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Urban warfare is warfare in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both operational and the tactical levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare include the presence of civilians and the complexity of the urban terrain. Urban combat operations may be conducted to capitalize on strategic or tactical advantages associated with the possession or the control of a particular urban area or to deny these advantages to the enemy. It is considered to be arguably the most difficult form of warfare.
In political science, a proxy war is an armed conflict fought between two belligerents, wherein one belligerent is a non-state actor supported by an external third-party power. In the term proxy war, the non-state actor is the proxy, yet both belligerents in a proxy war can be considered proxies if both are receiving foreign military aid from a third party country. Acting either as a nation-state government or as a conventional force, a proxy belligerent acts in behalf of a third-party state sponsor. A proxy war is characterised by a direct, long-term, geopolitical relationship between the third-party sponsor states and their client states and non-state clients, thus the political sponsorship becomes military sponsorship when the third-party powers fund the soldiers and their matériel to equip the belligerent proxy-army to launch and fight and sustain a war to victory, and government power.
Operation Urban Warrior was a United States Marine Corps program created as an exercise meant to plan and test Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT) and urban warfare in general. It was developed in the mid 1990s by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory partly in response to growing problem on inner-city fighting, and especially made urgent following the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993.
Irregular military is any non-standard military component that is distinct from a country's national armed forces. Being defined by exclusion, there is significant variance in what comes under the term. It can refer to the type of military organization, or to the type of tactics used. An irregular military organization is one which is not part of the regular army organization. Without standard military unit organization, various more general names are often used; such organizations may be called a troop, group, unit, column, band, or force. Irregulars are soldiers or warriors that are members of these organizations, or are members of special military units that employ irregular military tactics. This also applies to irregular infantry and irregular cavalry units.
Hand-to-hand combat is a physical confrontation between two or more persons at short range that does not involve the use of ranged weapons. The phrase "hand-to-hand" sometimes include use of melee weapons such as knives, swords, clubs, spears, axes, or improvised weapons such as entrenching tools. While the term "hand-to-hand combat" originally referred principally to engagements by combatants on the battlefield, it can also refer to any personal physical engagement by two or more people, including law enforcement officers, civilians, and criminals.
The Presidential Unit Citation (PUC), originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the uniformed services of the United States, and those of allied countries, for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy on or after 7 December 1941. The unit must display such gallantry, determination, and esprit de corps in accomplishing its mission under extremely difficult and hazardous conditions so as to set it apart from and above other units participating in the same campaign.
3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, abbreviated as (3/3), was an infantry battalion of the United States Marine Corps, based out of Kaneohe, Hawaii. Known as either "Trinity" or "America's Battalion", the unit normally fell under the command of the 3rd Marine Regiment of the 3rd Marine Division. When fully manned, the unit consisted of approximately 1000 U.S. Marines and United States Navy Sailors. Like most 20th century model infantry battalions of the U.S. Marine Corps, 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines was made up of three rifle companies, Weapons Company and a Headquarters and Services (H&S) company. The battalion was originally formed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in 1942 and saw action on both Bougainville and Guam during World War II, where it was awarded its first Presidential Unit Citation and Navy Unit Commendation. Marines in the battalion were also awarded one Medal of Honor and seven Navy Crosses during the war.
H. John Poole is an American military author and Marine combat veteran of Vietnam, specializing in small unit and individual tactics. His books focus on the role, training, and skills of the individual infantry soldier and Marine, and on those of the combat NCOs. Poole has focused on terrorist and insurgent tactics, as well as the counter-insurgent tactics to defeat them.
Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected is a term for United States military light tactical vehicles produced as part of the MRAP program that are designed specifically to withstand improvised explosive device (IED) attacks and ambushes. The United States Department of Defense MRAP program began in 2007 as a response to the increased threat of IEDs during the Iraq War. From 2007 until 2012, the MRAP program deployed more than 12,000 vehicles in the Iraq War and War in Afghanistan.
Operation Jacana is the codename for a series of operations carried out by coalition forces in Afghanistan. The operations were carried out most notably by 45 Commando Royal Marines. U.S. forces, Australian SAS and Norwegian FSK also participated. The operation was a follow-up operation of Operation Anaconda and was meant to kill or capture the remaining Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels. The operation has been called a "mopping up" operation after Operation Anaconda. The operation is named after an African bird type, jacana, described in one manual as "shy, retiring, easily overlooked".
Irregular warfare (IW) is defined in United States joint doctrine as "a violent struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations." In practice, control of institutions and infrastructure is also important. Concepts associated with irregular warfare are older than the term itself.
