E. MILITARY OPERATIONS IN URBAN TERRAIN (MOUT)

1. Definition

Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) is the capability to operate and conduct military operations in built-up areas and to achieve military objectives with minimum casualties and collateral damage. MOUT includes nonlethal weapons, precise weapons, surveillance, and situation awareness via communications effective in urban areas.

MOUT is not so much a unique capability as an environment in which the operational concepts of Joint Vision 2010—specifically precision engagement, full-dimensional protection, and dominant maneuver—will be tested under the most demanding conditions. In the near term, the emphasis will be on the exploitation and integration of existing technologies into systems offering improved capability for engagement, force protection, and maneuver in the urban environment. The long-term emphasis—which will form the basis for a true transformation of the traditional functions of strike, protection, and maneuver—will be a flattened command, control, and intelligence structure that will permit the warfighter, at any level, to employ forces and mass effects in revolutionary ways.

In a broad sense, MOUT is not unlike general warfare: our combat forces must be able to fight and survive better than their adversaries. MOUT is special because it is perhaps the most complex and resource intensive environment in which they will have to fight.

2. Operational Capability Elements

Urban centers increasingly are the sites of conflict throughout the world. MOUT is, and will continue to be, a major area of concern for U.S. forces. MOUT entails military actions that are planned for and conducted in terrain that features manmade infrastructure designed for habitation, cultural and recreational use, and economic activities by civilian population where tactical options might be complicated by the proximity of noncombatants. Actions involve small units, and the potential of incurring casualties is high. MOUT requires extensive use of Army and Marine light forces whose mission success tends to focus more on the operational effectiveness at lower echelons (e.g., battalion and below) than larger scale conflicts. The U.S. operational advantage—typically associated with long-range, high-technology weapon platforms that use mass and mobility—is significantly reduced in urban environments. Therefore, the weapon of choice for MOUT remains the individual combatant working within a small unit.

As for warfare in general, for MOUT the key operational capabilities are engagement, force protection, and maneuverability. Within these three broad areas, we have defined specific operational capability elements that, if achieved, will lead to a significant improvement in our capability to effectively operate in a MOUT environment.

Engagement. MOUT engagement will consist of a "system-of-systems" that enables our forces to locate the objective or target, provide responsive command and control, generate the desired effect, assess the level of success, and retain the flexibility to reengage with precision when required. The specific operational capability elements are listed below.

• Situation awareness. The key to success in offensive operations in urban terrain is knowledge—knowledge of ones own position(s) and intent, and of the position(s) and intent of the enemy. That knowledge must be readily available at every level down to the individual combatant, regardless of whether he has line of sight to the source of the information.

• Increased weapons effectiveness. MOUT engagements require overmatching lethality in terms of direct and indirect firepower tailored to effectively engage targets commonly encountered in MOUT, using smart and precision-guided munitions. We must build on current U.S. advantages in delivery accuracy and all-weather and night capabilities. Moreover, we must foster the development of nonlethal technologies to provide selective response and the ability to minimize collateral damage.

• Increased individual agility. The individual combatant must be able to move quickly and precisely, unencumbered by heavy and bulky body armor, weapon systems, and communications packages. His mobility—the ability to move vertically as well as horizontally—must be increased to allow him to engage where least expected.

Force Protection. MOUT force protection will enable the effective employment of our forces while degrading opportunities for the enemy. We must protect our own forces from the very technologies we are exploiting. Specific operational capability elements are:

• Situation awareness. Situation awareness will be built on information superiority, which will provide multidimensional and all-environment awareness and assessment as well as positive identification of all forces in the battlespace.

• Increased weapons effectiveness. A key to surviving in any environment is the ability to engage the enemy accurately and effectively in all conditions before the enemy is able to engage you. A flexible response option such as nonlethal weapons will lessen the chance of indecision associated with noncombatants in the battlespace.

• Individual protection. If our combatants are to be successful in MOUT, they must survive. Individual systems that enhance survivability are essential to force protection.

Maneuverability. MOUT maneuverability is the ability to apply the multidimensional aspects of information superiority and the ability to insert forces where and when we want them to accomplish assigned tasks within the constraints of the urban environment.

• Situation awareness. The application of rapid, unpredictable yet precise insertion of the right forces at the right time without the knowledge of the enemy will enable the broader operational capability of maneuverability. Situation awareness is one critical enabling ingredient.

• Precision insertion. Not only must we know where the enemy is, but we must be able to approach him from where he least expects it and when he least expects it—at night and in inclement weather.

The goal is to enhance the operational capability elements mentioned above to increase the effectiveness of the individual combatant in the urban environment. Situation awareness is the major enabler that is essential to the effectiveness of each of these elements as shown in Figure IV.E-1.

