Different prerequisites for war exists and varies due to the terrain. Cities, mountains and covered terrain all creates their special conditions for the battle. The biggest difference in methods is found between the urban warfare and all the other ways of fighting in war. Combined arms constitutes the fundamentals of fighting a war, and organizing armed forces. But if the environment of the war is changing, the different prerequisites of combined arms need to change. The purpose of this study is to survey the distinguishing differences and prerequisites between the two kinds of environments, described in the invasion and fight in Rumaila oil field (2003) and Operation Phantom Fury (2004). By analyzing these cases, the purpose of this theory consuming case study is to explore and examine the use of combined arms in different environments during the Iraqi war in between 2003 and 2004. The analytical results reveal that the prerequisites before Operation Phantom Fury that made the operation successful was premonition to all the civilians in the city of Fallujah, the aggressive and massive use of indirect fire support, the reorganization of the divisions backbone, infantry, and finally the knowledge from earlier operations in Fallujah.

The world is rapidly becoming more urbanised and with key infrastructure being located inside or close to cities the probability of urban warfare in the next major conflict is very high. This thesis examines how the use of Alice Hills theory can explain success in urban warfare on the tactical level of war. The purpose of the thesis is to test the validity of Hills theory. To examine to what extent Hills’s theory can explain the success of the coalition forces during Operation Phantom Fury and the failure of Operation Vigilant Resolve, a theory testing case study is applied. The two cases have similar background variables, which allows for a structured comparison of the two cases. The analysis is based on Hills’s success factors in urban warfare. The results of the analysis reveal that Hills theory can explain the success of the coalition during Operation Phantom Fury and the failure of Operation Vigilant Resolve, thereby strengthening the validity of Hills theory. The results highlight the need to control the civilian population during urban combat. However, due to the difficulties of measuring success factors such as leadership and morale with the chosen method, the external validity of the results is negatively affected.

With a world than is becoming more and more urbanized and with more importance being placed on cities the likelihood that our urban centers will be the focus of future warfare increases. This study will examine how Alice Hills theory can explain success in urban warfare in a comparative case study. The purpose of this study is to affect the validity of Hills theory. This method used in this study is a theory testing case to examine to what extent Hills´s theory can explain the failure during the first battle of Grozny and the success during the second battle of Grozny and by doing so increasing the validity of hills Theory. The two cases have similar background variables, which allows for a structured comparison of the two cases. The analysis is based on Hills’s success factors in urban warfare.  The results show the importance of morale and skill in urban combat.