Galhran over at Information Dissemination has a post out on the recent retaking of a hijacked ship and of the forces that did the work. Read the story here....but his parting statement is eye catching.
What is Bulkeley's "specialist boarding team?" I am not familiar with this new term. Is this Navy Special Warfare Command? SWOs in VBSS? SOF? Marines?I don't quite know what to make of this. Maritime Special Purpose Force (MSPF), Force Recon and Navy SEALS are well known commodities. Even a Public Affairs Officer (no insult intended) would have knowledge of those guys...so why the murky language?
Who are these mysterious pirate fighters of the Indian Ocean? Inquiring minds would like to know.
This might bear watching.
cross-posted from InfoDissemination"
ReplyDelete"I put an inquiry into Navy News but of course NO answer. What kind of sailors they are talking about? Maybe crew, maybe a NSW team, maybe a MESFron det, who knows?
BTW SWO already run VBSS boarding parties. So do EXOs of NECC units. IF the team was Marines you had bette believe they would have said so~
OR this could be another screwup by those PAO types now weating MCS ratings badges with NO editors in sight?"
also cross posted from ID thread titled: A Day of Reflections and Questions:
ReplyDelete"please do NOT discount the use of NECC units for naval raiding parties. There are sailors in NECC which can do that now and they don't need an amphib as does the MRF to get the job done. The Marines are often elsewhere becuase that is their job and the MRF is a new comer to the MIO game besides there how many MRF - 1?
Some are being myopic to just consider Marines for landing force parties....
Another thing is that better VBSS capabilies need to be built into warships.
NECC units are by definition expeditionary. The first two RivRons where trained at the Marine School of Infantry. They do NOT need to operate off an amphib per se, they could operate off an MSV like MSC already charters for NSW support. Its easier to charter ships than to buy if some folks in the Pentagon recognized that and took on idiots on the Hill. But that is a separte issue."
PLEASE do NOT construe this a anti-Marine. I am just saying us ALL the manpower assets avaiable to the DoN, and put trained sailors on EVERY warship. The Navy has those sailors now. And at least until such time as all warships get their own Marine dets trained as small unit raiding parties, we need to be thinking beyond the one MRF.