The French army is using a 350 year old fortress plan to protect its troops in North Africa.
A French base in Mali shows the characteristic star shape for which Sébastien de Vauban became famous. They are supposed to protect the camps from attacks by the insurgents. The facilities built by the 17th Parachute Regiment consist of a fort in the shape of a pentagon. The special feature are the arrow-shaped fighting positions at the corners of the star, called redant.
The task of the Redants is exactly the same as in the time of the Sun King. They are specially reinforced and only show the opponent a point. The less strongly fortified connecting lines of the star can be shot at by the redants. Whoever wants to cross here turns his back to the tips of the star. In the case of the camps in Mali, this means that as long as the tip is equipped with a heavy and a light machine gun, the camps are impregnable.
Five instead of four corners
Behind this is a brilliant idea by Vauban. He extended the well-known square forts by a further point, so the field of fire of the Redants was significantly enlarged. Regardless of the direction from which the enemy is approaching, he can always be shot at from three of the five positions without having to move cannons over the walls. That makes storming a redant practically impossible, because here too you are exposed to fire from three positions.
The facility is only useful today against an opponent like the insurgents in Mali, who themselves have no air force or heavy artillery. Their concept relies on surprising assault attacks. The poorly trained government soldiers then often flee. Such a storm would not work against the French and their fortress.
Tunnels were the answer
In Vauban’s time, these facilities were practically impregnable, but only as long as the enemy was going above ground. The counter-weapon were tunnels, at that time the miners’ war began. A tunnel was driven against the fortification and an explosive chamber was built under it. In its own way, IS has found a modern counterpart. The Islamists packed a vehicle full of explosives and armored it. If such a SVBIED (suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) was driven against a fortification, the explosion tore a huge crater and killed everything within 100 meters. Vauban’s star would also be powerless against that.
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