Urban warfare requires specialised forces, new tactics and a complex mix of psychological warfare and information operations.

Singapore (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Hi-tech weapons could minimise casualties in urban warfare, a form of battle that has increasingly become unavoidable in the age of terrorism, defence experts say.

Fears of high casualty rates from old-fashioned bloody hand-to-hand combat have made military commanders dread urban combat.

But hi-tech weaponry including precision-guided bombs, unmanned vehicles and powerful armoured tanks had reduced troops' exposure to life-threatening situations, military experts have told an Asian security conference.

A private French company, Sagem Defence Securite, said it was in the process of developing an integrated electronic soldier system that would make an infantryman a virtual computerised fighting machine. Sagem's business development director, Patrick Curlier, said the firm had been awarded a contract by the French government to develop about 32,000 of these soldier systems for delivery between 2007 and 2012.

The US also was planning to send robot soldiers - called the Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems (Swords) - into the field in Iraq, said John Parmentola, director for research and laboratory management for the US Army. The robots are fully armed, and when the human operator verifies that a suitable target is within sight, it fires from its powerful guns.

Singapore has designated one battalion for urban warfare experimentation and is developing an advanced combat-man system. "This urban-capable battalion will be equipped with an integrated network of sensors with mini-UAVs and robotics to enhance intelligence collection and situation awareness," the city state's army chief, Major-General Desmond Kuek, said, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.

Conventional armed forces worldwide need to evolve their doctrines and weapons to better fight a new kind of enemy, the experts say. Urban warfare requires specialised forces, new tactics and a complex mix of psychological warfare and information operations.

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• urban
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