As mentionned previously, the Israeli have had some experience with tackling urban warfare. With some success. For example:
camera tripods for snipers
http://www.isayeret.com/gear/tripod/378.jpg
Door breaching grenades, fired from the rifle with a long detonator rod so the grenade explodes without hitting the door, simply blasting it open. (good for CT, hostage rescue. maybe not for full intensity urban warfare)
http://www.isayeret.com/gear/simon/rimon-main.gif
Wall-breaching ammo, using the same mechanism to blow a man-hole in a brick wall.
http://www.isayeret.com/gear/wallbuster/wall-3.jpg
Portable ceramic shields: two man-portable level 3 ceramic plates for added ballistic protection with cut-out half-circles to allow protected firing (better than a gyproc wall ;D)
http://www.isayeret.com/units/civi/images/civi-122.jpg
Remote operated weapons (this kind of gear was used during the siege of the Church of nativity in Bethleem, they mounted a remote operated sniper rifle on a crane boom to observe and take out hostiles)
http://www.isayeret.com/gear/trap/trap1.jpg
http://www.isayeret.com/gear/trap/217.jpg
Some neat ideas too:
The Israeli special forces paint two white lines below their rifles receiver or attach white velcro loops around the barrel for fast identification in intense CQB.
Personal Infra-red LED for night combat and identification both from ground and air forces. (The infra-red light can only be seen with night-vision equipment)
Using dogs for room clearing, very effective in any situation (YOU don't get shot).
Bulldozers for perimeter breaching and destroying buildings when no friendly is left inside, a lot more safe than thorough room clearing: the enemy is simply buried (a tank can also be used as shown recently by the russians in Chechnya)
And now for a Great Canadian Idea (not mine, took it from the Simon Fraser U. website)
Instead of sending the old cats to the scrap (ie Leopards), why not recycle them into urban ops vehicles. Wouldn't cost much, and you don't need as many tanks. So if you keep, say, 40 tanks running you can cannibalize the others for spare pieces, etc. Ok, here are the proposed modifications:
- Dozer blade, for obstacle "removing"
- Changing the 105mm for a 120 mm mortar (shorter barrel = more manoeuvrable, 120 = more firepower for mouseholes)
- Add a 40mm external automatic grenade launcher (When 120 mm is a wee bit too much...)
- 2 remote operated .50 machine guns on the turret (firepower without exposure)
- Add-on slat armour - a fence against rpg or any hollow ammo placed over existing armour some 50cm from it all around the tank (cheap, easy to replace protection)
There you go, a fine urban warfare weapon system only a few modifications away...
http://www.sfu.ca/casr/fisher7-2.jpg
BTW tracks are much better than tires in UO, think about doing a 360 turn in a LAV!!!