Blind alleys: U.S. military still struggling to understand urban environment.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: URBAN OPERATIONS

In the beginning stages of the Iraqi insurgency, the Armys main intelligence gathering method was "advance to contact"--in other words--keep driving the humvees until hostiles begin shooting.

That's how commanders found the enemy, said Duane Schattle, director of the joint urban operations office.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Four years later, that tactic has been abandoned, but the methods and technologies needed to understand what is happening in complex urban environments is due for a major overhaul, said he and other advisers in his small office located at U.S. Joint Forces Command, in Suffolk, Va.

"Urban ISR is the most important thing we have to do, but yet it is in the worst possible condition that I can describe," retired Army intelligence officer Brig. Gen. Wayne Michael Hall told an industry conference sponsored by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement.

The U.S. military's current ISR capabilities are "magnificent," he said, "but the problem is that [the systems were] built for a different time and a different target and a different problem set."

U.S. forces will be fighting in cities for the next 100 years, military analysts predicted. But even after four years of combat in Iraq, industry and the Pentagon seem slow to catch up to the demands of urban war, he maintained.

Incompatible sensor suites are coupled with a poor human intelligence gathering skills, he said. And all that makes for a murky picture of what is happening in the cities.

"It's really frustrating to go around and convince people that this is what we need to do," he added.

Schattle, who directs a staff of about 30, said that prior to 2003, few in the military community were talking about fighting in cities. Officers were familiar with the battle for Hue in Vietnam and Stalingrad in World War II. Back then the attitude was "kill the city in order to save it." Urban areas were considered another type of terrain, and little regard was given to the issue of how military forces would deal with the presence of civilians among enemy combatants.

That doesn't fly anymore, he suggested.

"What we're trying to do is convince people that we need to take another look," he said. His office is attempting to influence both the Defense Department and the intelligence communities to change the way they gather information in cityscapes. That includes a new generation of sensors that can help soldiers understand what is happening inside a building and the "human...