Mountain Warfare: ‘Fighting’ the Mountain to Fight in the Mountains
Mountain warfare is back. For proof, look no higher than the Himalayas, where Indian and Chinese forces have faced off in the Doklam since 2017 and in Ladakh since 2020. For the first time since World War I in the Alps, thousands of troops are deployed year-round in readiness for mountain warfare. By way of a definition, Carl von Clausewitz wrote in On War that “the influence of mountains on the conduct of war is very great . . . this influence introduces into action a retarding principle.” Mountain warfare is therefore the ways and means by which military forces overcome the “retarding principle” of mountains.
The United States military, especially its ground combat and special operations forces, needs the capability to train individuals and units—battalions, brigades, task forces—for mountain warfare for two reasons. First, the U.S. has been “100% right 0% of the time” when predicting where the next war will take place. Since nearly one-fourth of the world is covered by mountains, 10% of the planetary population lives in mountains. Mountains harbor a disproportionate share of the world’s conflicts. The chances are high that the U.S. will have to fight a mountain war sometime, somewhere. As mountain warfare requires months of individual and unit training in both summer and winter, it cannot be delivered just-in-time. Secondly, mountain warfare capabilities are useful for operations in rugged terrain, cold weather, the Arctic, high-altitude conditions, and other potential operational environments.
Mountains
Mountains inhibit military operations due to the combined effects of climate, elevation, and slope. Mountain slopes are generally 15 to 45 degrees, with cliffs near vertical or even overhanging. At the highest altitudes, and with enough annual snowfall, slopes can be covered with glaciers or permanent snowfields, or are tundra in the summer. High-angle rock and debris slopes, with cliffs, talus (rocky debris), or scree fields (smaller rocks) are below, and lower still are the floors of ancient valleys and degraded slopes, generally with thicker soil cover and forested or grassy.
Below are valley floors of river-deposited materials, separated by the slopes above, accessible only by passes. The impact of mountain slopes is that moving up them takes time. Swiss mountain guide Werner Munter developed a calculation to estimate overall time to move through the mountains. In his calculation, covering one kilometer horizontally takes 15 minutes. But that same one kilometer vertically takes two-and-a-half hours, ten times longer. A mile on the level calculates to 30 minutes, but a mile of climbing takes four-and-a-half hours. In the mountains, everything takes longer to do and more energy to do it.
Mountains are generally defined by their elevation or altitude, the height above sea level, running from a few hundred meters or a thousand feet up to over 8,000 meters or 26,000 feet. Less oxygen is present at higher altitudes. Atmospheric pressure and oxygen pressure fall roughly linearly with altitude to be 50% of the sea level value at 5,500 meters (18,000 feet) and only 30% of the sea level value at 8,900 meters (29,000 feet). The lack of oxygen has a number of effects. Physical performance suffers, sleep is disturbed, and vision, taste, mood, and personality can change, especially over 3,000 meters (10,000 feet). Nutrition suffers due to a lack of taste, or nausea, and dehydration is common. Altitude exposure can lead to altitude sickness with symptoms ranging from headaches to hallucinations and, in some cases, death within twelve hours. In the mountains, everything is thus harder to do.
Mountain climates are cooler and wetter than the surrounding plains. Temperatures drop 1-2º Celsius (3-5ºFahrenheit) per 305-meter (1,000-foot) gain in elevation and may differ by as much as 4-10º Celsius (40-50º Fahrenheit) from day to night. Mountains force air masses and storm systems upward, leading to precipitation and winds. Winds are constant in the mountains, with wind velocity increasing with altitude. Wind interacts with temperature, potentially pushing the actual thermometer reading many degrees lower in a wind chill. The rapid rise of air masses over mountains creates precipitation. Rain and snow are common in mountains, and, depending on the region, snow may be possible at any time above 1,500 meters (5,000 feet). Thunderstorms are more prevalent in interior mountains with continental climates, and snow and wind squalls can accompany them above timberline. Lightning strikes typically hit ridges and summits, especially in the summer. Storm fronts, widespread atmospheric events, in the winter storms bring low temperatures, high winds, and blinding snow or blizzards, often for many days.
