Tanks: Fulfilling a Role in Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT)

摘要

With the role of the U.S. Army changing from exclusively fighting and winning the nation's wars to becoming more involved in support and stability operations, the potential to become entangled in urban combat has increased tremendously. Consequently, conducting Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) has developed into a serious issue that the United States military must confront. Taking into account the nature of MOUT and the effects it has on armored fighting vehicles (AFVs), a concern has surfaced over the utility of AFVs in a MOUT situation. Specifically, does the United States main battle tank (M1A2) possess the necessary characteristics required to successfully accomplish tasks in MOUT operations. The monograph reviews the evolution of the tank beginning in W.W.I to the present to establish that the current U.S. main battle tank was designed to defeat a Soviet structured heavy force on the open European terrain as opposed to operating in an urban environment. The nature of MOUT is then presented to identify the unique and complex factors that characterize military operations in an urban environment and how the nature of MOUT degrades the tank's effectiveness and increases its vulnerability. This is followed by an examination of three case studies of urban combat involving the use of tanks and other AFVs. These studies include Hue City, Vietnam in 1968; Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993; and Grozny, Chechnya in 1994 - 1995. The purpose of looking at these case studies is to determine what tasks tanks performed during the operations, whether the tanks contributed to the staying power of the force and to the success of the operations, and finally, if the tanks were effectively employed to conduct successful combined arms operations. A comparative analysis of these three battles provides evidence regarding the effective utilization of tanks in MOUT.