Urban Warfare Project

The Army has three "dirt" combat training centers that are focused on training units at the brigade combat team level and below. A fourth, the Mission Command Training Program, is geared toward training higher echelons—Army divisions, corps, and component commands. In this episode, John Spencer is joined by Col. Shane Morgan, commander of the MCTP, who described the MCTP mission and how they work to train units at these echelons for the challenges of the future operational environment—including the unique challenges posed by dense urban terrain. Thanks to Cadet Ben Phocas for post-production editing.

In this episode of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast, from the Modern War Institute at West Point, John Spencer is joined by Col. Rich Creed, director of the Army’s Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate.

In this episode Dr. Charles Knight joings John Spencer to discuss the Battle of Marawi. A senior lecturer in terrorism, asymmetric conflict, and urban operations at Charles Sturt University and a senior researcher at the University of New South Wales, Dr. Knight has researched and and written about the 2017 battle, in which the Philippine Army fought against Islamic State fighters over the course of five months. With the two sides fighting through the streets, alleys, and buildings of Marawi, it was one of the biggest and most high-intensity urban battles of the modern era.

In this episode, John Spencer is joined by Rob Taylor, company director of 4GD, a UK-based organization that specializes in developing unique close-combat training facilities—what the company calls "SmartFacilities." He describes those training facilities, how the physical aspects of training can be integrated into synthetic, "integrated reality" environments, and more.

Explore the chaos of the 2006 Battle of Ramadi, where American forces faced significant insurgencies and a crumbling infrastructure. Discover the critical alliances formed between U.S. officers and Iraqi tribal leaders that redefined counterinsurgency strategies. Hear about the innovative tactics employed by Navy SEAL teams in the fight, contrasting their success with earlier destructive approaches seen in Fallujah. This discussion also highlights how these strategies laid the groundwork for stability in a city once deemed the deadliest in Iraq.

Why are subterranean environments so uniquely challenging for military forces? And why is underground warfare occurring increasingly frequently? Dr. Daphne Richemond-Barak—author of the book Underground Warfare and creator of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare—joins this episode to discuss these and other questions about the subterranean dimension of urban warfare.

In this episode, John Spencer is joined by Lt. Gen. James Rainey. He is the commander of the US Army's Combined Arms Center, and in 2004, he was the battalion commander of 2nd Battalion, 7th Calvary Regiment during the Second Battle of Fallujah. Lt. Gen. Rainey discusses the context, planning, and execution of the battle, and shares his thoughts on the unique challenges of conducting high-intensity combat in dense urban terrain and what missions the Army may be required to conduct in cities in the future.

As the chair of urban warfare studies at MWI, John Spencer spends a lot of time thinking about the gaps between the tasks that soldiers will be required to perform in urban environments and the capabilities currently available to them. This episode features a discussion about twelve of those capabilities that he particularly would like to see the US military integrate—it's the twelve days of urban warfare Christmas.

In this episode, John Spencer is joined by Alex Giles. He is the chief commercial officer for ICENI Labs, science and technology research that recently won a competition—the "Seeing into the Unknown: Situational Awareness in Dense Urban Environments Online Challenge"—organized by the US National Security Innovation Network. The ICENI Labs Team Tercio’s solution involved a system of technologies, including their "sense through the wall" radar technology to build a three-dimensional volumetric local map of interior spaces, to create visual representations of the dismounted battlespace to enable real-time situational awareness in urban environments.

This episode takes a slight departure from the format typical of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast. John Spencer—the podcast's regular host and a leading expert on the subject of urban warfare—joins as the guest to take a comprehensive look at the subject of urban warfare. The conversation explores why it's so challenging, why the US military struggles with those challenges, and what steps can be taken to overcome them.