www.military.ie the defence forces magazine
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'Fighting-in-built-up-areas
[FIBUA] is uncomfortable,
unnerving, noisy, dirty and,
as it is usually done in small
groups, demands high skill
and courage.'
Canadian Army Staff
College
T
he urban battlefield has been used
during the Easter Rising in 1916
in Dublin, and in later during the
Second World War in the built up cities
of Stalingrad andberlin in 1940s. During
the Cold War, NAto troops manoeuvred
through the streets of berlin and across
Europe, in preparedness for a war that
never came. back in Ireland from the late
1960s, 'the troubles' in Northern Ireland
brought the battlefield to our streets for
over three decades.
The battlefield has now moved from
the open hills and trench warfare of the
countryside, to the very streets we live on,
an evolution that has seen the combat
environment change, FIBUA brings that
battle much, much closer.
With the increase in populations in
these towns and cities, it has made FIBUA
inevitable in today's battlefield. The fact
that these cities and towns hold vital
ground, which is usually important in
the control of territory, has made this an
extremely difficult and demanding task
for all military forces.
FIBUA is taught as part of the tactical
block on the syllabus of training for the
Infantry Platoon Sergeants course, which
tests the students in offensive and de-
fensive operations, command & control,
urban camouflage, entering, clearing and
moving through buildings, including com-
bat service support (CSS) during FIBUA.
Pictured are students on the current 5th
Infantry Platoon Sergeants course under-
going their FIBUA training during a CBRN
threat in the Military Training Facility
(MTF) in the DFTC. The Infantry Platoon
Sergeants course is being conducted by
the NCO Training Wing, of the Infantry
School, Military College.
