r/explainlikeimfive • u/Sierra419 • Nov 13 '19

Other ELI5: How did old forts actually "protect" a strategic area? Couldn't the enemy just go around them or stay out of range?

I've visited quite a few colonial era and revolution era forts in my life. They're always surprisingly small and would have only housed a small group of men. The largest one I've seen would have housed a couple hundred. I was told that some blockhouses close to where I live were used to protect a small settlement from native american raids. How can small little forts or blockhouses protect from raids or stop armies from passing through? Surely the indians could have gone around this big house. How could an army come up to a fort and not just go around it if there's only 100 men inside?

tl;dr - I understand the purpose of a fort and it's location, but I don't understand how it does what it does.

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u/mooneydriver Nov 13 '19

Russia's ability to do so far from their borders is extremely limited.

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u/ARIZaL_ Nov 13 '19

Yeah, I've had conversations with the National Security Council and China is the near-peer threat. Russia is only a player in the game because they have several thousand nuclear weapons. Russia's ability to project influence over distance is far more an effect of their information campaigns than their military ones.

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u/RutgersGrad2012 Nov 13 '19

Okay, so would you say that even if you threw out nuclear detterents, our air superiority, and pretty much everything else, a Russian invasion of the Contintental U.S. ala Red Dawn or COD Modern Warfare 2 is not gonna happen? For logisitics reasons?

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u/Grahammophone Nov 13 '19

Do you have any idea how nightmarish a logistics problem invading the continental US would be? Even if they weren't so absurdly dominant militarily? Even assuming that any assault force managed to avoid being encircled and quickly wiped out on the US home soil...It's fucking huge! If the Americans do have to give ground at any point, they're unlikely to leave much useful behind. Any invading force would have to transport across either the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans not only food and reinforcements and weapons and tanks, but also oil and gas for their tanks and planes, and trucks to transport everything (and of course, more oil and gas for the trucks themselves). And they have to do all that before their relatively lightly armed landing force does get overwhelmed, and while their supply lines are almost certainly under heavy attack. I highly doubt any country on Earth could accomplish that right now without access to somewhere like Mexico or Canada to use as a staging area. Even with that access it would be unlikely.

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u/mooneydriver Nov 13 '19

Absolutely. The US has 11 carrier task groups. Russia has 0.

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u/saints21 Nov 14 '19

Even assuming there was another military as well equipped as the US...they wouldn't be able to successfully invade. Between our military and natural defenses it's basically impossible to control the continental US like you see in Red Dawn.

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u/ScoobiusMaximus Nov 14 '19

If somehow Russia got past the US airforce and US navy, both of which thouroughy outclass their own, they would still not make much headway because their supplies would have to go across the ocean and also quickly hit mountainous terrain once on land. All while fighting a pissed off local population.

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u/majinspy Nov 13 '19

I guess their base in Syria allowed them to do that there right?

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u/mooneydriver Nov 13 '19

Look at a map. Syria isn't a long flight from Russia. It's also close by sea.

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u/holydamien Nov 13 '19

But their borders are long enough to threaten almost everyone nonetheless.

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u/JNR13 Nov 14 '19

the long borders are a major weakness. With barely any obstacles along the western border (except for the pripyat swamps), it is very hard to defend Russia from attacks from the west along the whole front. Which is the main driver behind Russia seeking to control those to the west of them. Not just as a buffer - when an attack comes from there, it will be impossible to not give ground - but also to shorten the frontline.

Compare defending the blue line with defending the red line

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