Royal Marines have been training in the evacuation of ‘vulnerable civilians’ during an exercise in the United States, say the Ministry of Defence.

According to a release, Royal Marines specialise in warfare in extreme environments as well as covert commando raids but they also must be equipped to deliver humanitarian aid and be able to help civilians in need.

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“That is why the Information Advantage cell of Plymouth-based 30 Commando headed to Quantico, Virginia, to work and share knowledge with US, Australian, Dutch, Canadian and Colombian counterparts. Their first task was to produce detailed plans for a Non-combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO), the withdrawal of people in danger to a safe haven.”

That could be British citizens or nationals who are also at risk, or nonessential military personnel.

“A fictional scenario challenged the multi-national group to aid a made-up Southeast Asian country, called Cyan. The 30 Commando IA cell were joined by Royal Navy Reserve subject matter experts along with Defence Scientist Technology Lab (DSTL) analysts specialising in behavioural science.

After a week of planning, the task force carried out the NEO in a life-like scenario created by the Urban Training Complex and a host of highly-skilled role players, which allowed the teams to gain the maximum training benefit from each phase.”

The exercise was designed to provide Information Operations and information-related capabilities and give trained personnel the opportunity to exercise integration into an operational planning team and focus on tactical skills, say the MoD.

Tom Dunlop
Tom has spent the last 13 years working in the defence industry, specifically military and commercial shipbuilding. His work has taken him around Europe and the Far East, he is currently based in Scotland.

10 COMMENTS

  1. Incorrect and misleading headline
    from the article:
    Royal Marines have been training in the evacuation of ‘vulnerable civilians’ during an exercise in the United States, say the Ministry of Defence….“A fictional scenario challenged the multi-national group to aid a made-up Southeast Asian country, called Cyan. The 30 Commando IA cell were joined by Royal Navy Reserve subject matter experts along with Defence Scientist Technology Lab (DSTL) analysts specialising in behavioural science.

    • I think you’re being a little dramatic there Farouk. I don’t find it misleading at all. Not for a second did it cross my mind that we had ‘literally’ evacuated civilians from the mainland US.

      My first thought was ‘Oh obviously some joint exercise, I wonder if it’s the RM lads embarked on the QE doing a bit of joint training while shes over there for flight trials?’.

      • When I saw the headline I thought it meant the Royal Marines may have assisted in evacuating civilians from flooding or fires or something, obviously not evacuating from the US altogether.

      • Well… I ACTUALLY did think Royal Marines were evacuating US Civilians from the headlines…

        You know, hurricane hits the coast, and have to get the civilians to higher ground, or to another inland state… or some other natural disaster that hit…

        Or am I being too dramatic?

        BTW, if Marines served on board a SSN, would they be “Sub-Marines?”

  2. That’s very interesting. One could hope they were being evacuated to escape the impending jack-booted thuggery of the Democrats who recently gained supremacy in Richmond and other cities and counties. VA will become the new East Coast California!

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