Marine Epeditionary Unit
(Special Operations Capable)
Capabilities
In qualifying for the SOC designation,
the MEU’s 23 separate special operations capabilities
are broken into four major categories:
- Amphibious Operations
- Maritime Special Operations
- Military Operations other than War
- Supporting Operations
Within the amphibious operations arena, specific mission
training is focused on amphibious assault, amphibious raid,
amphibious demonstration and amphibious withdrawal.
Maritime special operations capabilities include direct
action missions like seizure/recovery of offshore gas and
oil platforms and visit, board, search and seizure operations,
as well as tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel (TRAP).
MEU (SOC) military operations other than war capabilities
include peace operations (both peacekeeping and peace enforcement),
noncombatant evacuation operations and humanitarian
assistance/disaster relief.
The bulk of MEU (SOC) missions fall under the broad category of
supporting operations. Specific capabilities include rapid
response planning; terminal guidance operations; enhanced urban
operations; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; fire
support planning, coordination, control in a joint/combined
environment; providing command, control, communications and
computers; airfield/port seizure; limited expeditionary airfield
operations; security operations; enabling operations; employment
of non-lethal weapons; tactical deception; information operations;
and anti-terrorism.
MEU Structure
In the months prior to receiving their SOC designation, MEUs are
built up through the assignment of a ground combat element (GCE),
aviation combat element (ACE) and combat service support
element (CSSE) to an existing MEU command element (CE).
According to service descriptions, each MEU CE consists of
approximately 200 Marines and sailors and is reinforced with a
number of specialized detachments, including reconnaissance and
surveillance teams, radio reconnaissance and electronic
countermeasure teams, intelligence and counterintelligence assets,
and advanced communications.
The GCE is based on a battalion landing team (BLT). The 1,200
member BLT is structured around an infantry battalion reinforced
with an artillery battery, amphibious assault vehicle platoon,
combat engineer platoon, light armored reconnaissance company,
tank platoon and reconnaissance platoon. The reconnaissance
platoon provides the basic element for a unique feature of the
MEU (SOC), the Maritime Special Purpose Force (MSPF).
Key to many of the SOC’s unique special operations capabilities,
the MSPF consists of four elements: assault
(Force Reconnaissance Platoon), security (a selected infantry
platoon from the BLT), reconnaissance and surveillance assets,
and a headquarters section. Approximately 350 Marines and sailors
provide the MEU (SOC) with air support through the ACE, with
specific aircraft composition based on the tactical scenario.
Finally, the MEU (SOC)’s CSSE is composed of about 300 Marines
and sailors who provide the task force with supply support,
maintenance, transportation, explosive ordnance disposal,
military police, water production and distribution, engineering,
medical and dental services, and fuel storage. Capabilities
include the ability for the unit to support itself for 15 days
in an austere expeditionary environment.
MEU Equipment
As a MAGTF, the MEUs are equipped with a diverse mix of ground,
air and support hardware. For example, in a typical MEU (SOC)
structure, the 2,100 Marines and sailors are equipped with: 16
light armored vehicles; eight 81 mm mortars; eight TOW missile
systems; eight Javelin missile launchers; 15 amphibious assault
vehicles; six 155 mm howitzers; four M1A1 main battle tanks;
12 CH-46E medium lift assault helicopters; six CH-53E heavy lift
assault helicopters; three UH-1N utility helicopters; four AH-1W
Cobra attack helicopters; six AV-8B Harrier Jets; two KC-130
refueler/transport aircraft (on call in the continental
United States); two reverse osmosis water purification units; one
LMT 3000 water purification unit; one sea tractor; four TRAMs
(10,000-pound capacity forklifts); two 4,000 pound capacity
forklifts; three D-7 bulldozers; 30 5-ton or 7-ton/12-ton trucks;
one dump truck; four Mk48 logistical vehicle systems; seven 500
gallon water containers; and 63 HMMWVs.
SOC Training Cycle
In the case of the 22nd MEU (SOC) now operating in the CENTCOM AOR,
releases note that the assigned GCE is BLT 1/6 (1st Battalion,
6th Marines), the assigned ACE is composed of Marine Medium
Helicopter Squadron 266 (Reinforced), and the assigned CSSE is
MEU Service Support Group 22 (MSSG 22).
The train-up cycle for 22nd MEU’s started in late July 2003 when
unit members attended an Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG)
Conference at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, VA. In the past,
the meetings were called Amphibious Ready Group (ARG)-MEU
conferences, reflecting the fact that the MEUs had traditionally
deployed on three amphibious ships. The new conference name
reflected the fact that the 22nd MEU would be deploying as part
of an ESG, a unit that combines Navy combatant ships (the cruisers
Leyte Gulf and Yorktown, destroyer McFaul and submarine Connecticut)
with the three amphibious ships (USS Wasp, USS Whidbey Island, and
USS Shreveport).
Under the watchful eyes of evaluators from the II Marine Expeditionary
Force (MEF), the MEU’s five-month progression included a series combat
courses, three at-sea training exercises, and urban combat training in
South Carolina.
An example of the at-sea exercises took place in December 2003, when
22nd MEU joined the USS Wasp (LHD 1) ESG 2 for a month-long
Expeditionary Strike Group Exercise (ESGEX). Described by Navy
representatives as an intermediate-level exercise designed to forge
the strike group into a cohesive fighting team, ESGEX was a critical
step in the MEU’s pre-deployment training cycle. It also set the stage
for the unit’s culminating SOC Exercise (SOCEX) in January 2004.
