Category Archives: asymmetric warfare

The Port of Gulfport implemented ‘continuous autonomous subsea surveillance’ on May 1

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There is no secret that the Navy has often used undersea surveillance sonar such as the German-made Cerberus anti-diver set for years in sensitive areas such as strategic ports, NSYs, and homeports.

For instance, more than 20 years ago:

050815-N-1722M-026 Pascagoula, Miss. (Aug 15, 2005) – Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit One Two (EODMU-12) Det 10 prepare to guide the Cerberus Swimmer Detection System into the water at Naval Station Pascagoula during the Gulf Coast Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative 2005. The initiative is being held at the Port of Pascagoula in cooperation with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, along with federal, state, and local agencies working together to enhance homeland security. U.S. Navy Photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Michael Moriatis (RELEASED)

Plus, there are regular harbor inspections and exercises by USCGR PSUs and USNR MIUWUs, not to mention state and local dive teams and UXO/EOD dets.

Now the ante has been quietly upped in the form of full-time AUSVs.

I’ve covered the Ocean Aero Triton, which is capable of sailing autonomously for 3 months on solar and wind power at speeds of up to 5 knots, several times in the past couple of years. I see them a lot as the company is based here in Gulfport.

Up she comes.

It seems the Triton is now also “on the job” in the port, basically making a baseline scan of the bottom and then repeating the grid to look for new items which would be interesting to take a closer look at to see if they are, well, an old refrigerator, or a sea mine.

 

Dad’s Army: Swiss Edition

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Some 85 years ago this week, on 7 May 1940, the Swiss Federal Council authorized General Guisan to set up Local Guards (Ortswehren, gardes locales, guardie locali), a home guard organization outside the regular Swiss Army and reserves.

Whereas regular service with the Army ran to age 60, with most active requirements stopping at age 50, the Local Guard was able to enlist those young men who were not old enough to be conscripted yet, and those who had aged out at age 70. Finally, those medically unfit for service or, for one reason or another, can not serve in the Army were rolled into the Local Guard.

They typically wore civilian clothes, mixed with old uniforms from prior service, and used personal or donated rifles, with a few old Eidgenössische Waffenfabrik Modell 1889/96 rifles eventually taken from storage for the force.

As with the British Home Guard (Dad’s Army), there was a dedicated partisan in waiting vibe to the Ortswehr, especially in bicycle-equipped units.

The role of the Local Guards during the last mobilization was mentioned in the Final Report of the Chief of the General Staff of the Army as follows:

“The Local Guards contribute by their presence to reassure the population of the hinterland that no longer feels completely at the mercy of saboteurs, the 5th column, paratroopers or motorized detachments that would have pierced the front.”

The force reached 127,563 men in 2,835 units by January 1941 and then stabilized at around 155,000 for the rest of the war. Keep in mind that at the time, the country only had a population of about 4 million, of which 850,000 were on the rolls of the Swiss Army, albeit only about half of those were on active orders. Between the Army and the Ortswehr, you are looking at a full quarter of the Swiss population under arms.

A Schweizer Réduit indeed.

The Swiss thought the Ortswehr important enough to keep around until 1967, and the word is still in use in the cantons today for local fire fighter organizations.

Junk Force at 60

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It happened some 60 years ago this month.

Official caption: “Ensign Le Quy Dang, VNN, and Lieutenant Tylor Field, USN, look for suspicious fishing boats while Lieutenant (J.G.) Phu, Commanding Officer of Junk Division 33, communicates with other units of his division during a patrol. Ensign Dang holds in his hands a powerful little equalizer, an M-79 grenade launcher. April 1965.”

At the beginning of 1965, the VNN Coastal Force consisted of 526 junks assigned to 28 Coastal Force divisions spread out along the entire coast of the Republic of Vietnam. The force included 81 command, 90 motor-sail, 121 motor-only, and 234 sail-only junks.

The command junks were the most capable vessels. Armed with one .50-caliber and two .30-caliber machine guns, these 54-foot junks could reach a maximum speed of 12 knots. At least one American adviser sailed with the Vietnamese crew.

At the end of the day, the operational effectiveness of the junks depended on the motivation and actions of the Vietnam Navy personnel, and this was a weakness the advisers were only too aware of.

