March 2, 2019 Topic:
The U.S. Military's Next Super Weapon: Tactical Tunnels
What?
by Michael Peck
The U.S. military hates tunnels.
The Japanese used them on Iwo Jima to ambush American soldiers. So did the Viet Cong, forcing American “Tunnel Rats†to ferret them out. North Korea and Iran use them today to protect their nuclear weapons programs, while ISIS tunnels have been a deadly thorn in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Even Israel has discovered Hezbollah and Hamas tunnels penetrating beneath its borders.
But in the spirit of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,†the U.S. military wants to build its own tunnels on the battlefield.
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA)’s Project Underminer aims to “demonstrate the feasibility of rapidly constructing tactical tunnel networks that enable secure, responsive resupply,†according to the DARPA program announcement.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/us-militarys-next-super-weapon-tactical-tunnels-46027