Mountain travel thus risks a number of heat and especially cold-related injuries. Heat injuries include heat exhaustion, heatstroke, and sunburn at all times of the year, and snow blindness in the winter. Cold injuries comprise immersion foot, frostbite, and, most serious of all, hypothermia, when the body’s core temperature drops to 35º Celsius (95º Fahrenheit) or lower. As hypothermia, or exposure, comes about when the body produces less heat than it is losing, it can be experienced even when the temperatures are above freezing. In the mountains, you need more time and energy to do anything and everything you do creates the potential for injury or exposure, possibly freezing to death in the middle of summer.
Mountain Warfare
Mountain warfare thus seeks to overcome the retarding elements of slope, elevation, and climate by ensuring forces have the means to survive and be mobile in the mountains so that they can maneuver in the mountains. Troops need specialized mountain equipment, dressing in layers—base, mid, shell, insulating, “overwhite”—and wear boots appropriate for the terrain and season. To avoid exposure, troops operating in the mountains require sleeping bags and tents appropriate to the temperatures and climate. To ensure nutrition, individuals have to consume lightweight, high-calorie food, preferably heated by stoves, which will also melt snow to avoid dehydration in winter. To carry all the required equipment and more, troops will need packs with enough technical features (attachment points, ski carry loops, extra pockets) for the mission, but not so many as to get hung up on a climb. And they also need two to three weeks to become acclimated to the thinner air and cold of the mountains.
Mountain warfare is more than just surviving in the mountains. Troops need to be mobile in the mountains, requiring crossing the slopes, climbing and descending the elevations, and dealing with the climate that defines mountains. Such efforts demand specialized training for specific skills and knowledge. Troops need basic mountain training, in both the summer and winter, including courses on mountain survival, mountain navigation, and rock, snow, and ice climbing. Instruction should also include glacier travel and crevasse rescue, avalanche risk management, and avalanche rescue. Individuals need to learn to ski, with a pack and weapon, to an advanced beginner/low intermediate level in order to stay in control and limit injury-causing falls. And they need instruction in the basics of backcountry skiing to learn movement techniques through avalanche terrain. A portion of personnel, historically around 10%, will need advanced skills to function as leaders and advisors in mountain terrain. These include lead climbing, alpine (above tree line)climbing, mountaineering on rock and snow, advanced avalanche training, and the skills of ski mountaineering to move through steep terrain. And all these specialized mobility skills need specialized gear: a mountaineering-certified helmet, harness, ice axe, crampons, snowshoes, and skis with bindings and skins that allow the skier to go uphill as well as down, and avalanche safety equipment. More advanced skills require more advanced gear: ropes, climbing racks for rock and ice, and ice tools.
Unique to mountain warfare, however, is the reality that the skills, equipment, and experience for mountain mobility and survivability are found in the civilian mountaineering and skiing communities. Civilians are often better at the basic mountain skills and have better gear than the military. Outdoor retailers Arc’teryx, Patagonia, and Outdoor Research, for example, maintain militarized versions of their popular civilian clothing lines. Colorado-based IcelandicSkis makes a military-specific Personal Snow Mobility (PSM) ski system. The primary resource for survival and mobility skills and instruction lies in the American Mountain Guides Association’s certified rock, alpine, ski guides, and mountain guides. Backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering are readily viewable on the Internet. Too often, therefore, when ‘mountain warfare’ is mentioned, it is the ways and means of survival and mobility in the mountains that are thought of and focused on, not the actual employment of force in the mountains.
To employ force in the mountains and to maneuver in the mountains, entire units and particularly their leadership also need specialized training, particularly for higher altitudes, in summer and winter. In order to survive, leaders have to learn how to acclimate their troops and how to employ a specialized logistical system of trucks, helicopters, and pack mules to move the needed food, water, fuel, munitions, and materials up to their forward elements and casualties back down. Leaders must learn that every action takes more time in the mountains. On foot, units must move slowly with adequate rest between marches and not carry loads of more than one-third of their body weight. As mountains limit the effectiveness of aviation, units must rely on fire support from artillery and mortars employed in sections or individual tubes, given mobility limitations. Finally, leaders need to understand that the key terrain for maneuver in the mountains is that which enables survival and mobility: high points, passes, main supply routes, road heads, and staging points.