Successful completion of that exercise resulted in the MEU receiving
its SOC designation on January 23.
Just over three weeks later, on February 17, 2004, the fully certified
22nd MEU (SOC) departed Norfolk, VA, in what it described as its
maiden deployment as an ESG in support of the global war on terrorism.
OEF
Just as 22nd MEU (SOC) deployed to the CENTCOM AOR in February of this
year, the 15th MEU (SOC) was in the early stages of a similar deployment
from San Diego, aboard the USS Peleliu ARG when America was attacked on
September 11.
Marine Corps representatives are quick to point to the fact that the
operational and tactical flexibility of the MEU (SOC), combined with
the strategic reach of the Navy, resulted in the 15th MEU (SOC) as the
only significant conventional force in the theater of operations in the
opening phases of Operation Enduring Freedom.
On October 7, 2001, 15th MEU (SOC) sent Marines into central Pakistan
to secure an airbase and logistical hub for follow-on operations into
Afghanistan. From early October to mid-November unit descriptions note
expansion of its mission set to include a recovery operation of a U.S.
Army Black Hawk helicopter TRAP at night, on short notice along the
Afghanistan/Pakistan border in support of special operations forces.
Additional OEF missions ranged from the MEU (SOC)’s AV-8B Harrier
detachment flying missions over Afghanistan to the unit’s role in the
longest helicopter assault in Marine Corps history, the 350 nautical
mile flight and subsequent seizure of an airfield in Southern
Afghanistan that would later become Forward Operating Base Rhino.
OIF
Unlike the deployment surprise of September 11, members of the
15th MEU (SOC) had a good idea of where they would be headed as the
ARG left San Diego in early January 2003. Although that deployment
made aboard the USS Tarawa ARG (USS Tarawa, USS Duluth and USS Rushmore)
had been scheduled long in advance, the timing and the regional
destination (Western Pacific) made it anything but routine.
For its OIF deployment, the 15th MEU (SOC) primary elements consisted of
its BLT, BLT 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines as GCE, Marine Medium Helicopter
Squadron 161 (Reinforced) as ACE, and MSSG 15 as CSSE.
Arriving off the coast of Kuwait in mid-February, 15th MEU (SOC) was
soon placed under the tactical control of the British Royal Marines
3 Commando Brigade, marking the first time that the two units had
conducted major combat operations together since the Korean War.
Examples of the broad capabilities that the MEU (SOC) provided planners
can be found in sections of the unclassified after-action report prepared
by BLT 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines.
Noting that the first week in March 2003 found the BLT refining its plan,
the report stated, As the month continued, the BLT continued to rehearse
its planned attack into Umm Qasr, and rehearsed an additional mission to
conduct Sensitive Site Exploitation and TRAP exercises.
The unit also conducted significant surveillance and reconnaissance
activities. As examples, on March 18, the report indicated, That evening,
the BLT, with the assistance of [deleted from report] from the Kuwait
Border Police, inserted two STA [surveillance and target acquisition]
teams into Kuwaiti police posts 12 and 13 along the border of Kuwait and
Iraq in the vicinity of Umm Qasr. The third STA team was inserted into
the Kuwaiti Naval Infantry Post in the vicinity of Camp Khor/Kuwaiti
Police Post 11.
A reaction force made up of the BLT’s CAAT [combined anti-armor team]
platoon was stationed at the five kilometer berm just south of the border
and near the police posts to extract the STA teams if required.
Later, the report continued, At 1818, on the 20th [March], the STA team
in the vicinity of Kuwaiti Police Post 11 spotted an Iraqi patrol boat.
The boat had fired upon a MEU radio battalion team co-located with the STA
team and the team returned fire. They then began to take mortar fire and
could see enemy personnel moving across the border in their direction. The
STA team asked for extract, and the BLT fired its first artillery mission
during Operation Iraqi Freedom on a targeted position...The STA team was
successfully extracted, and the artillery continued to fire through the
night to soften defenses and destroy the Iraqi police posts.
Other post-war action summaries serve to further illuminate the specialized
capabilities inherent in the MEU (SOC) concept. Among the examples noted in
a Presidential Unit Citation nomination were exploitation of 17 sensitive
sites (Among the items recovered were evidence of war crimes against U.S.
POWs, U.S. remains and U.S. personal effects from POWs and casualties.);
helping rid the port of Umm Qasr of waterborne mines and unexploded
ordnance; and the MEU forces coordination of a SEAL direct action mission
in Suk Ash Shuyukh to destroy an anti-aircraft weapons cache.
Capabilities Out There Now
As these pages go to press, the 15th MEU will soon start receiving the
first of its ground, air and support elements, prior to starting the
training process that will lead to SOC certification prior to its next
deployment in early 2005.
Meanwhile, a recently released DoD photo showed a HMMWV and a 7-ton/12-ton
MTVR truck from MSSG 22, negotiating a torturous passage to resupply elements
of BLT 1/6, the ground support element of 22nd MEU (SOC), which is currently
participating in the hunt for Taliban insurgents and hidden weapons caches in
Afghanistan’s Oruzgan province.
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