Army Must Ready for Future Fights in Dense Cities: Fanning | Military.com: The outgoing secretary of the Army said Tuesday that he sees the likelihood of a conflict occurring inside a densely populated city lasting for years into the future.
"I think that the broad requirements levied on the Army now -- counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, as well as preparing for a larger fight for a near-peer adversary -- are going to remain in the future," Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning told an audience at the Library of Congress.
"The issue is how technology changes, how the adversary changes and where you imagine the environment we might be fighting changing or evolving, because we know we are on a trend to increased urbanization and mega-cities.
"We've got to think about being able to fight ... in dense urban areas where the adversary is mixed in with large civilian populations."
Fanning, who will step down from his post sometime before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, spoke at an event to pay tribute to an upcoming exhibit at the Library of Congress.
"Echoes of the Great War -- America's experiences of World War I" is scheduled to open April 4, 2017.
