Moderator: Thank you for your presence. Before discussing urban combat, please tell us what styles of urban combat are available for armored mechanized forces?
Du Wenlong (hereinafter referred to as Du): There are two main types of urban combat styles for armored mechanized forces. That is, urban offensive operations and urban defensive operations.
Urban offensive combat refers to the implementation of the enemy defending the city and urbanized terrain, offensive combat of an offensive nature. This kind of combat can be implemented by an armored mechanized forces alone, for the capture of smaller towns, but also in the support of other forces to capture part of the urban areas of large and medium-sized cities. In urban offensive operations, armored mechanized units are usually concentrated when attacking the periphery of the city. When entering the urban area, the armored mechanized forces are usually dispersed in the form of companies and platoons, and mixed with infantry detachments, artillery detachments, anti-tank missile detachments, and anti-aircraft defense detachments, etc., to form a strong strike group with strong comprehensive combat capability, and to take the tanks to guide the infantry or to support the infantry with the firepower in the way of combat. Urban offensive combat can not only directly destroy the enemy, but also make the other enemies in the region to lose important support, to accelerate the collapse of all enemy defense system has an important role.
Urban defense refers to the urban area and its periphery of favorable terrain, resistance to the enemy offensive combat. Typically, armored mechanized units defend a part of a large or medium-sized city with the support of other units. It can also defend a small town independently. Modern conditions of local war, armored mechanized forces to defend and hold important strategic direction of the coastal, along the border areas of important cities, to stabilize the situation, a large number of consumption of the attacking enemy forces, to ensure that other forces to maneuver and create favorable conditions for the annihilation of the enemy, are of great significance.
Moderator: armored mechanized forces can be said to have a certain "order" in the city attack battle, in the capture of the enemy's peripheral points, should pay attention to what?
Du: In the attack on the peripheral points of the city, we should make enough preparation for the attack, rational use of troops and firepower, and strive to capture in one fell swoop. For a single bunker group of peripheral points, usually a fierce, short, high-intensity fire assault as a guide, armored forces from multiple directions at the same time, the enemy on all sides of the encirclement, and to take the penetration of the division tactics, each to annihilate the enemy. For the peripheral points relying on the high ground, it can take the method of attack, but also can take the method of frontal suppression, flanking attack or flanking and backward detour attack to capture. For the attack in a moment difficult to capture the strong points, not to be fond of the war, you can leave a small part of the force to monitor, the main force beyond the point to continue to attack the depth of the advance. In the periphery of the battle, to give full play to the advantages of having a strong firepower and assault force, quickly open the gap, quickly surround the main points of the enemy, and cut off their retreat, as far as possible not to make them retreat into the city, and strive to wipe out the enemy in the periphery.
Facilitator: Frontier positions are important barriers to the enemy's urban fortification defense, but also an important area where the defending side concentrates a large number of troops to hold. What are the methods of the armored mechanized forces in breaking through the urban forward positions?
Du: in the breakthrough of urban forward positions, should choose to defend the relatively small number of enemies, buildings are relatively sparse, low and limited degree of solidity, the terrain is open and flat to facilitate the passage of tanks and other armored combat vehicles in the part, focusing on superior force, firepower, the implementation of the multi-channel and have a focus on the focus of multi-wave successive assaults.
First of all, to the enemy defense of the front position for a long time fire assault, usually 1-2 hours, if necessary, but also in the capture of the peripheral points before or at the same time to pre-emptive fire assault. During the fire assault, the killing and wounding effects of the strong-arm aircraft, fighter-bombers, helicopter gunships and artillery fire should be brought into full play to maximize the destruction of enemy fortifications, the killing and wounding of combatants, and the destruction of enemy weapons and equipment. At the same time as artillery and aviation fire assaults, we must use the effect of fire assaults to direct tank detachments and anti-tank missile detachments taking part in direct targeting and firing to rapidly and stealthily approach front-line positions, to use tank guns and anti-tank missiles to carry out precise firing on enemy front-line positions on fire points and fortifications, to destroy enemy fire points and tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and fortifications at predetermined breakthroughs and on both sides of the buildings, and to maximally weaken enemy front-line defense forces. The enemy's first-line defense force is weakened to the maximum extent possible.
