thedrifter
04-25-06, 11:46 AM
May 01, 2006
Study: Leadership, intel offer the best protection
By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer
Protecting Marines in the gritty, complex environment of the urban battlefield has more to do with leadership and smarts than Kevlar and cold-rolled steel. Realistic training back home, a higher caliber of education for junior enlisteds and officers and a freer flow of intelligence are more important for success in an urban fight than bombs and bullets, a new Pentagon study suggests.
“Counterinsurgency and [stability operations] put great demands on small units and their leaders,” according to the study, titled “Force Protection in Urban and Unconventional Environments.” “Every reasonable step should be taken to push decision-making and tactical control to the lowest level equipped to exercise it and, for the future, to push this decision-making and control to even lower levels through better, more relevant and more innovative training, preparation and equipage.”
The study was part of a Pentagon initiative to examine a host of issues related to post-conflict stability and security operations, particularly in the urban environment. The report, launched in September 2004 by the Pentagon’s top acquisition, technology and logistics official, Michael Wynne, was completed in March by the Defense Science Board.
The study marks yet another step away from technology-based options to defeat insurgencies.
The findings also dovetail with preliminary moves by the Corps to revamp education, increase language and cultural training, boost realism in pre-deployment exercises and set up a regular review process to capitalize on lessons learned from the battlefield in hopes of staying one step ahead of the enemy.
The Defense Science Board report applauds initiatives taken by the Marine Corps and Army to better educate and train their forces for the complex urban fight. But more could be done to gather more precise intelligence and disseminate it to those who need it, wage a more effective information operations campaign and improve technologies such as portable language translators and unmanned aerial vehicles, the board said.
The report, completed by a group of about two dozen defense experts, former military leaders and industry executives, found that the services need to put more emphasis into “empowering the ‘strategic corporal’” and suggested the Pentagon be “agile enough to present a constantly changing face to the enemy, adaptable enough to learn faster than the enemy and culturally sensitive enough to provide reassurance, services and protection to the civilian population, as well as training and mentoring indigenous security forces.”
The Pentagon is already moving in that direction, suggests the study, which recommends “the addition of hundreds of millions of dollars to enhance training.”
But the analysts took issue with the services’ emphasis on shielding troops behind thick armor plating and ballistic glass, stating such technologies “create barriers between U.S. military personnel and the local population.”
Ellie
Study: Leadership, intel offer the best protection
By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer
Protecting Marines in the gritty, complex environment of the urban battlefield has more to do with leadership and smarts than Kevlar and cold-rolled steel. Realistic training back home, a higher caliber of education for junior enlisteds and officers and a freer flow of intelligence are more important for success in an urban fight than bombs and bullets, a new Pentagon study suggests.
“Counterinsurgency and [stability operations] put great demands on small units and their leaders,” according to the study, titled “Force Protection in Urban and Unconventional Environments.” “Every reasonable step should be taken to push decision-making and tactical control to the lowest level equipped to exercise it and, for the future, to push this decision-making and control to even lower levels through better, more relevant and more innovative training, preparation and equipage.”
The study was part of a Pentagon initiative to examine a host of issues related to post-conflict stability and security operations, particularly in the urban environment. The report, launched in September 2004 by the Pentagon’s top acquisition, technology and logistics official, Michael Wynne, was completed in March by the Defense Science Board.
The study marks yet another step away from technology-based options to defeat insurgencies.
The findings also dovetail with preliminary moves by the Corps to revamp education, increase language and cultural training, boost realism in pre-deployment exercises and set up a regular review process to capitalize on lessons learned from the battlefield in hopes of staying one step ahead of the enemy.
The Defense Science Board report applauds initiatives taken by the Marine Corps and Army to better educate and train their forces for the complex urban fight. But more could be done to gather more precise intelligence and disseminate it to those who need it, wage a more effective information operations campaign and improve technologies such as portable language translators and unmanned aerial vehicles, the board said.
The report, completed by a group of about two dozen defense experts, former military leaders and industry executives, found that the services need to put more emphasis into “empowering the ‘strategic corporal’” and suggested the Pentagon be “agile enough to present a constantly changing face to the enemy, adaptable enough to learn faster than the enemy and culturally sensitive enough to provide reassurance, services and protection to the civilian population, as well as training and mentoring indigenous security forces.”
The Pentagon is already moving in that direction, suggests the study, which recommends “the addition of hundreds of millions of dollars to enhance training.”
But the analysts took issue with the services’ emphasis on shielding troops behind thick armor plating and ballistic glass, stating such technologies “create barriers between U.S. military personnel and the local population.”
Ellie