*informational* Coastal Defenses and the Abyssal War
darthcourt10
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taalismn
Coastal Defenses and the Abyssal War
"Used to be, roads like I-95 would be clogged and damned near impassable at some times during the summer, between the local commuters, beach-goers, and tourists. But since the Abyss, more often than not, these roads are nearly deserted even at season peak, on account of so many of the coastal towns becoming ghost towns...sometimes literally, if you listen to some of the more impressionable folks. Since the Shipgirls have come in, though, there's some trickle-back to the coasts, but everybody learns the evacuation routes, and everybody pays attention to the flashboards and radio alerts, and when the word goes up 'keep the military transit lanes open' everybody moves several lanes over and don't complain when the mobile artillery runs past."
-----Owen Witchel, Police Sergeant, Connecticut State Police
"Move away from the coast? You kidding me, young man? Sam's Seafood Shack isn't moving inland, we're staying right here! 'But all the business along the coast is going away'? Hah, the military's pouring more men and equipment and money along this stretch of coast than it's ever seen in the last two decades of hosting summerfolk. Those soldiers up at the new fort are going to want something other than government cooking after a while, and I mean to provide. Not just seafood but other types too...I got friends in other eateries willing to loan me some of their staff to make up what hungry boys and girls from Chicago and Iowa would consider comfort food. And if they want to taste local delicacies...well, I got a few more friends in the fishing fleet who are just as determined to stick it out and not go inland. Call it a vote of confidence from all of us that the military's going to protect us that we're sticking to our jobs and feeding them up good. No, Sam's is staying right here dishing up lobster rolls, hash, and hotdogs next to the missile launchers. We're going to see this war through!"
----Sammi Colchester, owner, Sam's Seafood Shack, Maine
"You can no longer get away from the war with a daytrip to the coast. Even a short walk along the beach, you're going to see the signs for the battery routes, the emergency call-in boxes, or even see the launchers and guns...manned and ready in their firing positions, or on the move to cover another post's flanks. Reminds you how attached we are to the coasts, and how close the war really is."
Though the Abyssals generally laughed at the typically low-caliber weapons of modern navies, and the guided missiles that were the prefered long range firepower, the world's armed forces learned through hard experience that if they could throw enough cannon rounds and missiles, they COULD hurt the Abyssals. Saturating areas with barrages and volleys could offset the detrimental effects that the Abyssals seemed to have on most modern precison guidance systems('Unless you're using nukes, a miss by meters is as good as a miss by miles'). This would affect the (re)development of world coastal defenses.
Britain immediately re-activated and expanded its Homeguard units on a scale not seen since WW2 and the threat of Operation SeaLIon. Most European nations quickly followed suit with hasty efforts to fortify their coastal ports and put in position ready response forces to any coastal incursions. In the United States, after cursing the BRACs of the 1990s, the U.S. military expanded existing coastal base facilities and reactivated mothballed ones...or seized by war emergencies act sites that had been sold for civilian development, compensated the owners, and rebuilt a number of old coastal sites.
Initially these coastal defenses were adhoc affairs, consisting mainly of relocated and repurposed army artillery weapons. Proposals to build new heavy-caliber coastal defense guns met with controversy, and instead the US Coastal Defense copied European forces in adopting mobile anti-shipping missile launchers, with multiple missile salvoes being the prefered way of overcoming the Abyssals' effects on precusion guidance systems. The favored weapon of the US military was the AGM-Harpoon, while in Europe, land-launch Exocet, Skua, and SeaEagle missiles were the norm. And despite its isolationist stance and politcial problems in the wake of losing much of its coastal population, China still managed to refine and export versions of its Silkworm anti-shipping missile systems throughout Asia and the MiddleEast.
In general, the mobility of the new coastal defense forces had to match the mobility of the Abyssals, as the massive infrastructures and static fortified positions required by the previously proposed heavy guns could be too easily flanked by amphibious Abyssal forces, especially on terror raids, rather than strategic strikes.
Amphibious attacks, in which Abyssal forces managed to make landfall, required an equally mobile response. Although Abyssals rarely ventured far inshore, prefering to stay close to their 'natural' element, the cannier or more bloodthirsty Abyssals realized, as many pirates of the Caribbean had, that coastal targets were often less well-defended in their inland sides. An Abyssal could be overwhelmed by massed conventional forces, provided the defenders were willing to endure high attrition rates, so pre-positioning existing equipment types near strategic targets, but those meant that there were less forces available to protect long shorelines and smaller communities against terror raids.
Existing tanks could bring solid firepower to the field, but were often too slow and cumbersome to quickly deploy. Many nations therefore took to wheeled vehicles mounting large-caliber guns that could be quickly mobilized and brought into play as rapid response forces, ideally shelling Abyssal incursions from the shelter of distance. As most coastal communities saw a great decline in residencies during the early years of the Abyssal War, the lessened traffic along coastal roads meant that these avenues could be more readily used by military columns consisting of fast wheeled vehicles. The French AMX-10, with its 105mm gun, was quickly adopted or copied in Europe. The Italian Centauro tank destroyer was another favorite, especially the 120mm mortar carrier version. The United States continued to cling to the use of its M1 Abrams, using wheeled tank transporters to move them into position quickly, but ultimately settled on a combination of Dragoon wheeled AFVs and an up-gunned variant of the LAV-25 armed with a 105mm cannon(though the U.S. Army and National Guard were not entirely happy with these 'half-measures', as one general opined for many ).
