Amazing how sometimes it can take months for a great article to find its way in to my feed, but back in September of last year, Caleb Larson had a bit over at NI that brought back all the feels of two decades of discussions with the Front Porch over riverine and small boats.

If you’re new to our discussion, just click the “two decades” link above. The problem is that the requirements are clear; in any conflict that has major river systems or coastlines with innumerable islands (pretty much most nations of significance) you will have to control the waterways to prevent the enemy from using them without opposition, and you need access to them for the tactical advantage it provides for a whole host of mission sets.

We knew this well in Vietnam, but two decades after the fall of Saigon we set the path to divest our riverine forces and most of our small ship units. There were holding actions and some vestigial dead-end remnants – not to mention the reminder of the ongoing conflict in Colombia and other nations – but as expected, the Iraq war showed this huge capabilities gap that cost untold American and coalition lives, so we had a crash course of rebuilding that capability.