Marines' beach assaults could become a thing of the past as defence report warns operations like the D-Day landings would cost too many lives in future conflicts

Brigadier Totten has suggested large-scale beach landings are too vulnerable to modern weapons systems such as drones, meaning the Royal Navy would have to devote too many resources to protect marines attacking a beach as well as once they were ashore. He wrote in a Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) publication: 'The risk facing amphibious forces, then, is that the value of amphibious insertion comes to be seen as being outweighed by its costs and risks.'