April 26, 1965 Chief Gunner’s Mate Edmund B. Canby, underway in one of the command junks of Junk Division 33. He carries an M2 carbine

330-PSA-5-65 (USN 711489) Junk Force personnel load infantry troops aboard the small craft for a seaborne assault against the Viet Cong 1964. Note the M1 carbines and garands

Lookout watch crew member of a unit of Vietnamese junk force maintains vigilance over Viet Cong shipments in search of contraband, May 1962 USN 1105176

Vietnamese Junk Force stand lookout for craft which might be suspected of carrying weapons and other gear to Viet Cong collaborators, May 1962. USN 1105071

Junk force. His tattoo “Sat Cong” means “kill Viet Cong.” Photographed by SFC Bill Curry, before February 1965 USN 1109225

South Vietnamese Coastal Junk Force personnel inspect a boat they stopped in South Vietnamese waters M1 carbines duck hat and sneakers 66-3818

Junk of the South Vietnamese junk force on patrol at Vung Tau, Vietnam, March 1966 USN 1114950

Junk force man alert with Thompson as his junk prepares to move alongside suspicious fishing junk in search of Viet Cong contraband, May 1962 USN 1105074

Engineman First Class Carl L. Scott, advisor to the Vietnamese Coastal Junk Force 1964. Note the mix of pajamas, M1 Garands, and M1 Thompsons

Vietnamese Junk Force Crewmen searching a Viet Cong fishing boat in search of contraband and arms, May 1962. Note the Tommy gun. USN 1105078

Vietnamese Junk Force sailors. Note the sheilded M2 50 caliber machine gun and “evil eyes” on the trawler. Co Van My 15 Mar 1966 K-36321

Junk Force Station, Phu Quoc 1966

Lt. Taylor Field and Edmund B. Canby LIFE junk force April 1965

Hai-Thuyên Force Junk Force Vietnam, putting a WWII-era M1919 to use

Hai-Thuyên Force Junk Force Vietnam. Note the M1919s

For more information on the Junk Force and the Brown Water Navy of the Vietnam War, read War in the Shallows:  U.S. Navy Coastal and Riverine Warfare. 

Rock and Roll

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A U.S. Navy Patrol Boat, Riverine (PBR) crewman mans his twin M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun mount as the craft patrols the Vung Tau River in Vietnam on 14 April 1966, “in anticipation of trouble with the Vietcong.” Note the alternating mix of M20 red-over-silver-tipped armor-piercing incendiary tracer (API-T), silver-tipped M8 AP-I, and M1 incendiary (light-blue tipped) ammo in his belts.

Journalist First Class Ernest Filtz Photographer, NARA – K-31263

While the war of a million sorties from Yankee Station gets the most attention from Navy historians, the “Brown Water Navy” of the River Patrol Force and Mobile Riverine Force on Operation Market Time and Operation Game Warden involved the efforts of more than 30,000 Bluejackets and deserves to be remembered.

A little 5.56 will jam an outboard right up

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The downright elderly (60 years in commission) 210-foot Reliance-class USCGC Valiant (WMEC 621) recently offloaded approximately 12,470 pounds of cocaine, worth an estimated $141.4 million, at Coast Guard Base Miami Beach after wrapping up a patrol of the Florida Straits and Caribbean.

Valiant’s crew secured the illegal drugs after six interdictions in international waters, including one incident on 17 February some 50 miles northeast of the Dominican Republic, that included the crew of her 26-foot RHIB zapping a go-fast with M4s.

Now, being the Coast Guard, they aimed for the outboards, not the crew, and brought said coke boat to a halt.

Law enforcement crew members from USCGC Valiant (WMEC 621) stand in front of interdicted narcotics and engine covers at Base Miami Beach, Florida, Mar. 6, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard photo 250306-G-FL647-1055 by Petty Officer 3rd Class Nicholas Strasburg)

A USCGC Valiant (WMEC 621) law enforcement team is underway with interdicted narcotics approximately 50 miles northeast of the Dominican Republic, Feb. 17, 2025. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations aircrew detected the suspicious vessel and vectored in the Valiant crew who apprehended five suspected smugglers and seized approximately 1,280 pounds of cocaine. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman Reese Fishbaugh)

Roll that beautiful bean footage:

Zippo Monitor, in Vivid Color!

