Amphibious Operations: Do We Need a Hard Reset (original) (raw)

On Contested Shores: The Evolving Role of Amphibious Operations in the History of Warfare (Volume 2)

On Contested Shores: The Evolving Role of Amphibious Operations in the History of Warfare (Volume 2), 2024

The second volume of On Contested Shores builds on the success and reception of the first, providing historians, theorists, and especially practitioners with a new resource to explore the history and the future of amphibious operations. This second volume arrives as the U.S. Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030 effort reaches a faster pace under a new Commandant. New original scholarship and research provides readers with a wealth of examples, new information about historical case studies, and deeper examinations of a wider array of amphibious issues. No other volume or set on amphibious operations provide such a diverse array of case studies and insights by leading researchers from around the world. Since the release of the first volume, shores are newly contested in Ukraine and in the Red Sea, and preparations for a potential amphibious invasion of Taiwan have reached a fevered pitch. This second volume digs deeper into the epic history of amphibious operations and provides more insights into how they can be executed in the future.

On Contested Shores: The Evolving Role of Amphibious Operations in the History of Warfare

2020

Perhaps no prediction has been as consistently made—and as consistently wrong—as the imminent death of amphibious operations. Whatever the changes in warfare and technology, the necessity of amphibious force projection endures, long outliving those who claim its time has passed. Changes in how amphibious operations are conducted, however, are just as consistent. This essential contributed volume arrives at a vital point of transition. These essays highlight both changes and continuities, examining historical amphibious operations as early as the sixteenth century to the near future, describing both lesser-known cases and offering more nuanced views of famous campaigns, such as Gallipoli and Normandy. With the release of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030, this volume gives historians, theorists, and practitioners an opportunity to ground the coming changes in the historical context as they seek to find out what it takes to win on contested shores.

Amphibious Warfare: Lessons from the Past for the ADF's Future

2012

The Australian Defence Force faces a number of challenges in developing its amphibious warfare capability. The acquisition of the new landing craft and the Canberra Class LHDs are just one small element in these developments. Just as important will be overcoming the cultural barriers to the adoption of the maritime strategy laid out in the 2009 Defence White Paper. One way of overcoming these issues is for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to reconnect with its past. Here the ADF can find some exceptionally important lessons on training, doctrine, joint operations and cooperation with allies; especially in relation to Australia’s only modern maritime campaign, the South West Pacific Area 1942-45. 1

The Amphibious Imperative of the French and Indian War

Marine Corps University Journal, 2019

Abstract: In the French and Indian War, Britain’s arrogance in land warfare in North America resulted in two years of near constant defeat and devastation to its forces and colonial residents. However, through an open-minded analysis of the situation, Britain improved its planning, logistics, diplomacy, tactics, operations, and strategy to make the most of its naval superiority. In a war where agile, irregular, and amphibious warfare were required to win, Britain adapted and won. Their processes and actions provide a classic study for modern-day joint operations leaders to examine. Keywords: amphibious operations, Roger’s Rangers, light infantry, British Royal Navy, French and Indian War, Seven Years’ War

Pushing the Limits of Range: Long-range Amphibious Operations

2018

None of the authors in this issue are crying that the apocalypse approaches, but their warnings of more limited threats to global stability warrant attention. The government believed creating U.S. Cyber Command in 2009 and smaller offices in each of our military Services helped inure us against the latest threat. And yet, we also have been rudely surprised by the lengths some nation-states will go to acquire a position of power; the 2016 U.S. elections clearly illuminated the cyber threats at play, as author Jamie Shea elaborates. Some thought in 1990 that the United States stood alone on a new summit with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But in the last few years, China and Russia have drawn themselves up confidently. The former works with prodigious economic powers in a new combination of enterprising capitalism and state Marxism-Leninism. And consider the spectacular audacity in China's " disappearing" of one of its own citizens, whose office was the presidency of the century-old international policing agency, Interpol. The other great competitor, the "new Russia," advances with brazen land grabbing that drags the near abroad at its borders closer, and after each grab, Moscow crisply tells international observers to move along. This style of incremental land grabbing is more than Vladimir Putin's style, because it parallels Otto von Bismarck's successful and limited (conventional) wars that expanded German lands and integration in the 1860s. These and many other subjects, contemporary or historical (Mallory Needleman's article on Lithuania under the Soviet occupation and Christian H. Heller's article on the Ottoman-Safavid rivalry), make this fall issue a solid contribution to revivified studies of how power comes and goes in the world. This collection of articles serves only as an introduction to this wide-ranging topic and offers a brief look at historical and contemporary forays into the concept of power that will likely play out in the near future. The remainder of the journal rounds out with a selection of review essays and book reviews that continues our focus on power but also highlights continuing challenges in national security and international relations. The coming year will be busy for the MCU Journal editors as we work to provide issues on a diverse range of topics relevant to the study of militaries and defense. The upcoming spring 2019 issue opens a debate on the economics of defense and the costs of making war and peace. We also are accepting submissions for the fall 2019 journal's consideration of great power competition and how the U.S. military, particularly the Marine Corps, might fare in the face of peer competition, soft/hard power plays, and the changing character of war. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on these topics and to your future participation. Join the conversation on the MC UPress Facebook

The Problems Facing United States Marine Corps Amphibious Assaults

Journal of the American Musicological Society, 2020

There are calls by some experts to accept that an amphibious assault of coastline is simply too risky to attempt due to current threats. So, what are the challenges facing amphibious assaults? Is the amphibious assault still a viable type of military operation in the current threat environment? These questions are at the heart of the mission and role of the United States Marine Corps. This analysis delves deep into the problems facing amphibious assaults, and it serves as a primer for future discussions pertaining to improving amphibious assault capabilities.