Characteristics of contemporary combat operations in urban areas

The general trend of urbanization at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21stcentury coincides with an increase in armed conflicts between military formations inurban areas.Weaker armed forces tend to draw stronger armed forces into the closed environment ofurban areas to mitigate the effects of their weaknesses in human and material resources.Stronger armed forces express their desire to bypass and avoid the development of armedconflicts in urban areas. On the other hand, when the operational situation requires anarmed conflict to develop inside urban areas, the stronger armed forces show a tendencyto disproportionately use all their material and human superiority causing damage ordestruction of facilities and infrastructure systems of urban areas, and this leads to thesuffering of the civilian population. The characteristics of urban areas influencecontemporary armed conflicts to manifest themselves differently compared to areas likeforests, flat lands, mountains, and others.By applying the method of analysis of the content of the document, it was established thatthe basic characteristics of urban areas: built objects for housing and business, communalinfrastructure, and the presence of permanent residents, have an impact on the basiccharacteristics of armed conflicts: multidimensionality, precision, non-linearity in timeand space of execution, distributed content, simultaneity in action, integration of forces,interoperability and the need to respect international humanitarian law in the use ofmilitary force.