Amphibious forces preserve options after war begins

Amphibious warfare provides an option rather than a promise of an easy landing. The Al-Faw Peninsula, Afghanistan, and the Falklands appear in a broad comparison of Western operations conducted under very different threat levels. In the amphibious examples, forces land away from the enemy's strongest concentration, then move inland, link with troops approaching overland, or take a port from the landward side. This matters when the port facilities required by a prewar reinforcement plan have already been damaged. Strong coastal defences change how amphibious forces are used without automatically making the capability obsolete.