Royal Marines train with new board and search guidelines

Maritime December 10, 2019

Royal Marines from the Juliet Company trained with new board and search structures under the Future Commando Force programme.

The Juliet Company, 42 Commando, are specialists in board and search operations and have undergone new training under revised structures. The company is behind a number of anti-piracy deployments and drug operations.

The new structure comes as part of the Future Commando Force Programme designed to improve operations. The four companies under 42 Commando have been assigned specialist roles; Juliet Company will take on board and search, Kilo will specialise in assaults, Lima will focus on joint personnel recovery, and Mike will look at additional force protection.

Officer Commanding Juliet Company Major John Middleton said: “You never know what you are going up against on a boarding. Even on a compliant boarding, someone could pull a gun on you half way through.”

“Over the past three or four years, Juliet Company has developed its equipment and now we’ve pretty much got the optimum suite.”

“We are the specialists in this environment and what makes us good is that we exercise all the time. Last week we were boarding a Brittany ferry, this week Albion.”

Boardings involving the Fleet Contingency Troop are invariably on a larger scale than those carried out on dhows in the Gulf, so Juliet took advantage of flagship HMS Albion as she conducted training off Plymouth to prepare her for a winter deployment to Norway. Using two RAF Chinook as their steeds and the cavernous loading dock of Albion – packed with landing craft, vehicles and shipping containers – as their target, more than two dozen commandos ‘rapid roped’ from the helicopters and made their way into the bowels of the assault ship.

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Chinook exercise personnel recovery piracy Royal Marines Royal Marines Commando Training