Coastal artillery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

19th century coastal artillery guns preserved in Suomenlinna fortress in Helsinki

Coastal artillery is the branch of armed forces concerned with operating mobile anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications.

Coastal artillery appeared in Europe almost as soon as the introduction of cannons during the 16th century; when a colonial power took over an overseas territory, one of their first tasks was to build a coastal fortress, both to deter rival naval powers and to subjugate the natives. During the 19th century China also built hundreds of coastal fortresses in an attempt to counter Western naval threats.

Coastal artillery could be part of the Navy (as in Scandinavian countries), or part of the Army (as in Anglophone countries). In the United Kingdom, coastal artillery was the responsibility of the Royal Garrison Artillery.

In the United States, coastal artillery was established in 1794 as a branch of the Army and a series of construction programs of coastal defenses began: the "First System" in 1794, the "Second System" in 1804, the "Third System" or "Permanent System" in 1816, and the "Endicott System" in 1890 (with disappearing guns mounted in batteries). During World War II the role of the U.S. coastal artillery was shifted from anti-ship to anti-aircraft with the advent of the airplane and airpower.

It has been held as a general rule of thumb, that one shore based gun equaled three naval guns of the same caliber.

The advent of jet aircraft and missiles means that coastal artillery is becoming obsolete, and as a result both fixed and mobile coastal artillery units worldwide are gradually being disbanded.