[infowar.de] The Herald 03.10.02: US troops 'ill-trained' for Baghdad street-fighting

[Georg Schoefbaenker <schoefbaenker -! - aon - at>]

Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
-------------------------------------------------------------

Werte Liste,

wenn es zu einem Kampf um Bagdad kommt, werden ganz neue und teilweise noch 
experimentelle Systeme eingesetzt werden:

Im C-Waffen Bereich spekuliert das Pentagon über den Einsatz von 
Psychodrogen ("calamatives").

Und hier ist die Rede von  "... a study into urban warfare tactics which 
could involve troops using miniature robot spy planes and tracked robot scouts"

Nicht zu vergessen natürlich das ganze Spektrum von "directed energy", wo 
es ja auch einige Neuerungen geben dürfte.

mfg

GS


http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/3-10-19102-23-59-32.html

US troops 'ill-trained' for Baghdad street-fighting

IAN BRUCE

US troops who may be ordered to capture Baghdad in the next few months are 
insufficiently trained for the bloody chaos of city street-fighting, or 
dealing with nerve gas or germ agents, according to Pentagon sources.

Only a fraction of training time is spent teaching soldiers and commanders 
how to operate in the restricted, confusing and inevitably lethal 
environment of house-to-house combat and it could be 10 years before units 
are "up to speed" on urban battle techniques.

The US Department of Defence has now launched a study into urban warfare 
tactics which could involve troops using miniature robot spy planes and 
tracked robot scouts to probe enemy-held areas.

General William Kernan, head of the US joint forces command, said 
yesterday: "Fighting in a city is probably the most complex environment for 
military operations. It has been compared to a knife-fight in a telephone 
booth. Casualties in the average rifle company can run as high as 30%.

"It is vastly complicated by the presence of civilians and the need to 
minimise casualties among them and it is a potential nightmare when trying 
to avoid friendly fire incidents. Hi-tech superiority counts for little 
when every house is a potential strongpoint.

"The chaos experienced by US Rangers and Delta Force troopers in the warren 
of alleys in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993 is typical. It is easy to become 
lost, sniper fire can come from any window or doorway, and exercising 
control is next to impossible."

The US lost 18 men killed in a running street battle against Somali 
militiamen and several helicopters were shot down or damaged as they tried 
to extract trapped and wounded soldiers.

On using robots, Captain Tom Johnston, who heads a team studying the 
problems, said: "We have the capacity to 'own the city' in much the same 
way as we already own the night and own the skies through the application 
of cutting-edge technology." But he admitted it "could be a decade before 
all the pieces come together".

The Israeli army already uses robot drones to spot sniper positions and to 
pick out key buildings to be occupied.

The US army says it would take four to five weeks to teach the average 
infantry battalion to cope with street fighting, and refresher training 
would then have to be carried out every 30 days.

Pentagon investigators have also admitted that many soldiers who might have 
to spearhead an assault into Iraq have insufficient training to cope with 
an environment contaminated by nerve gas or germ agents.

Although the US Marine Corps spends time teaching its riflemen to use 
protective suits and fight in a lethally-polluted atmosphere, the army has 
dedicated less prominence to this form of combat since the end of the Cold War.

Analysts think Saddam Hussein would turn several major cities into 
fortresses and use chemical and biological weapons to inflict maximum 
casualties on a US-led invasion force.

All British service personnel are given regular training in the use of 
protective "Noddy suits" and decontamination procedures in the event of 
exposure to nerve and germ agents.

-Oct 3rd





---------------------------------------------------------------
Liste verlassen: 
Mail an infowar -
 de-request -!
- infopeace -
 de mit "unsubscribe" im Text.