COUNTERMOBILITY: GEOGRAPHIC ENGINEERING?

摘要

Historically, the primary role of the combat engineer has been twofold: to enhance the mobility of friendly forces and to impede the enemy's ability to maneuver on the battlefield. Whereas there have been numerous developments in the realm of U.S. Army assured mobility operations, the countermobility engineer function has become increasingly difficult in the common operating environment (COE). While it is still true that countermobility operations use or enhance the effects of natural and man-made obstacles to deny the enemy freedom of movement and maneuver, today's Sapper must be prepared to adjust the countermobility paradigm. This article aims to serve as an addendum to Colonel Robert F. Kirby's 1990 Engineer bulletin article, "Why Study Military Geography?" which recommended that "Engineer terrain expertise . . . evolve to military geography expertise in order to execute our geographically diverse engineering missions."1 Although this advice was prescient when it was published more than 20 years ago in Engineer, the constraints of the modern battlefield make it even more imperative that we embrace it today.