3. Functional Capabilities

The 1996 DSB Summer Study identified three technology areas that must be exploited if we are to be successful in urban operations: virtual line of sight; precise location of friends, innocents, and foes; and the need for minimum or no collateral damage. Virtual line of sight could be enabled with through-the-wall radar concepts, miniaturized unattended airborne vehicles (UAVs) and unattended ground vehicles (UGVs), or robots. Microbots could provide significant increases in functional capabilities for MOUT situation awareness. Robots could act as "point men" for force protection to precede our combatants and act in a sentry role to cover building exits. Non-lethals would help the small urban force deal with innocents and avoid any unnecessary collateral damage. The principal issue is identifying the "acceptable limits of effects."

To achieve the needed operational capabilities and to create a greater U.S. military advantage, MOUT requires, at a minimum, the functional capabilities described below and shown in Table IV.E-1 as they relate to the eight operational capability elements.

Engagement. Improved individual and crew-served weapons with full-solution fire control, coupled with improved bunker-defeating weapon systems, will enhance target engagement capabilities against fortified, dug-in, or defilade targets. Multispectral sensors will provide enhanced target acquisition under all operational conditions. In addition, the sensor-to-shooter linkages will provide effective target handover to supporting standoff precision weapon systems. Irritants, barriers, and incapacitants will provide nonlethal capabilities to augment crowd control and deal effectively with the noncombatant population.

Force protection. Improved small-arms protective vests will stop 7.62-mm armor-piercing rounds. Multispectral signature-reducing materials and techniques will reduce detection by enemy sensors. Lightweight, multifunctional protective materials will allow survival in flame and fires and other environmental threats and hazards. Combat identification, indirect viewing/unexposed firing, mine detection, counter-sniper systems, and personnel status monitoring will also enhance survivability, as will overall improvements in situation awareness, particularly when digitally linked.

Maneuverability. Self-contained navigation technologies capable of better than 3-meter accuracy for GPS augmentation, urban databases and digital mapping (better than 1-meter resolution), and simulations fed by the rapid generation of terrain, feature, and building data, will provide increased command tempo, control, intelligence, and mission planning and rehearsal, while enhancing maneuverability of individuals and the force. Precision covert personnel aerial delivery technologies capable of providing 25-meter circular error probable accuracy will heighten soldier mobility and survivability.

Revolutionary advances in command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C⁴I) capabilities will be required across each of the operational capability elements if we are to achieve the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Joint Vision 2010. Near-real-time vertical and horizontal C² from the battalion down to the individual combatant will enhance situation awareness at all levels. This will be accomplished through hands-free, robust communications; high-data-rate communications for rapid voice, data, and video transmissions; and video capture. Fusing, filtering, and disseminating technologies will ensure that essential information is distributed to the appropriate small units. Near-real-time sensor-to-shooter linkages are needed to facilitate the processing and dissemination of data. Improved multispectral sensors and optics, combat identification systems, topographical systems, counter-sniper systems, unmanned ground and aerial vehicles (UGVs, UAVs), and other emerging systems will be necessary to accommodate these near-real-time sensor-to-shooter linkages.

4. Current Capabilities, Deficiencies, and Barriers

The operational capabilities required to be effective in the urban environment are identical to those for land warfare in general. They are just harder to achieve. The current U.S. military capability was developed to conduct large-scale, rural war in central Europe (Reference 14). Many current systems are not fully suited to the MOUT mission and environment. Heretofore, the U.S. military strategy and doctrine called for avoiding urban areas and controlling them from without. Our currently fielded capabilities are optimized for this wide-open land battle and do not adequately support warfare in the much more difficult urban environment. Table IV.E-2 details the limitations and solutions for each of the operational capability elements.

Our combatants are unable to communicate through walls and other obstacles. They cannot determine their exact positions accurately enough, nor are they able to pinpoint targets for supporting arms. Urban databases do not exist from which they can draw to increase situation awareness. Combatants cannot determine the position of an enemy who chooses to remain covered. Individual equipment is bulky and heavy, and it degrades mobility in the often cramped urban environment. In addition, there is no capability to choose the type and degree of force to use, which puts innocent noncombatants at risk and might inhibit the use of any force.

For the most part, technologies necessary to achieve the operational capabilities of MOUT engagement, force protection, and maneuverability already exist either on the shelf or as short-term defense technology objectives in other JWSTP or DTAP technology areas. The challenge is to integrate these technologies into coherent systems optimized for MOUT.

