because of streets, and structures attacking force is

compartmentalized and is forced to employ in small units which have
limited fire power.

d) Clutters of buildings and rubbles make it harder for attacking forces to

maneuver and communicate.

Fig. In urban terrain, attacking force is to face three dimensional threat

e) Defenders may have the advantage of detailed local knowledge of the

area, right down to the layout inside of buildings.

f) Attackers tend to become more exposed than the defender as they

must use the open streets more often, unfamiliar with the defenders'
secret and hidden routes.
 g) Fire power limited to handheld, direct-fire weaponry because of range
limitations and the desire to limit collateral damage

h) It involves heavy risk of killing innocent civilians. Historically, civilians

have suffered several times in urban battles such as the cases of Hue in
Vietnam in 1968, Panama in 1989, and Mogadishu in 1993.

Application of Air Power

4. Due to its speed, flexibility and use of third dimension, Airpower has
decisive edge over ground forces in the conduct of urban warfare as mentioned
below:-

a) Excellent C4ISR capability offered by UAVs, AEW & C aircraft, satellites

(as part of aerospace power) provides intelligence gathering, continuous
surveillance and enhanced command and control

b) In Urban Warfare target appears for short duration. With help of UCAV like
Predator the sensor-to-shooter cycle is drastically reduced.

c) Air platform can deliver firepower at a standoff distance avoiding any

close-in combat and associated risks

d) By applying airpower with the correct warhead and smart precision guided
munitions e.g. CBU97, LOCASS etc. accurate neutralization of targets may
be done with minimum collateral damage and civilian casualties

e) Airpower can also provide a medium to execute psychological operations

(PsyOps) e.g. dropping pamphlets.

f) Due to control of airspace, Airpower is able to detect snipers and ambush

at exterior, surface, super-surface levels (fig-1).

Conclusion

5. Urban warfare is filled with perils especially for the ground forces. Joint
operations utilizing the advantages of Airpower can tackle many of the
challenges posed by urban warfare.

(word count : 550 approx)