Secondly, before the end of the fire assault, make full use of the effect of the fire assault, with tanks guiding infantry or fire support infantry, into a multi-way onslaught on the enemy, eliminating the front position of the enemy, resolutely open to the city of the main channel, and without stopping to the flanks and the depth of the rapid breakthrough, to the enemy to carry out a continuous attack.
Thirdly, the attack should be coordinated in time with the combat operations of the detachments. Organize effective fire cover and security, so that fire, movement and surprise are closely integrated and coordinated against the enemy.
Moderator: armored mechanized forces in urban fighting, usually to the majority or part of the force into the infantry (armored infantry) based on the strong attack group, the city of the enemy fortified support points to implement a forced attack. What specific threats will be faced and how will they be addressed?
Du: When attacking the support points of small, low buildings, the tank detachment should be under the cover and support of infantry, artillery and engineers, approaching quickly from multiple directions, destroying the buildings by hull impact, guiding the infantry to break into the enemy's positions, and annihilating the enemy combatants. When attacking enemy bunkers and support points transformed by the use of buildings, tank detachments are quickly directed to occupy favorable terrain, destroy enemy bunkers and nearby enemy tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and other targets with direct aiming fire, crash through fences and widen gaps with vehicle hulls, and advance toward the target with fire cover and support for the infantry. When attacking the support points of tall buildings, the tank detachment should be commanded to suppress the enemy defending the low-rise buildings with firepower, cover the infantry's breakthrough into the buildings, and fight with the enemy floor by floor and house by house. If it is difficult for the infantry to approach, the tank detachment can effectively suppress the enemy's anti-tank firearms, guide the infantry to approach the ground floor of the building, suppress the enemy's fire points on the upper floors with vehicle-mounted machine guns, and cover the infantry's actions.
Host: How to deal with the enemy when they carry out a focused attack on the main points of my position?
Du: When the enemy carries out a focused attack on the main points of my position, the defense detachment inside the main points should rely on all kinds of fortifications and buildings to resolutely fight with the enemy in close combat, and the defense detachment near the main points should focus on controlling the main channels on the enemy's attack routes to block the enemy's follow-up forces. If necessary, the synthetic reserve unit or other detachments configured near the main points should take active offensive action, along many streets and alleys, and from different directions to carry out maneuvering attacks on the enemy, so as to form a pincer attack on the enemy inside and outside, and crush the enemy's siege of the main points.
Host: For both the attacking and defending sides, what problems should be grasped by the armored mechanized forces in urban combat?
Wang Jinmei (hereinafter referred to as Wang): First, we must accurately grasp the battlefield intelligence information. It is necessary to organize thorough and detailed reconnaissance activities to ascertain the enemy situation in the area of action, terrain and other conditions, in order to take the most appropriate method of play to provide a basis. In the first Chechen war, the Russian army had less than two weeks to prepare for battle, and there was a serious lack of intelligence information, almost no valuable information on the enemy. When 1:25,000 or larger maps were needed, they had only 1:100,000 maps. During the offensive operations, no Chechen separatist strongholds were found, and attacking detachments were often ambushed by the enemy or mistakenly injured with friendly neighbors. These directly led to delays in combat operations and sowed the seeds of combat losses. The invincibility of the U.S. and British coalition forces in the Iraqi battlefield, to a large extent, thanks to the beginning in 1990, the nearly 12-year-long air and space intelligence reconnaissance and combat preparations for Iraq.
