Urban Warfare at the Operational Level

The unprecedented rate of growth of the world population, combined with the migration to cities in the developing world, portend an increase in military operations in the urban environment. The intent of this paper is to focus the reader on the operational level of urban warfare. A key task for the Joint Force Commander and his staff will be to identify the targets against which he will employ his component forces. One method of doing this is by using John Warden's Five Ring Analysis as an aid in identifying key centers of gravity (COGs), then to perform a nodal analysis on those COGs in order to determine the specific components to be attacked. In order to demonstrate this technique in urban operations, three typical mission types will be examined: noncombatant evacuation operations (NEOs), apprehension of individuals, and attacking nuclear weapons production capabilities.