A secondary measure was saturation rocket bombardments, in which the Russians initially led the way, quickly revamping, reinstating, and exporting their BM-series of wheeled 'katyusha' launchers(while using the 9A52 Smerch system for its own defenses). The United States developed a wheeled version of the Vought Multiple Launch Rocket System, which allowed for faster travel over the coastal highways. Closer range engagements were handled by a variety of vehicles mounting anti-tank missiles such as the Swingfire in Britain, the Hellfire in America, and TOWs just about worldwide.
More historically traditional fixed and fortified defenses WERE built, especially around strategic targets such as the Panama Canal and Gibralter, but these were more the exception than the rule, and the massive forts of older times gave way to more low-key bunker complexes sporting retractable cannons and missile launchers. Less visible, but equally important, were offshore minefields and command-fired seabed torpedo launchers which were placed to at least delay Abyssal force approaches to sensitive coastlines.
Perhaps the biggest coastal defense change was a global mobilization of coastal communities and residents into situational awareness. The Abyss brought back civil defense in a big way...coast watchers were recruited and trained on an unprecedented scale, national guard and militia units expanded and deployed to the coastlines, and communications networks set up, even in Third World nations. Fishermen became not just a link to the resources of the sea, but the eyes and ears on it, and anybody with a private aircraft who flew near or over water was encouraged, if not outright drafted, into reporting anything they saw(an unexpected side effect would be a renewed romanticization of the fishing industry*).
*Coastal Defenses and the Mass Media
An interesting sidenote to the renewed militarization of the coasts was an increased number of mass media programs involving coastal defenses and the people manning them, albeit in ways that didn't focus on the actual defenses as much as the foibles of the personnel. The BBC was arguably the first with its comedic and almost instant fan-cult-favorite Washouts! depicting the daily antics of a fictitious backwater coastal battery position staffed by dysfunctional Homeguard recruits, followed by the more serious Watch on the Channel produced in France(and noted for its many visual and storyline references to the WW2 Atlantic Wall). The Americans inevitably followed suit with at least four series, including the execrable Baywatch: SeaGuardians, the expansion of the pre-War Deadliest Catch(covering other fishing grounds) and the gritty and dark Tideline.
Coastal Defenses and the Abyssal War
"Used to be, roads like I-95 would be clogged and damned near impassable at some times during the summer, between the local commuters, beach-goers, and tourists. But since the Abyss, more often than not, these roads are nearly deserted even at season peak, on account of so many of the coastal towns becoming ghost towns...sometimes literally, if you listen to some of the more impressionable folks. Since the Shipgirls have come in, though, there's some trickle-back to the coasts, but everybody learns the evacuation routes, and everybody pays attention to the flashboards and radio alerts, and when the word goes up 'keep the military transit lanes open' everybody moves several lanes over and don't complain when the mobile artillery runs past."
-----Owen Witchel, Police Sergeant, Connecticut State Police
"Move away from the coast? You kidding me, young man? Sam's Seafood Shack isn't moving inland, we're staying right here! 'But all the business along the coast is going away'? Hah, the military's pouring more men and equipment and money along this stretch of coast than it's ever seen in the last two decades of hosting summerfolk. Those soldiers up at the new fort are going to want something other than government cooking after a while, and I mean to provide. Not just seafood but other types too...I got friends in other eateries willing to loan me some of their staff to make up what hungry boys and girls from Chicago and Iowa would consider comfort food. And if they want to taste local delicacies...well, I got a few more friends in the fishing fleet who are just as determined to stick it out and not go inland. Call it a vote of confidence from all of us that the military's going to protect us that we're sticking to our jobs and feeding them up good. No, Sam's is staying right here dishing up lobster rolls, hash, and hotdogs next to the missile launchers. We're going to see this war through!"
----Sammi Colchester, owner, Sam's Seafood Shack, Maine
"You can no longer get away from the war with a daytrip to the coast. Even a short walk along the beach, you're going to see the signs for the battery routes, the emergency call-in boxes, or even see the launchers and guns...manned and ready in their firing positions, or on the move to cover another post's flanks. Reminds you how attached we are to the coasts, and how close the war really is."
Though the Abyssals generally laughed at the typically low-caliber weapons of modern navies, and the guided missiles that were the prefered long range firepower, the world's armed forces learned through hard experience that if they could throw enough cannon rounds and missiles, they COULD hurt the Abyssals. Saturating areas with barrages and volleys could offset the detrimental effects that the Abyssals seemed to have on most modern precison guidance systems('Unless you're using nukes, a miss by meters is as good as a miss by miles'). This would affect the (re)development of world coastal defenses.
