Mountain Warfare and Other Lofty Problems: Foreign Perspectives on High-Altitude Combat

The mission of the Foreign Military Studies Office is to research and present foreign ideas and perspectives for a better understanding of present and future military and security issues. Good ideas are not exclusively found in the English language or even the American military experience. FMSO analysts are foreign area specialists with the language skills, military backgrounds, and the regional experience that enables them to mine foreign sources for insights that uniquely enhance our forces' understanding of the operational environment. Mountain Warfare and Other Lofty Problems uses Russian, Pakistani, Indian, Argentine, Afghan, and Uzbek sources. The United States Army has been involved in a mountain war for a decade. After all this time, mountain combat remains a stubbornly difficult mission and technology can offer only modest support to the infantry's mission of closing with the enemy or the logistician's mission of getting support forward. Training, equipment, weapons, tactics, and logistics all require significant adjustment for mountain combat. This book covers operations and tactics, artillery and small arms use, equipment, aviation support, reconnaissance, communications, shelter, training (including Russian Army training), logistics, and medical considerations. It demonstrates that the key to enhancing effectiveness is using the terrain effectively, preparing the soldiers properly, and understanding the environment. This book is not United States Army doctrine. Rather, it is offered as an alternate view that could help our forces successfully adapt to a most-challenging environment and carry out their mission.