Boots on the Ground: Modern Land Warfare from Iraq to Ukraine
“a good general overview of the various combat arms, weapons, tactics, and innovations that combat has forced troops to develop as the 21st century battlefield becomes more lethal.”
The first quarter of the 21st century has seen significant change in how land warfare is conducted. The wide range of doctrine, weapons, and tactics have evolved at a rapid pace, even as the overall mission of ground forces have remained the same—take and hold territory or control and protect populations. In this lavishly illustrated volume, author Leigh Neville offers a comprehensive but highly readable look at how the concept of “boots on the ground” has evolved in the conflicts of the last 25 years.
Beginning with a quick overview of the major combat zones of Iraq, Afghanistan, Armenia/Azerbaijan, and Ukraine, the author examines a wide range of operational goals, force composition, weapons employed and ultimate success or failure of the ground forces to achieve their mission. A more in-depth look at the various combat arms and combat support arms follows, beginning with tanks and armored fighting vehicles, through artillery and the increasing importance of combat engineers and concluding with the continued but highly changed role of infantry.
One of the biggest changes in ground combat since the U.S. invaded Iraq is the era of sweeping armored maneuver campaigns, with formations roaming the battlefield and making rapid advances appear to be over. Even accounting in the differences in terrain between Iraq and Ukraine, the tough urban fighting and war of attrition since the initial successes of the Russian invasion in 2022 would seem to indicate that modern warfare is moving back to a contest of attrition instead of maneuver.
In particular, the war in Ukraine has become a contest that resembles the trench warfare of World War I being fought with modern armored vehicles, jet fighters, and attack helicopters. Once the early advances of the Russian invasion were stopped by Ukrainian forces, the fighting has devolved into heavy attritional combat where both sides must slough through strong defensive positions requiring heavy suppressive fire and clearing entrenchments and barricades by combat engineers, all while under heavy artillery fire under the watchful eyes of a constant drone presence.
As the conflict in Ukraine has shown, while traditional combat arms like artillery, armor, and infantry will continue to have a significant role in ground warfare, nearly all aspects of combat have been dramatically impacted by the proliferation of unmanned systems onto the battlefield. Aerial drones of multiples sizes, complexity, and endurance have not only been employed for their traditional missions of reconnaissance and targeting support but have become increasingly lethal weapons that are both cheap to make and simple to operate.
The use of First Person View (FPV) drones has not only made an impact on the Ukrainian battlefield, they have become significant propaganda weapons as images of the destruction of tanks and prepared fighting positions have become a staple of social media pages of both sides. The use of drones has moved far down the tactical level with units in Ukraine having drone operators down to the company level. The drone threat has also spawned an entire range of new weapons and units designed to provide tactical protection against these weapons, with the traditional units that provide air defense for ground units now focused more on tactical and FPV drones than the traditional threats of attack helicopters and ground attack aircraft.
Finally, future wars are highly likely to involve significant combat in urban areas as cities and built-up suburbs tend to be major communications hubs as well as significant political objectives. The challenges of modern warfare will be amplified in these areas where combat absorbs large amounts of troops and munitions, offering significant advantages to often outnumbered defenders as Ukraine has demonstrated.
This volume provides an excellent tactical overview of the changes to ground warfare over the last 25 years, focusing on the significant changes of the recent war in Ukraine, with global militaries still grappling with changes they need to make to their own weapons and force structure.
The use of “boots on the ground” will not be going away, but how these troops are equipped and deployed will likely change significantly in response to rapidly evolving threats, primarily from unmanned systems. As these lessons continue to be assessed, this is a good general overview of the various combat arms, weapons, tactics, and innovations that combat has forced troops to develop as the 21st century battlefield becomes more lethal.