A thread about denial, no, not a river in Egypt, but denial of beaches, stopping landing draft gaining access

1/

If we go back many decades, the Axis Forces in Normandy had layered defences, one layer being various physical barriers

/2

Element C (Belgian Gate), stakes with mines atop, log ramps to disable landing craft and the ubiquitous Czech Hedgehogs and Tetrahedron higher up the beach

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All were designed to destroy landing craft or slow down advancing forces. As we know, they were all eventually defeated by a combination of naval gunfire, air attack, combat engineers and the funnies

/4

Skip forward to 2003 and the risk of mines on a planned beach landing area meant a delay of 24 hours. Forward to today, and we find that convenient beaches with the right gradient and soil conditions are diminishing in number globally due to urbanisation and development

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If the number of suitable beaches for a beach landing is reduced, what about the threat? We can see from Syria, Iraq and Libya, the proliferation of ATGW means enemy forces can hold a beach at risk from a wide area

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And that is before we even get to mines and physical defences, including false alarms and general beach debris

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What of our ability to counter those threats, do we have any means of clearing mines in the surf zone, generating a safe lane to an acceptable level of risk, and if so, at what scale. Can we launch a Python from an LCU for example, do we have any surf zone heavy plant?

/8

The end result of this is a question, if our ability to land forces onto a beach that the other side don't want us to is so limited, are we in denial about our ability to overcome enemy beach denial capability?

/9

And if so, what is the point of 3CDO Brigade as currently constituted?

/END

PS

Landing Craft, not Landing Draft, bloody sausage fingers :)