The second is to make full use of terrain and features. Modern urban combat is faced with dense, concentrated, tall buildings and complex underground engineering facilities. Defense can make full use of the underground, ground and tall buildings and neighborhoods to form a three-dimensional, solid defense system. When attacking, you can also organize the elite squad, attack the enemy command structure, destroy the enemy high-tech weapons, cut off the enemy rear supply and internal and external links.
Third, we must fully develop the firepower, to avoid a short fight. Armored mechanized forces fierce firepower, impact speed, breakthrough ability. Wartime can also be strengthened by superior aviation, helicopter gunships, suppression artillery, air defense, engineering, etc., with the ability to implement independent capture and control of important targets. In urban combat, it must be used in the open terrain, used in critical situations, along the main streets to implement key breakthroughs, continuous strong attacks, boldly penetrate and detour, divided and surrounded, each to destroy the enemy. Never in the case of unprotected, rashly deep into the tall buildings or narrow streets.
Fourth is to choose the precise strike, reduce collateral damage. In the city offensive and defensive battles in the implementation of fierce air and ground fire preparation, although it can weaken the other side of the living forces, but due to the collapse of buildings, the destruction of roads, on the contrary, will limit the mobility of the attacking forces. Therefore, the battle needs to carefully select the attack target, the appropriate use of striking means and methods, the enemy's key targets to implement accurate and efficient strikes, paralyze, shake the enemy defense system. For example, civilian targets such as municipal centers, radio stations, television stations, communication hubs, etc., should be strongly sealed and weakly hit, hit without destroying, and control-oriented; airports and ports, should be controlled by fire, combined with sealing and hitting, and sealing while hitting; and cultural relics and monuments, financial institutions, and dangerous chemical, petroleum, and other inflammable and explosive factories, and other important facilities should try to protect them against enemy damage.
Host: In urban combat, tanks and armored vehicles are restricted by the width of street pavement, making maneuvering and unfolding very difficult, how to solve this problem?
Wang: There are two ways: First, when choosing the direction of attack, as far as possible, choose a wider road as the main direction of attack, to avoid fighting in areas with narrow space. The second is that if there is no wider road in the combat area to choose from, you can take the form of infantry and armored combat vehicles mixed formation, and strive to make the armored combat vehicles to get the cover of the infantry. If the infantry can eliminate the enemy's anti-tankers in time, it will be very helpful in improving the survival factor of the armored combat vehicles. Infantry and tanks in the battle formation can also do some consideration, for example, to take tanks or infantry fighting vehicles to support the infantry method, that is, infantry in the front, armored combat vehicles in the back, the target is small, fast-acting infantry first tanks into the unfamiliar areas, to avoid the huge armored vehicles by the enemy, "backstabbing", when the infantry encountered enemy fire suppression, the tanks and armored combat vehicles, the enemy will be very helpful. When the infantry encountered enemy fire suppression, tanks and infantry fighting vehicles and can use vehicle-mounted weapons to effectively support infantry combat, such a method of cooperation in one fell swoop. Third is to take special attack methods, infantry can be preceded by tanks to launch an attack, the attack route is along the road on both sides of the building, so that one on the next, the formation of three-dimensional attack posture, for reducing casualties is very helpful.
Host: U.S. troops in Iraq's urban combat, encountered more low-rise buildings, if dealing with the enemy in high-rise buildings, will do?
Wang: by the tank's field of vision and the limitations of the angle of fire of the weapon, to deal with the enemy on the high-rise building is a difficult problem, because for the observation is a blind spot, for the fire is a dead zone, the occupants of the vehicle outside the observation and maneuvering the weapon will be killed and wounded by the enemy's fire. There are three ways to solve this problem. Is equipped with panoramic observation equipment, to solve the problem of discovery and ranging, before entering the range of enemy fire, the enemy's position and weapons to make clear, can no longer be "blind", even if a sudden attack, relying on this equipment, but also be able to improve reaction speed. The second is to increase the high angle of fire remote control weapon station, 20-30 mm caliber rapid-fire weapons, because adjusting the tank gun angle of fire is not realistic, there is no need, mainly to strengthen the vehicle-mounted auxiliary weapons of the high elevation angle of the fire fighting ability, it is best to achieve the synchronization of the remote-controlled weapons and observation, the discovery of the target can be eliminated in time in the car. Third, for the situation is not clear high-rise buildings, and must be passed, you can use the smoke screen blinding approach to reduce losses, not only can use the vehicle-mounted smoke screen launcher can also be summoned to support the operation of the artillery to fire smoke bombs to cover the tank's actions.
