From Dunkirk to Ukraine: Using "Little Ships" to Maintain Maritime Superiority

Of all the episodes in the annals of modern naval history, the evacuation of Dunkirk is certainly one of the quaintest. There is something so romantic about hundreds of British citizens, young and old, sailing their armada of little ships across the English Channel to rescue their stranded men at arms as a horde of Nazis bears down on them from all sides. That Dunkirk Spirit the power of ordinary citizens to change the course of a battle or a war lives on even today. 82 years later on the other side of Europe, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was met not only with fierce military resistance but also the modern equivalent of a fleet of civilian little ships coming to Ukraine's aid: (1) Tik Tok influencers captured and amplified live video footage of Ukrainian heroism in a way never seen before; (2) Anonymous, the amorphous hackers collective, launched wave after wave of attacks against both government and private Russian cyber infrastructure; and (3) socially conscious consumers across the world did their part to boost the Ukrainian economy and hurt Russia's. These little ships prevented an early rout of the Ukrainian Army, just as they did for the British Army 82 years prior. The United States is paying attention to the surprising success of these little ships, but so are Russia, China, and Iran. Our competitors are surely incorporating these concepts into their doctrine, and therefore we must study them as well.