Compass Points - Future Tunnels

The underground challenge of war

Compass Points - Future Tunnels

The underground challenge of war

December 12, 2024

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Now that the Assad regime has been toppled in Syria and there is momentary chaos, the US Marines need to saddle up and go search for Marine and journalist Austin Tice who has been held captive for 12 years. His family say they have been contacted and Austin Tice is still alive.

Where is Tice? Most likely, if he is still alive, Tice is somewhere inside a vast tunnel network on the border between Syria and Lebanon.

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Syrian rebel forces have uncovered a network of huge underground tunnels beneath the Qalamoun Mountains bordering Syria and Lebanon.

The subterranean labyrinth, which cost millions of dollars to build, was funded by Iran for the purpose of transferring advanced weaponry to its proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.

-- Jewish Press

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To hide from increasingly powerful aerial surveillance by everything from drones to satellites, more and more of the adversaries of the US will dig down and hide underground. The future of war includes tunnels. If young Marines want to school themselves on the future of warfighting, among the many things they need to learn is the importance of tunnels. One tunnel expert is Earl “Flynn” Trimnal.

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Trimnal was assigned to the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 26th Marines. “When I got off the chopper, this big old gunnery sergeant kept looking at me and scratching his head. I said, ‘PFC Trimnal reporting as ordered sir,’ and he said, ‘Congratulations, Private Trimnal! You’re our new tunnel rat.’”

During the Vietnam War, Communist guerrilla troops (Viet Cong) dug tens of thousands of tunnels, using them for intelligence work, and as effective hiding locations after ambushes. American “tunnel rats” were combat engineers on underground search and destroy missions — small, thin and highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, armed only with flashlights, knives and pistols.

In the tunnels Trimnal found booby traps — grenades, mines and punji sticks — venomous snakes, rats, huge spiders and scorpions. Sometimes poisonous gases were used. “I lived in constant fear of not knowing what I would encounter or who I would meet with each foot that I crawled, knowing I could set off a booby-trap at any moment.

“They would find a tunnel and call me in. Usually they’d tie a rope to my foot, so they could pull me out if I got shot. Several times I had to throw a grenade because there were people back there. The life expectancy for a tunnel rat is about 7 seconds, but I was never injured while in the tunnel.

“A young Vietnamese boy showed me a lifesaving technique. He gave me a small glass mirror on a telescope, which could be angled in different directions. The VC would put curves in the tunnels for ambushes, or they’d dig deep holes and fill them with water, so they could hear us coming. I’d get to a turn and put the angled mirror down to see around the corner. Then lob a grenade in there. I still have that mirror. It saved my life many times.”

-- The Veterans Museum

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John Spencer from the Modern War Institute has studied Israel's success with finding, searching, and employing tunnels in Gaza. In his article, "Israel’s New Approach to Tunnels: A Paradigm Shift in Underground Warfare" Spencer examines Israel's extraordinary achievements.

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Before the war against Hamas in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces were one of the most prepared militaries in the world for underground warfare. The IDF were the only army to have a full brigade-sized unit dedicated to training, manning, equipping, researching, developing new technologies and tactics, learning, and adapting solely for underground warfare. Still, the challenges they faced early in their campaign in Gaza, many of which they struggled initially to overcome, speaks to the incredible complexity of subterranean warfare. Their responses to these challenges signal a paradigm shift in modern approaches to underground warfare.

. . . militaries will continue to encounter subterranean environments in warfare. State actors like China, Iran, and North Korea continue to invest in thousands of miles of military tunnels and bunkers to protect everything from nuclear sites, radar installations, and runways to full military bases. It is also hard to separate urban warfare from underground warfare in major cities that have existing civil infrastructure underground for transportation, water, and other essential services.

The lessons from the IDF’s adaptations and, ultimately, transformation of culture toward underground warfare are deeply important for other militaries—especially those whose own cultures are characterized by the notion that tunnels are obstacles that should be avoided or only dealt with when required. The lessons learned by the IDF will save the lives of other soldiers in other battlefields. The IDF have also shown others that subterranean environments can be used for more than only defensive tactics. With the right culture, understanding, intelligence, technologies, and tactics, they can be used for simultaneous maneuvers on the surface and subsurface. That changes everything.

-- Modern War Institute

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The US Marines will face many difficult battles in the future. Not all of the fighting will focus only on new technology. Some of the fighting will involve brave Marines climbing down into tunnels and rooting out a determined enemy.

Compass Points salutes PFC Trimnal, John Spencer, and all the once and future tunnel rats. We need new tunnel rats right now to find and rescue Captain Tice from his 12 years of captivity in the tunnel dungeon in Syria. Hold on, Skipper, with some luck and effort, help is on the way.

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The Veterans Museum

Vietnam Veterans Series

USMC Tunnel Rat Urges PTSD Victims to Seek Help

By Michel Robertson

https://theveteransmuseum.org/usmc-tunnel-rat-urges-ptsd-victims-to-seek-help/

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Modern War Institute - 12/02/2024

Israel’s New Approach to Tunnels: A Paradigm Shift in Underground Warfare

By John Spencer

John Spencer is chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, codirector of MWI’s Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast. He is also a founding member of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare. He served twenty-five years as an infantry soldier, which included two combat tours in Iraq. He is the coauthor of Understanding Urban Warfare.

https://mwi.westpoint.edu/israels-new-approach-to-tunnels-a-paradigm-shift-in-underground-warfare/

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Jewish Press - 12/12/2024

Massive Iranian-Funded Syria-Lebanon Tunnel Found by Jihadist Forces

By Hana Levi Julian

https://www.jewishpress.com/news/middle-east/syria/massive-iranian-funded-syria-lebanon-tunnel-found-by-jihadist-forces/2024/12/12/