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Early 1969 U.S. Navy images from the National Archives, show a “Zippo” flamethrower installed on a 56-foot Armored Troop Carrier monitor– an armored LCM (6) landing craft–  in testing along an unnamed river in the Republic of Vietnam.

Note the camo “duck hunter” jungle hat, worn slouch style. DN-SC-82-03010

DN-SC-82-03009

DN-SC-82-03008

As detailed in War in the Shallows: U.S. Navy Coastal & Riverine Warfare in Vietnam, 1965-68 by John Sherwood page 178:

In the summer of 1967, when the Viet Cong constructed bunkers capable of withstanding 40mm rounds, RIVFLOT 1 began exploring the idea of deploying flamethrowers on riverboats as a potential bunker buster. On 4 October, the M132A1, an Army flamethrower, was shoehorned into an ATC. Commanders hoped the M132A1’s 32-second burst and 150-yard range would not only neutralize enemy bunkers but also deter river ambushes. Tests proved satisfactory, but the M132A1, weighing 23,000 pounds, was too heavy for the Navy’s needs. Instead, lighter M10-8 flamethrowers were installed on six monitors delivered in May of 1968.

Nicknamed “Zippo” after the popular cigarette lighter, these monitors mounted two M10-8 flamethrowers, each with an effective range of 200–300 yards. With 1,350 gallons of napalm fuel, the M10-8 could lay down a sheet of flame for 225 seconds. Sailors would make napalm by mixing a powder consisting of the coprecipitated aluminum salts of naphthenic and palmitic acids with gasoline. Compressed air propelled the napalm through the flamethrower, and a gasoline lighter acted as the trigger.

“You had to be careful to get the right jelly consistency when making it,” explained Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Joseph Lacapruccia, “but firing the weapon was not dangerous. No one was ever burned. It was much safer than the 20mm, and napalm was effective against the VC because it could travel into spider holes and deplete oxygen.”

Zippo Monitor of Task Force 117 using dual flamethrowers to reduce possible enemy ambush sites along riverbank Mekong Delta, May 3, 1968, USN 1135595.

T-AGSEs Surface

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An interesting addition to the Bollinger-built 87-foot Marine Protector class patrol boats for the Coast Guard in 2008 was four units– paid for wholly by the Navy– that would serve in two special Maritime Force Protection Units, assigned to the Submarine bases at Kings Bay and Kitsap, tasked to escort submarines (particularly SSBNs) heading in and out on patrol.

Each MFPU, which numbers 150-200 personnel, also has a dozen smaller craft (33-foot RIBs, etc).

In a nod to their taskings, these Navy-paid-for/assigned and CG-manned patrol boats carried the names of historic fleet boats of WWII fame:

  • USCGC Sea Dragon (WPB-87367) MFPU Kitsap
  • USCGC Sea Devil (WPB-87368) MFPU Kings Bay
  • USCGC Sea Dog (WPB-87373) MFPU Kitsap
  • USCGC Sea Fox (WPB-87374) MFPU Kings Bay

Armed with three 50 cal. machine guns (instead of the standard two for the class) these MFPUs carried their “extra” BMG in a permanently installed forward mount that was stabilized and remotely controlled.

TAMPA, Fla. – Coast Guard Cutter Sea Dog, a newly-designed 87-foot coastal patrol boat, transits Tampa Bay, Fla.,, Wednesday, May 6, 2009, during sea trials. The Sea dog is scheduled to be commissioned July 2, 2009, and is homeported in Kings Bay, Ga. (U.S. Coast Guard photo/PA3 Rob Simpson)

However, last year all four of these still rather young WPBs were withdrawn from CG service, decommissioned, disarmed, and relegated to auxiliary service with the Navy and Marine Corps.

For instance, the two Kings Bay-based boats were transferred to MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina to be used as range/target towing boats.

Disarmed and without her racing stripe, the ex-USCGC Sea Dragon WPB-87367 at MCAS Cherry Point for target support

Their replacements?

Meet T-AGSEs

The civilian mariner crewed Military Sealift Command has a small flotilla of eight vessels tasked with “Submarine and Special Warfare Support.”

These vessels, typically oilfield supply boats operated by Louisiana-based Hornbeck Offshore Services, include a quartet of 250-foot EDF type who have been christened as U.S. Naval Ships with hull numbers.

