Defence ministry fits anti-tank barriers and ‘fortifications which will be supported by firepower to stop and destroy the enemy’
Lithuania has installed “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank barriers on bridges that link the country to Russia.
Its defence ministry also said “firepower” had been built around another fortified bridge over the Neman River to stop a potential Russian attack.
“Fortifications will be supported by firepower, in case it’s needed, to stop and destroy the enemy,” it said.
The Neman River forms part of Lithuania’s border with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave. It is 580 miles long and flows from Belarus through Lithuania and then into the North Sea.
That’s pretty smart, more countries should do this.
Ounce of prevention.
In a world of satellites, advanced air forces, guided missiles, drones, etc, a couple spiky things on the ground seems very medieval.
Perhaps. But expanding ones borders through conquest also seems medieval, and guided missiles are poor tools for holding territory, so the classics still have a role to play.
And yet a glance at how the Russian army is equipped…
Pretty much is.
They’re just designed to slow down the movement of troops. They can be dealt with fairly easily, but you do have to move them out of the way before you can move vehicles across. This buys a little extra time.
You’d be surprised how much of modern warfare is pretty medieval in a way.
When I was in the army, that sort of comment was pretty common in the earlier lecturers.
Basically boils down to limited resources. Not everyone in the military gets to have those toys, and armies still need to get their troops in if they want to invade, and building roads and bridges is pretty inefficient when there’s roads. And if those roads have spiky things which prevent tanks from moving, well, then… gonna have to deal with that.
All the fancy tech in the world doesn’t help you take and hold land. That takes plain old boots on the ground.
Modern warfare seems to be very similar to world war two style warfare. Just with the things you listed added ontop. It’s not like they replaced the warfare.
For instance the war in ukraine includes Blitzkrieg combined arms type offensives, world war 1 type trench warfare, soviet type attrition warfare, and some of the most modern drone and missile warfare.
This is theater. Kaliningrad has a land border with Lithuania, but not with Russia. Invading from there would require a buildup that would be obvious and create logistics that would be insane. If Russia moves tanks to Kaliningrad, it’ll be through Lithuania.
Kaliningrad has a land border with Lithuania, but not with Russia
You do realise that Koenigsberg is, at least for now, part of Russia?
Dragon’s teeth! That’s what Putin should have used to increase his declining troop numbers!
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Wikipedia about this sourceI see they’re playing the “turtle” strat.
