Battle Analysis,
Operation Urgent Fury
Sergeant First Class Andre B. Reese
United State Army
Battle Analysis,
Operation Urgent Fury The purpose of this paper is to analyze the invasion of Grenada, known as Operation Urgent Fury, which took place on October 25, 1983. The principle adversaries in this conflict were the United States, Grenada, and Cuba. During this operation, the United States did not have enough tactical intelligence about the enemy, specifically the size of their force and how they were composed, and the location of American citizens. The operation would have been won more decisively by the United States had they used Human Intelligence (HUMINT) to gather real time information.
Background
In 1979,…show more content… This gave United States the ability to insert forces amphibiously from any direction they needed to. There were two airfields on the island at the time. Point Salinas was on the southwest of the island and Pearls airfield on the west. The United States forces could take advantage of seizing this airfields to allow the entry of command and control and support personnel by means of air landing those forces. The weather during the time of the operation was mostly rainy with temperatures ranging from 70 to 80…show more content… The United States two main missions were two rescue American citizens and neutralize the enemy, however, they did not have a good idea where the citizens were located or how the enemy was composed. The movement of Cuban forces in that country would have been easily observed by people in those areas mentioned. Key figures would also know areas where the American citizens were located. A HUMINT source can pass information to their collectors as they were seeing it or relatively short period of time. Had they decided to tap into an already established source network or attempt to spot and assess for new ones, the duration of the combat portion of this operation could have been reduced to from three days to one. By reducing the length of the operation, they could have effectively reduced the amount of casualties they suffered as