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Learning from Insurgent Tactics: Going to Ground

Posted on 17 June 2015 by The Tactical Hermit

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PREPARING FOR WARFARE’S SUBTERRANEAN FUTURE

by Benjamin Runkle

Amidst the myriad mistakes associated with the Iraq War, perhaps none were as costly in terms of lives of U.S. personnel as the failure to anticipate the threat posed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and, subsequently, to rapidly develop technologies capable of detecting and defeating the insurgents’ deadly innovation. Despite the extensive use of IEDs in conflicts in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, and Southern Lebanon, and the loss of U.S. personnel to IEDs in Somalia, U.S. policymakers and the military were caught unprepared for these devices that by one estimate were responsible for 64 percent of all U.S. combat deaths through 2007.

The defense community, however, has an opportunity to avoid repeating this error in regards to another potential operational threat if it does a better job drawing lessons from last year’s conflict between Hamas and Israel than it did from the various guerrilla conflicts of the 1980s. Operation Protective Edge demonstrated both the tactical challenges and strategic threat posed by subterranean warfare (i.e. tunnels), which is likely to proliferate in the coming years as weaker combatants seek to evade detection and targeting by air assets.

To be sure, Hamas’s extensive use of tunnels during last summer’s conflict was not a revolutionary development in warfare. For hundreds of years, military forces have attempted to gain the upper hand over their adversaries by maneuvering beneath them. Medieval soldiers would dig tunnels deep under an enemy’s castle walls, collapse the tunnel, and bring down the castle along with it. Similarlyin World War I both the Germans and Allied forces dug lengthy tunnel networks to be exploded under each other’s trenches, with their mining operations frequently coming close enough to each other that they conducted tunnel-versus-tunnel attacks. Jewish resistance fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising were so effective at using the city’s sewer system to outflank the Wehrmacht and attack from the rear that German commanders reported their forces developed “sewer paranoia.” During the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong used tunnels to move troops and establish massive logistics bases, with the Cu Chi network northwest of Saigon alone consisting of 150 miles of tunnels. And in Iraq, insurgents in al-Qaeda strongholds such as Anbar and the Dora and Ameriya neighborhoods of Baghdad were able to plant IEDs in sewers large enough to flip Bradley fighting vehicles with deadly results.

Hamas’s extensive use of tunnels during last summer’s conflict is only the most recent example of a combatant attempting to gain advantage by going underground. In June 2006, a joint Hamas/Jaish al-Islam unit infiltrated from Gaza into Israel through a tunnel whose opening was about 100 meters from the border in Israeli territory, killing two Israeli soldiers and kidnapping Gilad Shalit, who was eventually traded for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Between the end of Operation Cast Lead (January 2009) and Operation Pillar of Defense (November 2012), Hamas expanded its system of tunnels and underground bunkers throughout the Gaza Strip by one estimate devoting 40 percent of its budget to the project. This extensive tunnel network — which one Israeli general said stretched for “dozens and dozens of kilometers” — offered cover and concealment for infrastructure, command functions and commanders, forces, weapons, and ammunition. As noted in a recent report by five retired generals sponsored by JINSA, this network made it almost impossible for Israeli airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets to detect or prevent movement of fighters, supplies, munitions, and weapons.

The tunnels beneath protected sites, such as the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, are believed to have housed Hamas’s senior operational leadership during the fighting, thereby increasing the terrorist group’s defensive resiliency and prolonging the conflict by making it more difficult for Israel to target a key Hamas center of gravity. The tunnels were also integral to Hamas’s rocket operations, as they opened briefly to launch rockets and then immediately closed to prevent the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from detecting the launchers’ location. This made it extremely difficult to detect and target them in real time, and allowed Hamas to continuously launch rockets into Israel throughout the conflict.

Read the Rest at:  War on the Rocks.

***

Check out this ARTICLE on how the Taliban use ancient irrigation ditches called “Karez Systems” to move men and arms.

Stay Alert, Stay Armed, Stay Underground and Stay Dangerous!

4 thoughts on “Learning from Insurgent Tactics: Going to Ground”

  1. Brittius says:
    17 June 2015 at 14:56

    Reblogged this on Brittius.

  2. gamegetterII says:
    17 June 2015 at 17:19

    Reblogged this on Starvin Larry.

  3. Steven says:
    17 June 2015 at 17:29

    You might like the other 3 post I have done in this series:

    http://hcstx.org/2015/06/14/learning-from-insurgent-tactics-the-vehicle-as-a-weapon/

    http://hcstx.org/2014/09/11/learning-from-insurgent-tactics-the-ambush/

    http://hcstx.org/2014/08/26/learning-from-insurgent-tactics-the-hide-n-glide/

  4. Pingback: Learning From Terrorist Tactics: Preparing For Subterranean Warfare | Hammerhead Combat Systems

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