Host: Then how to increase this high-angle remote-controlled weapons station? With the addition of the remote-controlled weapon station, what is the impact on the vehicle's power, ammunition supply and so on?
Wang: The overhead weapon station can be installed in the position of the command tower of the main battle tank, replacing the original anti-aircraft machine gun. From urban combat considerations, the main weapon of the weapon station can choose anti-aircraft machine gun, under the same conditions can have better mobility and a larger ammunition base. Ammunition supply still adopts its ammunition chain supply, increasing the guide and ammunition box connection.
Fang Xinxian (hereinafter referred to as Fang): The space inside the tank is limited, the addition of remote-controlled weapon station, you need to consider the station's ammunition and the placement of the fire-control electronic equipment, which in turn affects the original narrow space for the crew to move around, especially in the Russian tanks, this problem is more prominent. A significant portion of the Russian tank's anti-aircraft ammunition is stored outside the turret. In terms of weapon selection, while the anti-aircraft machine gun is certainly a traditional approach, the grenade launcher also has an irreplaceable role to play, with a better face-killing effect on personnel and a much wider variety of ammunition types than the HGM.
Moderator: when using a smoke screen launcher, if the enemy is upstairs, how will we strike him without disorienting ourselves?
Fang: The number of smoke screen launchers can be increased and arranged at different firing angles so that they can form combat smoke screens against buildings of different heights in urban combat. In addition, the use of vehicle-mounted automatic grenade launchers to fire smoke grenades could be considered. Such an automatic grenade launcher must be a two-way feed, in order to quickly switch the type of ammunition, the current German "City Leopard" is a similar configuration.
Host: How will the tank's main gun play a role in urban combat?
Du: High-rise buildings and basements are dead zones for tank guns. The main reason is that its original purpose is not to attack targets in such locations. But for tanks, the main gun is the most powerful weapon, so to play the role of the tank's main gun is the best way to increase the gun's firing distance. Because the ability to hit the high target depends mainly on the distance and the shooting angle of the relationship between the field of view and the shooting range allows the conditions, to use the characteristics of the tank gun ballistic low stretch, according to the target guide or infantry observation results, in the long distance to fire, in the ability to fire on the distance to fire, maximize the elimination of high-rise buildings on the target, so that at least can be mitigated by the enemy's efforts to combat, do not wait until the distance has been close enough to reach the high-rise targets before getting anxious.
The moderator: In urban combat, if the tanks and armored vehicles have been damaged in battle, how will the survival of their crews be resolved?
Du: urban combat armored vehicles battle damage accidents are inevitable, once the accident crew life will face a great threat. After this situation, there are three ways. One is to enhance the tank and infantry combat capability, so that the two always maintain mutual support and mutual cover posture. Once the tank is hit, the infantry can give protection and help, which can ensure that the tank is not attacked twice. Because the first step of the enemy infantry to attack the tank is to paralyze the tank, the second step is to destroy the tank. Infantry protection of damaged tanks can mitigate the damage, or at least prevent the situation from worsening, and can also help the crew to extinguish fires and assist wounded crew members to leave the vehicle. The second is to train the crew in this area. For example, after being hit, before the vehicle stops moving, crash the vehicle to the side of the road, do not stop in the middle as a target, after which the occupants quickly leave and enter a safe area to wait for rescue. In addition, the vehicle should be equipped with adequate fire-fighting equipment and medical rescue supplies to improve the crew's self-rescue and mutual rescue capabilities. Third, the armored vehicles to install auxiliary power units to prevent the engine stalled to become the target of other anti-tank weapons, so that the tank can exit the danger zone, which can improve the survivability to a certain extent.
