Are Amphibious Assaults Still Relevant?

I think they suffer the same fate as airborne forces. Defensive tactics make their lives difficult.

Amphibious assaults: antiquated or awe-inspiring? That's the question Stars and Stripes posed as it covered an amphibious assault during BALTOPS 2017, NATO's annual military exercises in the Baltic Sea.

The exercise capped off with an amphibious invasion by U.S. Marines from Marine Corps Europe Africa. Marine reservists from the 1st Battalion, 23rd Marines disembarked from the landing ship USS Arlington, coming ashore on the Polish coast in LCAC hovercraft and Amtrac amphibious vehicles.



The last major amphibious invasion took place during the Korean War at Inchon. Since then the U.S. has threatened a seaborne assault. For example, U.S. Marines on ships tied up thousands of Iraqi troops during the 1991 Persian Gulf War who expected them to storm Kuwait from the sea. But the U.S. hasn't actually staged one of these in an active conflict in decades. During 1991 and the 2003 Iraq wars, the Marines invaded over land.