The concealment and identification problems inside submarine bastions

A protected bastion creates a tension between defending ballistic-missile submarines and concealing their operating area. The criticism is that an obvious concentration of protective forces tells an opponent where those submarines are likely to be. Defenders must then search for hostile submarines entering waters that also contain friendly boats trying to remain hidden. Operational security can limit the information available about friendly positions. Before attacking a concealed contact, the protecting forces must distinguish an intruder from one of their own submarines. These are operational complications of bastion defence, rather than proof that the doctrine could never work.