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combined arms, implementing its own infantry, artillery, aerial, and special operations forces. The U.S. Marine Corps is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States.
The War in Afghanistan was an armed conflict that took place from 2001 to 2021. Launched as a direct response to the September 11 attacks, the war began when an international military coalition led by the United States invaded Afghanistan, declaring Operation Enduring Freedom as part of the earlier-declared war on terror, toppling the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate, and establishing the Islamic Republic three years later. The Taliban and its allies were expelled from major population centers by US-led forces supporting the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance; Osama bin Laden, meanwhile, relocated to neighboring Pakistan. The conflict officially ended with the 2021 Taliban offensive, which overthrew the Islamic Republic, and re-established the Islamic Emirate. It was the longest war in the military history of the United States, surpassing the length of the Vietnam War (1955–1975) by approximately six months.
Joseph Francis Dunford Jr. is a retired United States Marine Corps general who served as the 19th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2019. He was the 36th commandant of the Marine Corps. Dunford is the first Marine Corps officer to serve in four different four-star positions; the others include commander of the International Security Assistance Force and United States Forces – Afghanistan from February 2013 to August 2014, and as the thirty-second assistant commandant of the Marine Corps from October 23, 2010 to December 15, 2012. He has commanded several units, including the 5th Marine Regiment during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
There were 2,459 United States military deaths in the War in Afghanistan, which lasted from October 2001 to August 2021. 1,922 of these deaths were the result of hostile action. 20,769 American servicemembers were also wounded in action during the war. In addition, 18 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives also died in Afghanistan. Further, there were 1,822 civilian contractor fatalities.
The Marine Raider Regiment (MRR), formerly known as the Marine Special Operations Regiment (MSOR), is a special operations force of the United States Marine Corps, which is a part of Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC). Renamed for its predecessor, the World War II Marine Raiders, this unit is the principal combat component of MARSOC, which is the Marine Corps' contribution to the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).
Hybrid warfare is a theory of military strategy, first proposed by Frank Hoffman, which employs political warfare and blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare, and cyberwarfare with other influencing methods, such as fake news, diplomacy, lawfare, regime change, and foreign electoral intervention. By combining kinetic operations with subversive efforts, the aggressor intends to avoid attribution or retribution. The concept of hybrid warfare has been criticized by a number of academics and practitioners due to its alleged vagueness, its disputed constitutive elements, and its alleged historical distortions.
The 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade was a Marine expeditionary brigade of the United States Marine Corps that was designed specifically for counterterrorism. Its mission was to be able to quickly deploy anywhere in the world to combat terrorism and deter, detect, and defend from terrorist groups both domestically and internationally. The unit became operational on 29 October 2001, and was deactivated in February 2006.
Female Engagement Teams (FETs) are groups of female military personnel around the world which undertake specialized gender-suited tasks. FETs' tasks are as varied as American FETs interacting with local Afghan women in Afghanistan; Ghana Battalion FETs taking part in gathering intelligence during peacekeeping operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo; New Zealand Defence Force FETs support Special Operations Force objectives, the primary role being to "engage with local women and adolescents [...] in situations where it would be culturally unacceptable to involve male SOF operators", and the Jordanian Armed Forces FETs helping to conduct physical searches of women along the borders. However FETs also have had their fair share of limited success and problems in certain operations, with service personnel unable to interact successfully with the required population, lack of translators, too short a time frame or commanders refusing to take up FET missions.
Urban camouflage is the use of camouflage patterns chosen to make soldiers and equipment harder to see in built-up areas, places such as cities and industrial parks, during urban warfare.
References
- ↑ Canyon Meyer, Michael (31 December 2010). "Small Wars Journal". Columbia Journalism Review . Retrieved 23 May 2018.
- ↑ "Foundation". Small Wars Journal. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
- 1 2 Evans, Ryan (12 May 2014). "5 Questions With Dave Dilegge on Small Wars and Coin Cocktails". War on the Rocks. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
- ↑ "Tribal Engagement Workshop". Small Wars Journal. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
- ↑ "The Rolling Stone 2009 Hot List". Rolling Stone . 28 May 2009. Archived from the original on 31 May 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
- ↑ Benson, Kevin; Weber, Jennifer (2012). "Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A 'Vision' of the Future". Small Wars Journal. Small Wars Foundation. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
- ↑ "Editorial: The Civil War of 2016". The Washington Times . 7 August 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
- ↑ Peck, Michael (15 November 2012). "How the U.S. Military Would Crush a Tea Party Rebellion". Forbes . Retrieved 19 November 2012.