Britain immediately re-activated and expanded its Homeguard units on a scale not seen since WW2 and the threat of Operation SeaLIon. Most European nations quickly followed suit with hasty efforts to fortify their coastal ports and put in position ready response forces to any coastal incursions. In the United States, after cursing the BRACs of the 1990s, the U.S. military expanded existing coastal base facilities and reactivated mothballed ones...or seized by war emergencies act sites that had been sold for civilian development, compensated the owners, and rebuilt a number of old coastal sites.
Initially these coastal defenses were adhoc affairs, consisting mainly of relocated and repurposed army artillery weapons. Proposals to build new heavy-caliber coastal defense guns met with controversy, and instead the US Coastal Defense copied European forces in adopting mobile anti-shipping missile launchers, with multiple missile salvoes being the prefered way of overcoming the Abyssals' effects on precusion guidance systems. The favored weapon of the US military was the AGM-Harpoon, while in Europe, land-launch Exocet, Skua, and SeaEagle missiles were the norm. And despite its isolationist stance and politcial problems in the wake of losing much of its coastal population, China still managed to refine and export versions of its Silkworm anti-shipping missile systems throughout Asia and the MiddleEast.
In general, the mobility of the new coastal defense forces had to match the mobility of the Abyssals, as the massive infrastructures and static fortified positions required by the previously proposed heavy guns could be too easily flanked by amphibious Abyssal forces, especially on terror raids, rather than strategic strikes.
Amphibious attacks, in which Abyssal forces managed to make landfall, required an equally mobile response. Although Abyssals rarely ventured far inshore, prefering to stay close to their 'natural' element, the cannier or more bloodthirsty Abyssals realized, as many pirates of the Caribbean had, that coastal targets were often less well-defended in their inland sides. An Abyssal could be overwhelmed by massed conventional forces, provided the defenders were willing to endure high attrition rates, so pre-positioning existing equipment types near strategic targets, but those meant that there were less forces available to protect long shorelines and smaller communities against terror raids.
Existing tanks could bring solid firepower to the field, but were often too slow and cumbersome to quickly deploy. Many nations therefore took to wheeled vehicles mounting large-caliber guns that could be quickly mobilized and brought into play as rapid response forces, ideally shelling Abyssal incursions from the shelter of distance. As most coastal communities saw a great decline in residencies during the early years of the Abyssal War, the lessened traffic along coastal roads meant that these avenues could be more readily used by military columns consisting of fast wheeled vehicles. The French AMX-10, with its 105mm gun, was quickly adopted or copied in Europe. The Italian Centauro tank destroyer was another favorite, especially the 120mm mortar carrier version. The United States continued to cling to the use of its M1 Abrams, using wheeled tank transporters to move them into position quickly, but ultimately settled on a combination of Dragoon wheeled AFVs and an up-gunned variant of the LAV-25 armed with a 105mm cannon(though the U.S. Army and National Guard were not entirely happy with these 'half-measures', as one general opined for many ).
A secondary measure was saturation rocket bombardments, in which the Russians initially led the way, quickly revamping, reinstating, and exporting their BM-series of wheeled 'katyusha' launchers(while using the 9A52 Smerch system for its own defenses). The United States developed a wheeled version of the Vought Multiple Launch Rocket System, which allowed for faster travel over the coastal highways. Closer range engagements were handled by a variety of vehicles mounting anti-tank missiles such as the Swingfire in Britain, the Hellfire in America, and TOWs just about worldwide.
More historically traditional fixed and fortified defenses WERE built, especially around strategic targets such as the Panama Canal and Gibralter, but these were more the exception than the rule, and the massive forts of older times gave way to more low-key bunker complexes sporting retractable cannons and missile launchers. Less visible, but equally important, were offshore minefields and command-fired seabed torpedo launchers which were placed to at least delay Abyssal force approaches to sensitive coastlines.
Perhaps the biggest coastal defense change was a global mobilization of coastal communities and residents into situational awareness. The Abyss brought back civil defense in a big way...coast watchers were recruited and trained on an unprecedented scale, national guard and militia units expanded and deployed to the coastlines, and communications networks set up, even in Third World nations. Fishermen became not just a link to the resources of the sea, but the eyes and ears on it, and anybody with a private aircraft who flew near or over water was encouraged, if not outright drafted, into reporting anything they saw(an unexpected side effect would be a renewed romanticization of the fishing industry*).
*Coastal Defenses and the Mass Media
An interesting sidenote to the renewed militarization of the coasts was an increased number of mass media programs involving coastal defenses and the people manning them, albeit in ways that didn't focus on the actual defenses as much as the foibles of the personnel. The BBC was arguably the first with its comedic and almost instant fan-cult-favorite Washouts! depicting the daily antics of a fictitious backwater coastal battery position staffed by dysfunctional Homeguard recruits, followed by the more serious Watch on the Channel produced in France(and noted for its many visual and storyline references to the WW2 Atlantic Wall). The Americans inevitably followed suit with at least four series, including the execrable Baywatch: SeaGuardians, the expansion of the pre-War Deadliest Catch(covering other fishing grounds) and the gritty and dark Tideline.
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