Marines increase training for at-sea boardings - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Marines increase training for at-sea boardings

Navy warships patrolling off the Horn of Africa and elsewhere could be getting some help soon in dealing with pirates and other oceangoing bandits as the Marine Corps ramps up its readiness for high-seas boardings.

Marine expeditionary units on the East and West coasts have increased their training in visit, board, search and seizure, according to the top Marine Corps planning officer. Top planners will combine what they’ve learned into what could become a big shift in operations at sea.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser said May 27 that East Coast MEUs have been training to board and secure ships from the air — in which Marines step off a helicopter or MV-22 Osprey, or fast-rope onto the deck — and West Coast MEUs have been using Navy-style rigid inflatable boats.

The planning for Marine Corps at-sea boardings is still in its early stages, he said. It’s not clear where or whether Marines could take missions from sailors, for example, or how sailors and Marines might work together in tomorrow’s encounters. What is clear is that Marine Corps leaders want to add VBSS to the range of jobs a MEU must be able to accept, Waldhauser said.

“It only makes sense for us as a Navy and Marine Corps team,” he said. “It only makes sense for us to be relevant — if we’re not relevant, we might as well stay home.”

Does the Marines’ new emphasis on boardings mean that big- and small-deck amphibs will get more assignments fighting Somali pirates off the lawless Horn of Africa? Waldhauser said he couldn’t say. He also said the increased training was not a response to an increase in incidents of piracy.

But Waldhauser, the deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations, pointed out that most MEUs deploy without a specific mission in mind, taking assignments as they come and adapting to circumstances as necessary. One unexpected mission could be dealing with pirates or smugglers.

“If you’re a maritime force, and you’ve got this problem to deal with, you’ve got to be ready across the full spectrum of operations,” he said.

If the MEUs enhance their ability to do VBSS, it’ll be the latest in a series of movements among the blue-green team. In the 1990s, the Marine Corps fielded VBSS teams in the “special operations capable” MEUs of that era. Even then, Marines couldn’t do the most intense at-sea operations — they were restricted to working in daylight, for example. When Marine special operations moved off gators to Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, it took VBSS with it, Waldhauser said.

So the job of high-level helicopter boardings went back to the Navy. In 2007, the fleet stood up its own East and West coast teams of helo boarding specialists, which reported to Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, but it had folded them all by last October, NECC spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Susan Henson said.