Uncrewed attack boats revive an older base-defense problem

Minesweepers are an important enabling need for amphibious operations. Modern uncrewed surface attacks also revive the threat posed by Japanese crewed explosive boats in World War II. Historically, numerous inexpensive patrol craft and dense short-range weapons raised the cost of such raids without risking a major warship on every interception. Russian bases have not demonstrated that depth of local radar, monitoring, and gun defense. Peacetime Western naval bases may face the same weakness against the scale and legal freedom of action available to a nation-state attacker.