2019 Analysis of Urban Warfare

2019 Analysis of Urban Warfare

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2-5 April 2019
Marine Corps University
Gray Research Center
2040 Broadway St.
Quantico, VA 22134

Overview

The Urban Warfare meeting is being conducted to assess what has occurred in the domain of urban warfare, specifically to determine resulting upshots, and to make recommendations on future analyses and other actions to improve the nation’s capabilities to prevail in this domain of warfare.Areas the meeting will address are:renewed emphasis and doctrine that has been placed on the topic in recent years by the Department of Defense; the implications of an ever-increasing concentration of the world’s population in urban areas; the demonstrated propensity for terrorists and other adversaries to leverage complex urban terrain in attempting to counteract the warfighting and technological superiority of U.S. and allied forces; and the fundamental changes in the nature of urban combat brought about by technology, fanaticism, and other factors.

From 3-5 April, Analysis of Urban Warfare will have Working Group sessions focusing upon analytic support for the following seven broad topic areas and sub-issues:

  • Analytical Tools - This working group will be eclectic in nature to capture the phenomenology of urban operations through the use of historical examples and the application of all forms of simulation from mission rehearsals to field/air/space training exercises.
  • *C4/ISR/Cyber - The C4ISR/Cyber Working Group (WG) will develop its work products by directly addressing each of the five key objectives listed in this TOR, adapted to the operational requirements of the C4ISR/Cyber arena
  • Fires and Force Protection - The Fires and Force Protection working group will focus on the use of direct and indirect fires to delay, disrupt, degrade, or destroy enemy capabilities, forces, or facilities as well as affect the enemy’s will to fight in an urban environment.
  • Logistics/Mobility and Counter Mobility - This Working Group will examine supportability planning and feasibility of providing logistics support operations within an urban environment as well as the current and projected challenges that the complex urban environment poses to military forces at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels.
  • Operational/Strategic Dimensions and Civil Interaction/Social Media - This working group will consider a variety of topics, starting with a discussion of the importance, necessity, and implications of urban operations within the context of an overall campaign. Specific consideration will include: what constitutes the physical and non-physical boundaries of a modern urban operation, given the potential connectedness of the urban operation to a myriad of internal and external actors; current policies and constraints within which urban operations are conducted; the projected role of military forces in post urban operations; and an assessment of current methods and tools used to analyze urban operations with recommendations for improvement.
  • Synthesis - The Synthesis Group will facilitate accomplishing the workshop objectives by promoting cross-feed of information between working groups; identifying gaps, linkages, and interdependencies between working groups; synthesizing the themes, common issues, overarching issues, and other concepts that transcend the deliberations of the individual working groups, the plenary sessions, other presentations, and the mini-symposium; and documenting those findings in oral and written final reports

* The C4/ISR/Cyber WG will be held at the classified level. In order to participate, your clearance must be submitted by 25 March.

Security Clearance Instructions

Deadline: 25 March 2019
Foreign Nationals 

Deadline: 25 March 2019
U.S. Citizens

Confirmed Speakers:

2 April Keynote Speaker:
BGen Calvert Worth, USMC, Commanding General, Training Command (bio)

4 April Featured Speaker:
Gen John Allen, USMC (Ret), President, The Brookings Institution (bio)