https://mwi.usma.edu/soldiers-urban-warfare-christmas-wish-list/?utm_content=tp-facebook&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
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1. Industrial foam thrower
2. Speaker drones
3. Keys to a mining robot
Something I regret from my urban combat experience is not considering going through buildings rather than exposing myself and my troops approaching by street or alleys. The practice of boring holes, commonly referred to as "mouse holing" has appeared in almost every major urban battle I have studied. In Nablus in 2002 , the Israel Defense Forces planned a majority of their movement through holes in walls, ceilings, and courtyards. I would want a mining robot that could drill or punch holes in walls in advance of my movements. The robot would have the software, data, and sensing capability to know where to go through walls most easily and with the least amount of damage.
4. Rapid barrier emplacement wheels
5. Grenade launcherdeployed curtains
When soldiers stand on the street in urban operations they can be seen or shot at from great distances. A curtain between two buildings would help prevent them from being seen. Local civilians in Aleppo used this technique by hanging giant curtains across buildings so they could walk from building to building without being targeted by snipers. In the past, I've written about the possibility of doing this using an anchoring system that is shot out of a grenade launcher, designed by West Point cadets in 2012, and some durable curtains.
6. Tear gas
7. Ballistic shield
Soldiers call the doorway of a new building or room the "fatal funnel." It is a single point that the enemy can shoot at and know they can hit someone. Similarly vulnerable are rooftops, where soldiers can be easily targeted by sniper fire. Soldiers are sometimes required to use the low walls found on roofs to pop up to return fire or look out only a few seconds. Some police conducting urban raids in the United States use ballistic shields that can stop 7.62-caliber bullets (the bullet of choice of non-state actors around the world wielding AK-47s). Soldiers will still have to pass through doors and position themselves on rooftops, and I want a shield to protect them.
8. Car battery recharging cable
The next revolution in military affairs will be in energy, not weapons. The biggest resupply needs of soldiers in the high pace of urban battle include water, ammo, and food, but also, critically, batteries. Abandoned cars often litter urban battlefields. I would love to have a cable that I could hook to a car battery and charge any system I carry into combat.