Host: Please tell us how the crew of an armored tank vehicle in urban warfare can escape and how other personnel can be rescued.
Fang: After a battle-damage accident to an armored vehicle in urban combat, the vehicle loses its mobility and cannot move, and the weapon loses its ability to attack. A more serious problem is that if hit the fuel tank or ammunition, the combat vehicle may be subjected to secondary explosions inside the vehicle and another attack outside the vehicle, it is necessary for the vehicle occupants to immediately escape from the vehicle. Therefore. The design of the escape route inside the combat vehicle should be well thought out, such as the size of the escape door should be as large as possible, the occupant's seat as close as possible to the escape door, the escape door should be designed to quickly open and close the mechanism and so on. On the other hand, after escaping from the vehicle, personnel must be transferred to the safety zone in time, which involves three aspects. First, the vehicle accompanying the main battle combat equipment needs to be equipped with a high-mobility rescue vehicle, which can quickly arrive at the place of incident. Second, it is equipped with infantry telephones. The use of radio in urban combat is not ideal, and the use of infantry telephones is more reliable and convenient for the main combat equipment to contact the rescue vehicle. Third, equipped with temporary protective equipment, like smoke grenades and gas masks, the former can save the occupants from secondary attacks, the latter can be used when the occupants escape.
Host: The US M1 and Israeli Merkava tanks have been completely destroyed by bombs, so how will the main battle tanks face these threats?
Wang: urban combat, the face of roadside or roadside bombs, especially high-powered bombs, M1A2, "Merkava" have made a fool of themselves, was bombed belly to the sky or the car, the tower is separated. Our main battle tanks in future urban combat may also encounter explosive packages or anti-tank mines, there are only two ways. One is to explore clearly. Before entering these areas, the organization of engineers on the road and both sides of the explosives detection, the organization of infantry on both sides of the building to search, timely detection of explosives. In addition, when tanks and armored vehicles are urbanized, they have to increase their explosive detection capabilities to discover explosive items around the vehicle in time. Of course, our opponents and the U.S. Army, Israel's opponents are not the same. M1A2, "Merkava" is mostly destroyed in non-combat operations, we encountered in urban combat explosives are mainly military explosives, the detection of the difficulty will be less. The second is to drain clean, for the discovery of explosives, the use of blasting, gunfire, manual exclusion and other means of destruction, not to be left out, not to be missed, to prevent damage. Explosives that can be seen can be removed by machine-gun fire, but also in front of tanks and armored vehicles with mine-clearing devices.
Host: The U.S. military and the Israelis have encountered more dirt bombs, how should they be dealt with?
WANG: Earth bombs are a typical way of asymmetric warfare, and cannot be thought of in a knife-to-knife or gun-to-gun fashion, meaning that the idea of using a high-value weapon like a tank to combat earth bombs is definitely problematic. The U.S. Army's approach is to use a variety of mine-protected vehicles, detection and jamming equipment with engineer units to sweep the site for dirt bombs, and to use special operations detachments and infantry detachments to weed out the production, transportation, and placement of dirt bombs, so as to jam the application of dirt bombs at the source, and it should be said that the effect is still very significant.
Moderator: In urban combat, against earth walls, brick walls and steel-reinforced concrete skyscrapers, the type of bomb required should also be different?