An offensive maneuver in the mountains thus focuses on interdicting an opponent’s ability to survive and be mobile, especially their logistics. Any attack must utilize the mountains as an avenue of approach, particularly from unexpected directions, by climbing or skiing, for example. The attacker’s ability to support and supply the advancing force will determine how deep the attack can go into enemy territory. While envelopment and infiltration are the primary forms of offensive maneuver in the mountains, aiming to leverage an enemy out of their defensive line, mountain maneuver ultimately comes down to the ability and willingness of small units to conduct near-frontal attacks along narrow, exposed ridges and up tight, observed valleys.
A mountain defense seeks to ensure the survival of the force and preserve its mobility. While mountains appear ideal for the defense, the terrain makes it difficult to reinforce any defensive position or counterattack and allows an attacker to pick their point. The defensive line is a string of strongpoints on reverse slopes, controlling key terrain, with patrols and observation posts on forward slopes. Typically, only one-third of the force, at most, will be forward in combat; the remainder will be in reserve and at rest. It is difficult to build shelters and fortify positions since bringing the materials necessary forward and upwards strains the logistical system. The space between opposing lines and between strongpoints, combined with mountain terrain, makes patrols and raids by platoon-strength forces the most common form of defensive combat.
Mountain Troops
Given the difficulties mountains create for military operations and the specialized techniques and technologies required to overcome their inhibiting influence, the U.S. military possesses the basics for mountain warfare. It has the doctrine, including the Army’s Mountain Warfare and Cold Weather Operations and the Marines’ Mountain Warfare Operations, supplemented by training circulars, techniques publications, and various reference guides. The U.S. Military has layered systems of clothing, such as the Protective Combat Uniform (PCU), specifically drawn from mountaineering practices, including the Generation III Extended Cold Weather Clothing System (GEN III ECWCS). Appendix E of the Army’s Mountain warfare publication lists a variety of mountaineering kits with harnesses, ropes, carabiners, crampons, etc., with the all-important national supply number. The Marine Corps has purchased a military ski system that is a cross between snowshoes and skis, allowing for maximum individual mobility.
The U.S. military offers various locations for individual mountain training. The Army has the Army Mountain Warfare School (AMWS) at Camp Ethan Allen in Vermont and the Northern Warfare Training Center (NWTC) at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Both teach basic and advanced military mountaineering techniques, though the NWTC focuses on cold-weather training. The Marine Corps maintains a Mountain Warfare Training Center (MWTC) in Bridgeport, California, with mountain leader, assault climber, and scout skier courses, along with communications, medicine, animal handling, survival, and planning. The special operations community has the Special Operations Warfare Mountain Training Center (SOWMTC) at Fort Carson, Colorado, teaching summer and winter operator courses. However, these schools teach individuals, only a few hundred annually, to provide cadres for units. As examples, per Chapter 10 of Mountain Warfare and Cold Weather Operations, the Army intends to train one to two basic mountaineers per platoon, two advanced mountaineers per battalion, and one master mountaineer or mountain leader per brigade, while the Marines foresee having two winter mountain leaders per company and a squad per platoon or one platoon in a battalion trained as scout skiers, as noted in Chapter 12 of the Mountain Leader’s Guide to Winter Operations.
The U.S. military needs the ability to train not just a cadre of military mountaineers but entire units and their leaders in mountain warfare, to the battalion task force, air-ground task force, special operations task force level at a minimum. While the Marines’ Mountain Warfare Training Center does run a number of battalion reinforced Marine Air-Ground Task Force mountain exercises a year, the California locale is limited. Suitable locations will allow entire units to acclimatize by ‘sleeping low’ around 2,000 meters (6,000 feet) while ‘training high’ over 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) and occasionally over 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) into high Alpine and glaciated terrain. The central Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the North Cascades in Washington each meet some, though not all, of these requirements. Sites within the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex (JPARC), including the new Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center–Alaska (JPMRC-AK) training center, may offer the best solution. However, units deploying to Alaska will still require extensive training in the lower 48 states first, particularly for winter exercises. Unit training requires a larger qualified instructor force, making maximum use of all possibilities, including National Guard and Reserves, civilians, contractors, or government service, certified by the American Mountain Guide Association.
Ultimately, the joint force will require a mountain warfare proponent or executive agent within the Department of Defense and a Joint Mountain Warfare Center synchronizing service training and procurement, to include Arctic and cold weather operations. Mountains are difficult places to survive in, they are difficult places to move through, and they are difficult places to maneuver and operate. Therefore, mountain warfare must be prioritized long before any mountain operation.
(Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the United States Air Force Academy or Department of Defense.)
