Current Mout Doctrine and Its Adequacy for Today's Army

This thesis examines the adequacy of current military operations on urbanized terrain (MOUT) doctrine for current and future Army operations at the battalion task force level. This study outlines Army MOUT doctrine's development including and since World War II and the current state of Army MOUT doctrine. This study applies four tests to determine the adequacy of MOUT doctrine; mission, threat, terrain and technology. Each test involves the general question of whether or not our current MOUT doctrine gives the task force commander the sufficient tools to conduct the range of operations he may execute today or in the near future. Additionally, the study uses two historical vignettes to as lessons learned and another means of testing MOUT doctine. This study concludes that current Army MOUT doctrine is inadequate for current and future operations. MOUT doctrine does not give the task force commander the tools he requires to conduct the missions, evaluate the threat, analyze the terrain, or use the technology available to him in an urban setting.