laststandonzombieisland

The British 3 Commando Brigade (3 Cdo Bde) dates back to 1942 when it was (eventually) composed of four assorted Commando battalions (No. 1 and No. 5 Army, and Nos. 42 and 45 Royal Marines) and their support units.

Post-war, the Army Commandos were disbanded but the RMs kept on trucking and participated in the Suez fiasco, the last time for 26 years that it operated in combat as a full brigade.

It is perhaps most famous for its service in the Falklands in 1982.

In that epic campaign, bolstered by 2 and 3 Para along with two SAS Squadrons, its three RM Commandos (40, 42, and 45) along with the Rigid Raiders, three SBS sections, the school staff and trainees of the Mountain and Arctic Warfare cadre, and Commando-trained Army support units (29 Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery; 59 Independent Commando Sqn, Royal Engineers, T-battery 12 Air Defense Regiment, 30 Signal Regiment) 3 Commando did most of the heavy lifting to liberate the islands. Sure, 5 Guards Bde got in on the final push on Stanley– particularly the Scots Guards who stormed Tumbledown and the Welsh Guards who faced the disaster that was Bluff Cove– but 3 Commando effectively won the war on the ground.

Following the Falklands, 3 Commando saw a renaissance in support of amphibious operations.

Whereas most of the aging landing ships and carriers used in 1982 had been slated for either layup or disposal, the Admiralty dug into its purse and in the early 1990s funded a new 21,000-ton LPH (HMS Ocean), two new 20,000-ton LPDs– HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark— followed shortly later by four new 16,000-ton Bay-class landing ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and six 23,000-ton Point-class roll-on/roll-off sealift ships permanently contracted to the MoD for use as needed.

A force of 13 brand-new ‘phibs to carry a brigade. No problem. Further, with the obsolescence of this new force not expected until the 2030s, it should have continued to not be a problem. After all, the two 16,000-ton Fearless-class landing platform docks, which entered service in the early 1960s and spearheaded the amphibious operations in the Falklands racked up a combined 69 years of service. 

This set up 3 Commando for great success in 2000’s Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone and then during Operation Telic during the 2003 Iraq War– where it made its first bridge-sized amphibious assault in over 20 years by landing on the strategically key Al-Faw peninsula in south-east Iraq.

Now, following two decades of deployments abroad in places well ashore such as Afghanistan, made worse by successive waves of budget cuts, the RN’s amphibious warfare fleet has been hollowed out.

• The mighty HMS Ocean was sold to Brazil in 2018 where she will no doubt remain the crown jewel of that navy for decades.
• Albion is in reduced readiness while Bulwark is laid up in an extended refit and — and calls are circulating to dispose of the two still very useful LPDs to free up sailors for other vessels, amid a recruitment crisis. 
• One of the four Bays (RFA Largs Bay) was sold to Australia. Should Bulwark and Albion be scrapped, this remaining trio of 18-knot RFA-manned LPDs can only accommodate about 350 men each in a landing but would be the core of any British amphibious ready group.
• Two of the six Point-class RO/ROs have been released from contract with the other four set to have their contracts expire this year.

In a decade, the 13-ship RN gator fleet has dwindled to possibly as few as three deployable ships, although all three may not be deployable at the same time. 

As for 3 Commando itself, while it now consists of five Commandos (40, 42, 43, 45, and 47) that is something of a paper tiger.

This is because 43 Cdo is a fleet protection unit safeguarding the SSBN base at Faslane, 45 Cdo is a fleet protection unit for Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels around the globe, and 47 Cdo is a small boat and training group akin to a U.S. Navy Assault Craft Unit. 

That only leaves 40 Cdo and 42 Cdo as the only true deployable six-company battalion-sized units in the “brigade.” A third battlion would have to come from either a mustered 45 Cdo reinforced by 43 Cdo elements– which would shortstaff their respective current missions– or a “round out” from the 1st Marine Combat Group of the Dutch Korps Mariniers which has been working with 3 Cdo Bde for decades, the latter unlikely outside of a NATO mission. At least 3 Commando is still supported by a mix of Army artillery, engineer, and support units, freeing up Marines for pulling triggers.

While there is a Royal Marines Reserve, the 600-strong service is spread out in 17 small drilling units around the UK — not a cohesive and immediately combat deployable Commando– and is primarily used for augmentation missions.

So it doesn’t much matter if all they had to deploy on were a couple of slow Bay-class LPDs anyway, as the Royal Marines don’t have enough bootnecks to fill them anyway.

The future for the RMs, at least in terms of afloat deployments, is likely just small reinforced company-sized groups operating from their dwindling few amphibious warfare vessels, and even smaller platoon-sized groups on the RN’s five Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessels (Forth, Medway, Trent, Tamar, and Spey) which are being assigned to wave the flag in the Caribbean and Pacific as the country only has about 15 frigates left and they are otherwise needed to screen its two carriers.

That sounds like a great way to get a company or platoon-sized force wiped out if things ever get real.

Probably time to let the Army’s 3 Commando units switch over to support the new four-battalion Ranger Regiment, which could be the unwritten plan all along.