'We stay upright and move forward so long as we keep up the momentum.' Ban Ki-Moon
The Job
In the ever evolving modern battlespace ‘every urban movement is a Breaching Operation’.[1] Enemy forces are saturating the battlespace with both explosive and non-explosive obstacles to achieve a disproportionate tactical effect. The lessons from Fallujah, Al Ramadi, Mosul, Tskhinvali (Georgia) and Marawi (Southern Philippines) have been instructive on this point. Assault breaching, using improvised satellite and satchel charges, Bangalore Torpedoes and other incendiaries, has eventually featured as a critical capability in all the modern battles mentioned above. Unfortunately in these battles, soldiers were not usually trained or equipped to apply these aids leading up to the operation; rather these techniques were developed and learnt in the fight through, between attacks, under fatigue and in some cases enemy fire.
This article seeks to outline that Assault Pioneers can achieve the routine mobility responsibilities for infantry centric small teams through assault breaching and reduction of nuisance obstacles (IEDs and open Booby Traps) in the urban ‘fight through.’
The Challenge
'When troops attack cities, their strength will be exhausted' Sun Tzu—The Art of War
Modern combined arms teaming sees units and sub-units task organised and equipped with Infantry, Armour, Combat Engineers, Joint Fires and Combat Service Support to meet task specific demands. However, the paucity of these assets often means that one or more of those infantry sub-units are missing out and are then halted in their advance (or during back clearing) by what are essentially minor obstacles. This requires reorganisation and concentration of assets, particularly combat engineers, in order to breach or bypass, and move a single section or platoon forward. The enemy then has the time to assess actions and re-orientate in response, multiplying the disproportionate effect achieved by minor obstacles.
'In Marawi, my company would have to delay our attack while we waited for the combat engineers to complete a breach with another company before we could move forward; this happened almost every block and let the enemy move before we could attack.' CAPT Edward R of the 2nd Scout Ranger Bn (Philippines)
To learn from CAPT R’s vignette, we need to maintain the organic ability to treat sub-unit objectives in the attack, creating gaps in our enemy’s defences that can be rapidly exploited. This will hinge on the sections and platoons of the close fight and their capacity to fight through without having to constantly request or reorganise attachments. They must be trained and equipped to identify obstacles such as IEDs and booby traps, reducing these through an assault breach or explosively bypassing to continue without further assistance from higher headquarters. A barricaded door, booby trapped window or fortified machine gun position inside a room should not be beyond the capacity of a platoon to Observe, Suppress, Obscure, Secure, Reduce and Assault (O-SOSRA)[3].
The Response
'It doesn’t always take speed to build momentum, it merely takes moving more quickly than the enemy believes possible' [5] HJ Poole—The Last Hundred Yards: The NCOs Contribution to Warfare
One way to generate this momentum is to equip infantry teams with the modern evolution of Assault Pioneers. These Assault Pioneers would focus on mobility through assault breaching and obstacle reduction supported by an increased knowledge of search. This organic capability at the section and platoon level would see small teams gaining the initiative and generating momentum. This could see a greater freedom of action to exploit opportunities at the sub-unit level. Additionally, it would enable the already over tasked Combat Engineers to concentrate on Battle Group and Brigade objectives.
These methods of Assault Breaching are flexible and economical in resource investment with comparison to tactical gain. With a few hundred grams of explosives a small team can breach an enemy’s defences, gain the initiative and physically dislocate their engagement area’s design for battle; without seeking assistance from their higher headquarters. This saves both time and resources. With a role to breach, bypass, reduce and defend as integrated specialists in close combat, modernised Assault Pioneers will perform these tasks for combat teams.
Conclusion
Despite the development of advanced technologies made over the past decades, small teams still have a severely limited capacity to defeat the ‘routine’ minor obstacles employed in the modern battlespace. Combat Engineers focusing on ‘routine’ tasks, which are encountered in most section and platoon level objectives, rapidly degrades these specialist assets. This results in a capability deficiency when a truly specialist task presents, requiring a noticeable halt in the momentum and tempo, forcing reorganization and loss of the initiative to meet this in the fight through. Routine mobility and survivability tasks such as assault breaching and nuisance obstacle reduction should be expected of every infantry small team and can be achieved by Assault Pioneers.
