Military bridge making is a lost skill, so it’s interesting to see how a mere “bridge” has such an impact. During the Cold War, the US Army had a lot of awesome bridge making and maintaining units and equipment.
In the complex three cornered fight for Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria between the Russian backed Syrian army, the US backed Kurdish militia, and ISIS, the Russians and the Syrians have just taken a dramatic step to gain for themselves strategic dominance over the other two.
This takes the form of a bridge built apparently built under fire from ISIS in just two days by Russian engineers across the Euphrates river near the city of Deir Ezzor, which will make possible the sending of armoured units of the Syrian army across the Euphrates river to bring the fight against ISIS and conceivably the Kurdish militia to the territories they occupy on the river’s east bank. Read more here.