Urban Resolve 2015 prepares for the next possible challenge

By John Harlow/TRADOC News Service

The PENTAGON (TRADOC News Service, Oct. 30, 2006) – It wasn’t too long ago that the concept of fighting wars were based upon battles fought between two countries, two conventional armies and in an open terrain.

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have changed the concept of war forever. Experiments such as Joint Forces Command’s Urban Resolve 2015, will help tomorrow’s Soldiers overcome the challenges of the future fight in the Joint urban environment.

In the experiment, the setting is Baghdad, but can be tailored to resemble any major urban area from Iraq to Indonesia. Major combat operations concluded after five days of fighting. Stability operations have been ongoing for 30 days and that is where the scenario starts, D+35 into the operation. The challenge is to conduct full spectrum operations in the urban environment.

“Urban Resolve 2015 is the most important and most complex challenge,” said Dave Ozolek, the executive director for joint urban operations at U.S. Joint Forces Command. “We are looking at three dimensions for this experiment, conceptual, the capabilities and for the first time a fully integrated joint and service experiment.”

The question that sets the experiments premise is: How does a Joint Task Force, made up of Soldiers Sailors, Marines and Airmen from across the services, isolate and control a large urban battle area and conduct full spectrum operations in 2015?

To conduct full spectrum operations, the (JTF) needs to isolate the adversary from its sources of support, access to lines of communication, contact with others and freedom of movement. The JTF also needs to control key elements of the urban environment through its people, infrastructure and the terrain.

Throughout the course of the experimentation, UR 2015 hopes to address and answer conceptual questions such as:

How do we operate in the joint urban environment? How do we make the environment more toxic to the enemy? How does the military support stability operations? How do we stabilize? How do we bring safety and stability?

A specific and key question to address is based upon what current capability gaps exist and those which could possibly exist in the future. UR2015 addresses seven possible solution sets.

The communication strategy board enables development and implementation of a coherent communication strategy.

The joint intelligence operations center is interlinked operations, planning and all-source intelligence capability. It will operate as permanent centers within UR 2015 and is the authoritative operations and intelligence execution activity.

The joint urban operations surveillance system is a fleet of network-centric medium and high altitude, long endurance unmanned aerial vehicles capable of providing a combination of continuous and persistent surveilence.

The joint command post of the future is a decision support system that provides situational awareness and collabrorative tools for joint operational decision making, planning, rehersal and execution management between the Joint Task Force and Component Commanders.

UR 2015 is using predictive analysis in the experiment, which allows blue force (BLUFOR), using analysis, to predict red force (REDFOR) activities.
To get those answers UR 2015 takes place in three human in the loop (HITL) experiments. The insurgency of UR 2015 (Red Force) is consistent. They have capabilities that include weapons of mass destruction capabilities and better communications.

HITL 1, which took place Aug. 7-18, put the Coalition forces of today against the Red Force. The initial assessment showed a 26-27 percent success rate.

HITL 2, which took place Sept. 11-22, put the Program Objective Memorandum (POM) forces of 2015 with capability gap solutions and tools against the Red Force. The capability gap solutions and tools include the Joint Urban Operations Surveillance System,

HITL 3 which takes place Oct. 16-27 puts the POM forces of 2015 with the capability gap solutions, tools plus organizations against the Red Forces.

“One advantage to this experiment is the ability to try alternatives to today’s policies without risk,” said Ozolek. “We are able to look at dozens to hundreds of alternatives throughout the experiment. It is a far more effective way to do experimentation than we had done in the past.”

The participants in UR 2015 include all services, a multi-national force and other agencies to include the State Department, the Department of Justice and many non-government agencies.

UR 2015 HITL 3 is currently ongoing at 19 different sites across the United States.