Military Operations On Urban Terrain Mout The Key To Training Combat Forces For The Twenty First Century

Throughout the Cold War the U.S. Army prepared to defeat a Warsaw Pact attack into Western Europe. With the fall of the Berlin Wall came the end of the Cold War and increased involvement by the U.S. Army in Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW). How the U.S. Army should address MOOTW tasks in training while maintaining the skills necessary to fight a high intensity conflict (HIC) is an issue of much debate. This monograph examines the question of whether a tactical unit focused on High Intensity Conflict (HIC) can become proficient in tasks required in the execution of MOOTW (specifically Peace Operations) through training to successfully execute MOUT (Military Operations on Urban Terrain) To examine this question, the monograph presents the doctrinal terms and environments of High Intensity Combat (HIC), Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW) and Military Operations On Urban Terrain (MOUT) to highlight the similarities and differences between them and surveys the frequency with which each has occurred since 1932. The monograph presents a summary of a comparison of sixty rifle battalion, forty-five rifle company, and fifty rifle Platoon and Squad HIC tasks from seven different division's Mission Essential Task Lists (METLs) with current U.S. Army MOOTW Doctrine. The monograph concludes that the majority of HIC and MOOTW tasks are redundant. Furthermore, the monograph finds that MOUT provides a unique environment in which to train infantry rifle battalions, companies, platoons and squads simultaneously for HIC and MOOTW. The monograph presents recommendations outlining changes that need to be made to the current U.S. Army MOUT doctrine to support MOUT as a training environment for both HIC and MOOTW. --Abstract.