They also carry fixed armament, something extremely rare for the MSC, namely two Mk. 38 25mm mounts, operated by a USCG Tactical Boatcrew. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had MANPADs, AT4s, and M2s stowed as well

  • USNS Black Powder (T-AGSE 1)
  • USNS Westwind (T-AGSE 2)
  • USNS Eagleview (T-AGSE 3)
  • USNS Arrowhead (T-AGSE 4)

Built by Leevac Industries of Jenerette, these four brand-new 250EDFs were operated by HOS between 2009 and 2015 on a Navy contract and then purchased outright for $152 million.

The MSC has their file pictures all still in their HOS livery:

HOS Black Powder 200819-N-IS698-0004

HOS Eagle View 200819-N-IS698-0007

HOS Arrowhead

Since 2015, these craft have been Navy (MSC) owned and operated by HOS, typically for 215 days per year at a rate of about $30,000 per day.

Arrowhead and Eagleview are out of Kitsap while Black Powder and Westwind are out of Kings Bay.

Being some 250 feet in length, they are often referred to as “Blocking Vessels” in operations.

They rarely get any attention, with the USCG operating their guns and providing an MLE team for intervention/boarding if an escort gets…weird. Why the Coasties pull the gig is that they are federal law enforcement with a pretty far-reaching jurisdiction around U.S. flagged vessels in U.S. waters. 

USNS Black Powder and USNS Westwind. Note the 25mm Mk 38 Mod 2 mounts, and the MSC blue and yellow stripes around Westwind’s pilothouse. Wiki commons

Ohio class USS West Virginia (SSBN-736) USNS Black Powder

U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft from Moody Air Force Base, Ga., escorted ballistic missile submarine USS Wyoming (SSBN 742), July 15, 2024. The aircraft conducted a live fire exercise and U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Force Protection Unit Kings Bay, USNS Black Powder (T-AGSE-1), and USNS Westwind (T-AGSE-2) also participated in the escort of the submarine. Joint operations, such as this one which involved the Air Force, Coast Guard, and Navy, ensure the U.S. military is ready to meet its security commitments at home and abroad

Being three times the size of the 87s, they can also help serve as mini-tenders and, during Covid, were used to swap out Blue/Gold crews on SSBNs at sea, as well as replenishment for parts and stores transfers via a moving brow.

Note the USCG ensign on Black Powder’s mast and her USNS designator on her bow. 

ATLANTIC OCEAN (Jan. 24, 2022) Sailors assigned to the Blue Crew of the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Wyoming (SSBN 742) prepare to execute an exchange of command and crews at sea. This regularly scheduled exchange of command at sea demonstrates the continuity and operational flexibility of our sea-based nuclear deterrent operations and our ready, reliable ballistic submarine force. The efficiency of exchanges of crews at sea allows Sailors to reunite with their families and provides a ready, resilient submarine force. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Aaron Xavier Saldana/Released)

ATLANTIC OCEAN (Jan. 24, 2022) USNS Black Powder supports the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Wyoming’s (SSBN 742) exchange of command and crews at sea. This regularly scheduled exchange of command at sea demonstrates the continuity and operational flexibility of our sea-based nuclear deterrent operations and our ready, reliable ballistic submarine force. The efficiency of exchanges of crews at sea allows Sailors to reunite with their families and provides a ready, resilient submarine force. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Aaron Xavier Saldana/Released)

ATLANTIC OCEAN (Jan. 24, 2022) Sailors assigned to the Blue and Gold Crews of the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Wyoming (SSBN 742) execute an exchange of command and crews at sea. This regularly scheduled exchange of command at sea demonstrates the continuity and operational flexibility of our sea-based nuclear deterrent operations and our ready, reliable ballistic submarine force. The efficiency of exchanges of crews at sea allows Sailors to reunite with their families and provides a ready, resilient submarine force. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Aaron Xavier Saldana/Released)

They just popped up in a DOD Contract list this week, as noted below, with the current daily rate being more like $50K per vessel including operation and maintenance:

Hornbeck Offshore Operators, Covington, Louisiana, is being awarded a $48,360,544 firm-fixed-price contract (N3220525C4134) for the operation and maintenance of four government-owned Transportation Auxiliary General Submarine Escort (T-AGSE) vessels. The vessels under this award include USNS Arrowhead, USNS Eagleview, USNS Westwind, and USNS Black Powder. The contract includes a six-month base period with a six-month option. The contract will be performed in Kings Bay, Georgia; and Bangor, Washington, beginning March 1, 2025, based on the availability of funds clause at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.232-18 and will utilize fiscal 2025 working capital funds (Navy), and will conclude Feb. 28, 2026, if the option is exercised. This contract is a Sole Source Bridge and was not competitively procured, under the authority of 41 U.S. Code 3304(a)(2), as implemented by FAR 6.302-2 Unusual and compelling urgency. Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Curious Airborne Puffer Fish

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Captured 80 years ago this month.

