Urban Warfare in 2015: The Role of Persistent Assistants in Achieving Capabilities for Small Unit Precision Combat

Small Unit Precision Combat (SUPC) aims to extend current US military dominance to complex terrains, such as urban or mountainous areas. Currently, when forces engage in close-in combat in such terrains, US capabilities for precision strike and surveillance/reconnaissance are negated. SUPC seeks to create advantages in complex terrain through improved situation understanding and responsiveness through a combination of remote air and ground sensors and weapons that are available to highly trained small units in a manner that is as if they were controlled by them. The complexity of the surveillance/ reconnaissance and precision strike tasks in complex terrain means that these assets must embody a significant degree of autonomy. Such autonomy will be necessary to control the envisioned decentralized, multi-layered architecture that seamlessly coordinates national, operational and tactical assets. This presentation outlines a concept of ground, low-air and high-air assets and the basic tactical and operational requirements of the system. It will point to specific challenges where persistent agent capabilities would be needed to support the SUPC concept.