UK Amphibious Forces

The Royal Marines provide the backbone of the UK’s amphibious forces. The major operationally deployable element of the amphibious force is 3 Commando Brigade with its Headquarters in Plymouth.  The Brigade has  three Commando units, 40, 42 and 45 Commando Royal Marines and has its essential combat support and combat service support elements provided by the Army.   These units are 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and 59 Independent Commando Squadron Royal Engineers. The Commando Logistic Regiment has personnel from the Royal Marines, the Army and the Royal Navy and provides combat service support to the Brigade. In addition, there a number of smaller specialist units which can be part of the Commando Brigade orbat. 

A suite of amphibious ships, encompassing the LPH HMS Ocean, through to the new LPD's HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, and on to the five Knight Class (soon to be replaced by four Bay Class) auxiliary landing ships provide combat shipping capable of moving and sustaining an amphibious landing force consisting of the the bulk of the fighting elements of 3 Commando Brigade.  Active elements of this shipping often - for exercise or actual military operations -  form the RN's Amphibious Ready Group (ARG, this is an American designation, the RN sometimes uses Amphibious Task Group instead), which is a small-scale very high readiness force that will train through the medium of routine exercise deployments and be ready for contingent operations. 

The ARG is defined as : 

“An amphibious force, based around a Commando Group and amphibious shipping with supporting joint assets, deployed, or at high-readiness to deploy, into an area of likely contingency operations and capable of performing a wide range of military tasks.” 

The utility of the ARG has been clearly demonstrated during recent operations in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. General Sir Charles Guthrie, then Chief of Defence Staff, said of Sierra Leone: 

"The recent deployment of the ARG element of the Joint Rapid Reaction Forces amply demonstrated the utility of such forces in demonstrating HMG’s policy of support to the United Nations and to the Government of Sierra Leone (GOSL).  It sent a powerful message to the RUF and to the leaders of the regional states engaged either in support of GOSL or in direct opposition to them……  In military terms it demonstrated the UK’s ability to deploy at short notice, conduct a visible and meaningful exercise with out unnecessarily raising tension in areas of instability and then to redeploy at short notice.  This is entirely in accordance with the doctrine of joint rapid reaction forces.  It is appropriate, and no coincidence, that an ARG is a truly joint force consisting as it does of elements of the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Army, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary."

UK amphibious forces are usually commanded at sea and in the littoral by a deployable 2* called Commander UK Amphibious Forces (COMUKAMPHIBFOR).

Mission

Official statements indicate the requirement for an Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG) to be available for deployment from the UK at five days notice. If the ARG is already deployed, for example exercising in the Mediterranean, it would be possible to divert to higher priority tasks at very short notice.

The exact size and composition of the ARG would depend on the nature and scale of the operation to hand.  However its expected that a typical Royal Navy ARG will include one Albion Class Landing Platform Dock (LPD) as the command ship, one Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH - either HMS Ocean or if unavailable an Invincible class until in its secondary LPH role), and one Landing Ship Logistic (LSL) or (from 2007) a Bay class Auxiliary Landing Ship Dock (LSD(A)).  The Embarked Military Force (EMF) will usually be a Royal Marines Commando Group.   This strength can be reinforced if required, for example up to three additional LSL's or LSD(A)s could be deployed, and RM manpower could be increased (with sufficient notice) to the whole of 3 Commando Brigade, also British Army units could also be embarked to a greater or lesser degree.

In an assault landing operation, the first wave of troops are landed on the beach by landing craft from the LPDs - HMS Albion and/or Bulwark - and by a "vertical assault" on vital points somewhat inland by helicopters from the LPH (e.g. HMS Ocean), to establish a beachhead and landing zone. The LSD(A)'s are initially positioned about 20nm offshore and remain over-the-horizon during the first wave assault, they may use landing craft and helicopters to help offload the second wave and subsequent waves of troops and equipment from themselves.  When the beach area and landing zone have been finally confirmed as secure, the LSD(A)'s will approach the landing zone and from just one or two thousand yards off-shore will deploy Mexeflotes (motorised pontoons) to assist in the quick and efficient offloading of the heavy vehicles and equipment that they carry.  Once a harbour has been secured, Point Class "Ro-Ro" Strategic Transport's and ships taken up from trade (STUFT) will bring in further reinforcements and re-supply the force.

ARGs are extremely versatile and could be used for a variety of purposes in a disaster relief role. Depending on the precise nature of the task, this could mean acting in a command and control function, facilitating communications over a reliable and secure communication network, providing logistic support, or the use of manpower for clearance or re-stabilisation work