Du: reinforced concrete buildings are the main body of the city, but also the enemy's main cover and shelter, but at present there are not many special ammunition to attack these targets, tanks equipped with traditional anti-armor ammunition is not effective enough against such targets. Therefore, in terms of ammunition, we should pay attention to two points: first, more use of grenades and armor-breaking ammunition, because compared with armor-piercing ammunition, these two types of ammunition on reinforced concrete effect is better, and the use of multiple shots or continuous shooting, to get the best results, improve the kill rate. The second is the development of new types of ammunition, such as temperature and pressure bomb and delay grenade, the former from the window or other parts of the entry, can completely kill and injure the internal personnel, damage to the building, the latter can penetrate into the building and then detonated, the power spread in the indoor, rather than catharsis outside the wall, the effect of the killing will be significantly improved.
Leopard 2A5 tanks, such as the main gun grams specifically developed a new 120K programmable airburst grenades, by setting the detonation mode, can penetrate the three layers of brick walls after the touch explosion and airburst, for the killing effect of indoor targets is good, we can also engage in.
Host: This new type of ammunition may be more complex, can you develop some performance of a single ammunition?
Wang: You can develop a type of ammunition with a delayed fuse. Tank gun ammunition is designed for anti-tank combat, so it is necessary to consider specialized types of ammunition for street fighting, such as grenades or shrapnel with programmable fuzes, and airburst shells.
Host: What will we do if the enemy is in the city and uses public **** cars, utility poles and road piers as obstacles?
Wang: generally speaking, urban combat of the main battle tanks or armored vehicles, the best way to remove obstacles in the front of the tank is equipped with a barricade shovel, but if it is difficult to move or shovel obstacles, such as the public **** car, concrete walls, piers, etc., can be destroyed with a vehicle-mounted weapons, and then use a barricade shovel to sweep away the barricades, for those below the 500-700 millimeter For those below 500-700 millimeters, the barricades may not be considered and can be crossed directly.
Fang: The Israeli army's practice is to use armored bulldozers or armored engineering vehicles to cooperate in combat, and its effect is much better than the use of tank-mounted weapons. However, this concept does not seem to be acceptable in our army, where engineering vehicles do not take part in combat missions. Another option is to ask the air force to spot-clear some difficult-to-clear obstacles and large buildings, provided that time is not pressing. The charges and power of aerial bombs are far superior to those of ground combat weapon systems. It's now the era of network-centered warfare, and you can't limit your thinking to a single military branch, you'll suffer big losses.
Host: Like the Russian BMP infantry fighting vehicle fitted with a 100mm gun. Is it suitable for use in urban combat?
Fang: BMP-3 original design ideas are not exactly only for urban combat, it is a very strong firepower, power performance is good infantry maneuvering combat assault weapon, frontal direct fire has a fairly strong anti-tank anti-fortification capabilities, similar to the German assault guns of World War II, suitable for field attacks.
But the protection of the BMP-3 is a little weak in urban close combat, the front armor can only prevent anti-aircraft machine guns, the side armor can only prevent assault rifles, the top armor is even weaker. In terms of firepower, the elevation angle of the main weapon is also very limited, and the main gun ammunition with low rifling pressure and short barrel is generally effective in destroying buildings. Therefore putting it directly into urban combat would have a very high exchange ratio. This is also a common problem with many current infantry fighting vehicles. The fence armor that the U.S. Army figured out in the Vietnam War is an effective method, in addition to the use of reactive armor is not out of the question. However, if these modifications are made, the mobility and handling characteristics of the vehicle will be greatly affected.
Host: In urban combat, when the crew of an infantry fighting vehicle is getting in and out of the vehicle, when should they be fighting in the vehicle and when should they be getting out of the vehicle?
Fang: Personally, I believe that infantrymen should piggyback on their vehicles during the troop maneuvering phase to maintain their physical strength and escape enemy suppressive fire and earth bombs with the vehicle's protective capabilities. Once put into combat, the infantry should all remain outside the vehicle to combat enemy infantry and fixed fire points, using the infantry's eyes and ears to make up for the observation dead spots of the combat vehicles.
Host: Thank you to all the experts for their busy schedules to explain urban combat to our readers and friends.