Commando 21

Commando 21 is the name given to the reorganisation of the Royal Marines (RM) three battalion sized Commando units; namely 40 Commando; 42 Commando; and 45 Commando.^[1]

The Commando 21 Organisation

Commando 21 organised each RM Commando unit into six sub-units, styled companies. Each company was subdivided into troops; note that a “troop” is the RM nomenclature for a platoon rather than for an individual soldier. The new structure was presented as giving the RM more firepower, more mobility, more information, more flexibility and more fighting power. According to open-sources each Stand Off Combat Company was to have a field strength of five officers and 78 other ranks, and each Close Combat Company was to have five officers and 98 other ranks. Under the Commando 21 re-organisation the overall strength of each of the three units was originally stated to be 692 all ranks.^[2]

The companies are:

Command Company

Main HQ

Tactical HQ

Reconnaissance Troop (includes a sniper section)

Mortar Troop (9 Barrels of 81 mm) (Includes 4 MFC pairs)

Anti-Tank (AT) Troop (Milan—to be replaced by Javelin ATGW)

Medium Machine Gun Troop

2X Close Combat Companies

Company Headquarters (Coy HQ)

3X Close Combat Troops (Troop HQ, 3 Rifle Sections, Manoeuvre Support Section)

2X Stand Off Companies

Company Headquarters (Coy HQ)

Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) Troop (0.5" heavy machine guns)

AT Troop

Close Combat Troop

One Logistic Company

A Echelon 1 (A Ech1)

A Echelon 2 (A Ech2)

FRT

RAP

B Echelon (B Ech)

Command Company

The Command Company is responsible for command, control, communications, computation, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (C4ISR). It also was organised to include a machine gun troop, the unit’s mortar and anti-tank troops, together with the reconnaissance troop.

Logistics Support Company

The Logistic Support Company manages administrative and logistic activity.

Close Combat Companies

Each of the two Close Combat Company is similar to the previous RM rifle company, having 3 platoon sized troops, but each troop, in addition to three rifle sections, has a manoeuvre support section of five men equipped with General Purpose Machine Gun, Long Range Rifle and 51 mm Mortar.

Stand-Off Combat Companies

Each of the two Stand Off Combat Company has a Close Combat Troop identical to those in the Close Combat Companies. It also was organised to have an Anti-Tank Troop with 6 MILAN anti-tank weapons and a Heavy Machine Gun troop with 6 0.5in Heavy Machine Guns.

Timescale

The restructuring was to have completed by summer 2003.

References

1. "Commando Units To Be Reshaped", Navy News, archived from the original on 2011-07-11
2. Extract from The Globe & Laurel, November–December 2000, archived from the original on 2010-11-05