Waterways and Riverine Operations
RUSI Waterways Conference 2022 – Obstacles and Opportunities for Manoeuvre.
For centuries, waterways were the lifeblood of economies. Trade flowed along them and they served as natural demarcations between geographies. Following the advent of railways and of the combustion engine, waterways were relegated to being principally boundaries and obstacles, especially from a military context.
Throughout the era of mechanised warfare, the speed with which armies could cross waterways was critical to manoeuvrability. The efficient crossing of wet gaps proved central to operational success, and failure, throughout the Second World War, and more recently, in the Balkans.
The capability to cross waterways has withered across NATO since the end of the Cold War, with permissive environments leading to armies of ‘non-swimmers’. Few modern vehicles are amphibious, and bridging has received little sustained investment. As the world returns to an era of great power competition, however, the practicalities of gap crossing have become more complicated owing to wider changes in the operating environment.
With the proliferation of high-fidelity sensors throughout the battlefield, coupled with responsive precision fires, the emplacement of crossing points is becoming increasingly perilous. Securing a bridgehead is proving harder, and yet the need to cross waterways remains critical. Furthermore, as countries urbanise, waterways are becoming increasingly complex, bisecting human terrain and constraining humanitarian access.
Full Conference report
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Session One: Video available to Members only Chair: Maj Gen Mungo Melvin, Chairman Royal Engineers Historical Society. Speaker: Professor Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History, Opening Remarks and Introduction
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Session two: Video available to members only
Chair: Dr Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow, RUSI Speakers: Maj Pierre-Michel Arcade, Gendarmerie, Franco-German River Police Unit, France. Wilf Owen, Independent Military Analyst Maj Gen Mungo Melvin, Chairman, Royal Engineers Historical Society Lessons Upstream – Mastering rivers has been critical to the conduct of land warfare for centuries. Before considering what has changed it is worth surveying the hard-won lessons from past experiences.
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Session three: Video available to Members only Chair: Dr Sidharth Kaushal, Research Fellow Sea Power and Missile Defence Speakers: Florence Cross, Land Engineering Lead, Palantir Technologies UK Maj Gen (Retd) Pekka Toveri, Former Chief of Finnish Defence Intelligence Dr Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow, RUSI Understanding the Problem – Between the modern threat environment and sustained adversary investment in riverine capabilities, NATO faces significant challenges to its existing tactics while its opponents’ field highly capable amphibious and gap crossing capabilities. This panel will explore the threats that underpin why tactics must evolve.
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Session Four: Video available to Members only Chair: Juliana Suess, Research Analyst and Policy Lead, Space Policy, RUSI Speakers: Heiner Oehlen, Executive Manager for Combat Systems, KMW Ross Terri, Head of Business Development, ESRI Tom Winney, Business Development Director, WFEL Recapitalising Riverine Capabilities – The end of the Cold War and the limited anticipation of major offensive ground operations against a peer adversary saw amphibious, riverine, and bridging capabilities wither across NATO. It is worth surveying what is technologically possible today however, and where novel approaches may demand investment.
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Session Five: Video available to Members only Chair: Major Alistair Beard, CGS Visiting Fellow, RUSI Speakers: Brig Chas Story, Chief Engineer, Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Maj Gen Jeff Milhorn, Deputy Chief of Engineers, US Army Brig Gen Frederic Richaud, Chief Engineer, JFC Naples New Approaches – How should the offensive component of a campaign combining strike and defence be conducted? Do specific effectors, by their nature, impact deterrence, and how might this shape resource allocation? How should strike be integrated with non-kinetic means of disruption? |
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Session Six: Video available to Members only Chair: Paul O’Neill, Director of Military Sciences, RUSI Speakers: Maj Gen Kev Copsey, Chief of Staff, Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Closing Keynote.
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