There are technological barriers that we will have to surmount. For MOUT, these occur primarily in C⁴I, an area that is key to situation awareness. The greatest concern is the limiting effects of urban environments on small unit communications, reliability, and range. The technology does not currently exist, nor does a breakthrough appear imminent, that will allow the non-line-of-sight transmission (through obstacles) of the large bandwidths needed to carry necessary information to the individual combatant. Research will center on innovative new signal routing techniques and exploitation of low-frequency technology.

5. Technology Plan

Figure IV.E-2 depicts the integration of supporting technologies to achieve operational capabilities. Table IV.E-3 lists the key Defense Technology Objectives for MOUT, and Table IV.E-4 shows the demonstrations supporting MOUT Joint Warfighter Capability Objectives.

The U.S. warfighter currently has basic capabilities for conducting the full spectrum of operational missions in most environments; however, there are significant deficiencies associated with MOUT. The intent of the MOUT technology plan is to provide a path for resolving those deficiencies and advancing critical technologies needed for MOUT. The group of functional capabilities identified here must be developed to ensure that the United States can overmatch any adversary in a conflict set in urban terrain. The roadmap for the development and demonstration of the MOUT system-of-systems is shown in Figure IV.E-3.

The technologies required to achieve the functional and operational capability elements that are critical for MOUT are at varying levels of maturity. They will be demonstrated at the component and subsystem level primarily through the completion of the Defense Technology Area Plan (DTAP) Defense Technology Objectives (DTOs) (see Table IV.E-3). The full suite of products and functionality that evolves from these technologies is required for seamless operation in a MOUT environment. To maximize our warfighting edge, these technologies must be integrated into a MOUT system-of-systems.

One of the greatest technical challenges for MOUT is the integration of a wide range of equipment, which will operate effectively and reliably given the particular challenges of the urban environment. In addition, integration of much of this equipment onto the human platform—with all its peculiarities, variations, and individual preferences—is critical, given that most MOUT operations focus on the individual combatant and small units. Experience has shown that a systems approach must be aggressively pursued, as opposed to a "stovepipe" development of each technology component.

As seen in Figure IV.E-3, various projects feed into these objective areas. Service and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) advanced technology demonstrations (ATDs) and technology demonstrations (TDs) will develop the new technologies, and most of the efforts provide for demonstration of those technologies. The primary focus of a few key programs (e.g., DARPA Small Unit Operations (SUO), Army/Marine Corps Force XXI Land Warrior (FXXILW)) is on integrating subsystems, systems, and functionality for the warfighter. These programs are the "cement" that will form the cornerstone of the MOUT system-of-systems.

While not a functional capability directly contributing to any of the operational capability elements, modeling and simulation (M&S) will contribute to the assessment of advanced technologies as well as contributing to MOUT mission rehearsal. M&S will complement hardware and system development via an instrumented MOUT testbed. Coupled with upgraded models and simulations, this capability will be used to assess and evaluate hardware and software performance. M&S will also augment the development and assessment of advanced operational concepts and tactics, techniques, and procedures for MOUT operations, in addition to providing a mission rehearsal capability. In aggregate, the M&S effort will allow full operational exploitation of the technological advances.

Each component will be ready for demonstration at a different point along the roadmap. The MOUT Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) provides the first opportunity to demonstrate a MOUT system-of-systems in the FY 1999-2000 timeframe. The MOUT ACTD will demonstrate available technology items (i.e., NDI/COTS/GOTS) during FY97/98. This initiative cuts across the services and will capture the efforts of the Army, DARPA, Marine Corps, and U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). It will focus primarily on the integration, linkage, and interoperability of MOUT system components, and will include demonstrations in joint field exercises. (See DTO E.02.)

6. Summary

Accomplishment of the objectives delineated in each of the MOUT DTOs reflects the integration of capabilities within a given operational area. These DTOs are, in effect, waypoints on the path to achieving a full spectrum of enhanced operational capability elements in MOUT. Each DTO represents a complement of interim capabilities within that specific area. The MOUT ACTD will complete the integration, interoperability, and linkage across the operational areas to achieve the full-spectrum, seamless MOUT capability, as illustrated in Figure IV.E-4. The successful implementation of this technology plan will result in substantial improvements in the ability of U.S. forces to effectively and efficiently accomplish missions, including general war, contingency operations, counterinsurgency, and peace and humanitarian operations in built-up areas.

Measures of success will serve as quantitative goals for the MOUT ACTD. Although not defined for all potential technologies, the overall measures of success are defined in terms of percent improvements over the base, MOUT capabilities, and applicable doctrinal and technical publications. Specific measures of effectiveness (MOE) for technology components will be developed and refined using the model-test-model methodology. The base case will be modeled using CASTFOREM, incorporating the anticipated field experiment, terrain, and scenario. Based on runs of the base case and the ACTD case, specific data on MOEs and performance can be predicted with defensible analytical underpinnings.