Modern War Institute: The most effective weapon on the battlefield is concrete
Forget a Marine and his rifle, forget rockets, mortars, air support, tanks; forget everything - the most effective weapon on the modern battlefield is concrete, according to Major John Spencer of the Modern War Institute at West Point.
Spencer details his time deployed in Iraq, and how more than anything else an assortment of concrete barriers turned the tide of battle.
Named Jersey, Alaska, Texas, Colorado, or T-walls, Spencer detailed how the real decisive tool in the US's campaign to stem the tide of violence in urban areas was concrete.
From Spencer:
Of course, concrete alone didn't win any battles, but it achieved hard tasks infantrymen would have died fighting to do. Concrete disrupted enemy supply lines, protected roadways, and cordoned off neighborhoods of cities into manageable blocks.
Spencer argues that in the future, as the Pentagon prepares for urban warfare in megacities of over 10 million people, concrete is the tool planners should look for to impose order.
"Concrete might not be sexy, but it is the most effective weapon on the modern battlefield."