Official wartime caption: “Japanese balloon, Fu-Go [Fugu, 河豚; 鰒; フグ]. A completed Japanese balloon is inflated for laboratory tests at a California base. It was recovered at Alturas, California, January 10, 1945. Ineffective as it is, however, the Japanese balloon is an ingenious device. The balloon itself at a maximum altitude is a true sphere, 100 feet in circumference. It is made of five layers of mulberry paper, each about as thick as cigarette paper, but strong and water-repellant when cemented together. It is filled with hydrogen. Suspended like a chandelier below the envelope by 19 shroud lines, each 45 feet long, is a device for automatic control of altitude. The bomb load is attached to the ‘chandelier’ with an automatic release mechanism. The balloon is further equipped with automatic demolition blocks which are supposed to destroy it in the air. On many of the balloons recovered the self-destroying device failed to function.”

Print received August 1945 from Publications Sec., AC/AS, Intelligence. Used in the August 1945 issue of “Impact.” Copied August 27, 1945. U.S. Army Air Corps (Air Force) photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 342-FH-3B23422

It is estimated that an amazing 9,300 Fu-Go balloons were launched from Japan against the U.S. and Canada from Coastal Honshu Island between November 1944 and April 1945.

While only 285 were documented as reaching North America, as many as 1,000 may have made it this far, meaning their wreckage is likely sprinkled over remote forests and lakes, waiting.

Surely this is something China would never consider doing again, right?

5-inchers got a Lot more use than you’d expect in the Red Sea (and an LCS got in on it)

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As detailed by the head of Naval Surface Forces, VADM Brendan McLane, during the annual Surface Navy Association conference this week, warships expended some 400 pieces of ordnance in defense against incoming threats from Iranian/Houthi rebels over the past 15 months.

  • 120 SM-2 missiles.
  • 80 SM-6 missiles.
  • 20 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) and SM-3 missiles.
  • 160 rounds from destroyers and cruisers’ five-inch main guns.

The last one is great news, as the anti-air capability of the MK 45 5″/54 and 5″/62— especially when using proximity (VTF and IR) rounds– has been often overlooked. I mean they have a published effective AA range of 23,000 feet and can fire 20 rounds in the first minute of going hot.

Datasheets inbound: 

LCS Combat!

One interesting tidbit not included in the above table is that an LCS has been bloodied in battle as well, with the USS Indianapolis (LCS 17) recently earning a Combat Action Ribbon and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, the first for her type, “after shooting down Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea.”

Indy, a Freedom-variant littoral combat ship, just completed an 18-month deployment, which included two exchanges of command between LCS Crew 112 and LCS Crew 118.

While traveling as a Surface Action Group with the destroyers USS Spruance and USS Stockdale through the Red Sea, the ships “successfully detected and defeated a combined 23 Ballistic and Anti-Ship Cruise missiles and one-way attack drones fired from Houthi Rebels in Yemen” across three days from 23-25 September.

Now, unclear is if Indy got in shots on said incoming vampires, and if so was it from her 57mm gun, her Sea-Ram, or her embarked MH-60 from HSC 28. It was also recently detailed that a Seahawk downed a Houthi drone via its 7.62mm door gun last month, so that’s a possibility.

“What this team of amazing Americans achieved over the course of this deployment will pay dividends in the maintenance planning and tactics development arenas for years to come,” said Cmdr. Matthew Arndt, USS Indianapolis’ Commanding Officer. “As the workhorse of the Arabian Gulf, Indy executed the lower tier missions necessary to maintaining good diplomatic relations in the Middle East which allowed Standard Missile shooters to reposition to deal with bad actors in the Red Sea. I think it’s pretty special that we were able to provide the 5th Fleet commander with more tools and options to aid in the free flow of commerce through a contested waterway.”

An Albion & Bulwark-sized hole in the RN’s Sealift

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Between 1982 and 2017, the Royal Navy’s amphibious forces enjoyed a renaissance.

Saved from a planned gutting by the Falklands operation, the capability was preserved– and even enhanced– for a 35-year run that included very successful over-the-beach operations in 2000’s Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone and then during Operation Telic during the 2003 Iraq War– where the latter saw a full brigade-sized amphibious assault on the strategically key Al-Faw peninsula in south-east Iraq.

Royal Marine Commandoes from 42 Commando hit MAMYOKO BEACH from Sea King helicopters of 846 Naval Air Squadron, in a demonstration of amphibious power during Operation Silkman in Freetown, Sierra Leone 13 Nov 2000. MOD image by Royal Navy PO Jim Gibson (Click to big up)

By the late 1990s, the RNs phibs included 13 dedicated new vessels: a 21,000-ton LPH (HMS Ocean), two 20,000-ton LPDs– HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, four 16,000-ton Bay-class landing ships of the civilian-manned Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and six 23,000-ton Point-class roll-on/roll-off merchant sealift ships permanently contracted to the MoD for use as needed. Basic math puts this at 263,000 tons of vessels dedicated to the ‘phib role, with about a quarter of that being RN manned and controlled.

However, this had been whittled away with the still-young HMS Ocean sold to Brazil– where she serves as that fleet’s proud flagship– and one of the four Bays (RFA Largs Bay) sold to Australia. Two of the Point-class RO/ROs have all been released from contract (while gratefully the other four have recently been retained on a new contract running until 2031).

Now, Maria Eagle, Minister of State for Defence, recently stated:

“All of the remaining crew from HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark have been reassigned: either to other platforms, to training courses, or into other positions supporting the Royal Navy’s highest priority outputs.”

Britain’s flagship HMS Albion (L-14), seen in the Java Sea, 2018. With a well deck capable of holding four LCU MK10s and another four LCVP MK5s can be held in davits, she can land 620 Marines on the beach in a single lift. Meanwhile, she can also accommodate three CH-47 Chinooks on her heli deck. 

For reference, Albion and Bulwark only entered the RN in 2003 and 2004, respectively and the latter has been in an extended major refit to add 15 years of life to her! Both ships have been effectively in reserve since 2011, swapping places in reserve/high readiness conditions over that time, meaning both are low-milage vessels. The plan had been to retain them until at least the mid-2030s, but the Labor government has scrapped that idea.

The official disposal of Albion and Bulwark cuts the two most capable British “gators” from the fleet inventory, slashing 40,000 tons of sealift in the process. Coupled with the sale of HMS Ocean and RFA Largs Bay, and the release of MV Longstone and Beachy Head from the contract, the Royal Navy only has three Bays (two of which are laid up!) and four Points left on tap, representing 140,000 tons of shipping.

Worse, all of it is civilian-manned and those mariners have not been very happy lately.

If the red button gets mashed in 2025, it looks like only one dedicated amphibious warship, the humble RFA Lyme Bay (L3007), would be able to take the call. Meanwhile, the Royal Marines have been reduced to just two deployable six-company battalion-sized units: 40 Cdo and 42 Cdo.

RFA Lyme Bay in the Mediterranean as she makes her way back to the UK after training with the Italian Navy, in November 2020. LPhot Barry Swainsbury MOD 45167525

Designed for 356 embarked Royal Marines, she can double that for short, uncomfortable, stints. Her tiny well deck can hold either a single LCU or two LCVPs while her heli deck (without hangar) can only support a limited amount of vertical lift. Her self-defense armament is limited to a pair of 20mm CIWS and a few light guns.

Besides the light battalion landed on the beach in five or six (hopefully unopposed) lifts by Lyme Bay’s sole LCU, anything else would have to be flown in by fixed-wing RAF assets to marry up with equipment brought in sometime later by the Point class RO/ROs to a seized local port. This can be alleviated a bit by the use of Mexifloat connectors– provided of course that the beach can handle the load and the deep water curve is close enough to the surfline to accommodate Lyme Bay’s 19-foot draft without grounding. 

Churchill wept.

Since you came this far, enjoy this recent interview with retired MG Julian Thompson, CB, OBE, who got the call to take 3 Commando to the Falklands in 1982– back when the RN had a proper amphibious force.

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