With the Army and Marine Corps stretched to breaking in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Navy is scrambling for ways to contribute more to inland fights. One result is a new river boat squadron, second of its type, stood up two weeks ago. Riverine Squadron Two and its sister, Ron One, are part of Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, which gathers all the Navy’s coastal and land forces under one banner and adds brand new capabilities.
NECC — based alongside patrol boats (pics!) and amphibious ships at Little Creek, Virginia — includes construction battalions, logistics troops, harbor patrol units, ordnance disposal teams and the new riverine squadrons, and is the subject of a story in the current issue of Defense Technology International.
“It was definitely the ongoing war that created the idea,” says Captain Robert McKenna, NECC’s 44-year-old training officer. “We realized that the Army and Marine Corps were nearing capacity and that there was more to be done. We were looking for ways for the Navy to contribute more. Then we started looking out and said, the Navy really is contributing. And the sailors contributing the most in theater are the ones wearing this uniform.”
He gestures to his green and brown fatigues, the same ones worn by the Navy’s 16,000 Seabees, 3,000 port cargo handlers and hundreds of Explosive Ordnance Disposal experts — all of whom have been busy abroad in recent years. “They had no type command that took care of their Title X functions: training, equipping, manning.”
“We saw a need to put them into a coherent structure and better equip them,” adds NECC commander Rear Admiral Donald Bullard, 55. “And then, all of the sudden, we began to look at other capabilities” including Navy civil affairs and riverine.
Riverine forces in nimble, heavily-armed boats played a huge role in the Vietnam War, but were run down after the evacuation of that country as the Navy shifted focus on deterring the Soviet Navy. In Iraq, a country crisscrossed by large rivers, canals and marshes, the U.S. and British militaries (pictured) found themselves chasing down waterborne smugglers and insurgents in jerry-rigged engineer boats until specialized forces could be reconstituted.
The U.S. Marines sent its new boats to patrol Haditha Dam, a major power-generating station in western Iraq, but wasn’t happy diverting money and resources to a mission that once belonged to the Navy. By 2005, the Corps was ready to divest itself of the riverine mission. Then-Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Vern Clark sensed this.
“Admiral Clark asked, Marines how can I help?” explains Lieutenant Commander Mike Egan, 44-year-old commander of Riverine Squadron One. “One of the ways was, hey, this riverine mission thing. That was the impetus that got the whole riverine thing rolling.
NECC will have three squadrons, each with 224 sailors and, eventually, a combination of 39-foot Small Unit Riverine Craft, built by Raytheon, and smaller Special Operations Craft-Riverine, built by United States Marine. The goal is to get 16 boats per squadron,” says Ron One’s Lieutenant Chris Cowart, 40. The total includes eight SURCs and at least four SOC-Rs. “The balance could be either.”
Until enough boats are manufactured, the Navy is borrowing SURCs from the Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, for training and plans to fall in on the Corps’ boats at Haditha Dam when it first deploys a squadron to Iraq in 2007. Their mission in Iraq will be much like the Marines’, patrolling waterways, landing Marines and Masters at Arms for raids or riverbank security, searching small boats to interdict insurgents and illegal weapons.
While the missions and platforms are the same, the Navy is adding high-tech capabilities to its riverine squadrons that the Marines have lacked. In addition to the usual bank of radios, Navy SURCs will feature digital network terminals in order to plug into the Army’s command and control architecture. And, according to Lieutenant Christopher Farricker from Riverine Group One, the Navy is shopping for a small UAV that can boost a four-boat patrol’s situational awareness. The idea, he says, is to get that “bird’s eye view and give it back to the boat operator.” The service hasn’t down-selected types yet.
–David Axe, cross-posted at War Is Boring
If we are going to fight insurgency as in Iraq, I hope the boats will have enough armor and active protection system to protect crews from 1)mortar and RPGs 2)IEDs 3)and 14.5mm rounds. In other words, AFV like boats with remote weapon stations that could be controlled from within. Shall we see boats with anti-RPG “cages” any time soon?
If ground vehicles suffer so much from RPG’s, IED’s and the lot, then a big patrol boat should be painted with big red letters that say ‘shoot here’, it’s not like nobody will see you come from a hundred miles away.
Better bring those mothballed battleships upriver, because something less resilent (like a PBR) will quickly be renamed to Swiss Cheese.
And i’d rather not be in a small fast boat either: no cover, no armor.. 5 guys in a bush with AK’s and some shooting skills will rip it to shreds in no time. And do bring those sniper-detection devices: a guy with a proper sniper rifle can take potshots all day long: where will you hide? Behind the bow wave?
cripes, no kidding. maybe throw up a really, really big roostertail and then hide behind it?
Yes I would love to know what they did with those mothballed riverine battleships with the rpg cages on them and such. Why not send those over? Anyone know anything about them?
I think they were all sold to a film crew to shoot attack ads for our last presidential election… My, how history repeats itself.
Sorry I’m not impressed. The Navy is searching for a mission in this “war on terror” and the formation of this new command is it’s way of attempting to get a piece of the Army’s funding pie. They can’t seem to decide between being a brown or blue water force. These missions rightfully belong to either the Army, Coast Guard or the Marine Corps and the Navy is pushing itself into other forces realms of expertise. The argument that the EOD and Seebee crowd didn’t have adequate command and control is a lark…Bureaucracy wins again. Talk about preparing for the last war, this takes the cake…
SEAL Team Hut ! someone has an interest in brown water recon. draw fire or no fire — geospatial intel collected interfaced with combat information sharing and accessment. some Navy people believe they need to patrol the brown waters. side bar — a whole lot of oil moves thru the straights of hormooz. there was a Japanese WWII design of a slimmed down elongated torpedo bomb to be delivered from flight. the Hoot looks very similar. only the Hoot can be launched from shore mobility , speed boats as well as a submarine. the damn thing has a range of 125 miles. it skims so low — can we say limbo ? over the water at a high speed ( maybe , 240 mph or better.. probably unclassified — better — take ah guess ). sink a few ships in the straights and its blocaded. how all those big wheels will be able to transport their oil is a curiosity. demolition the blcoking tankers out is an option. WWII Imperial Japanese supply lines were hacked off to starve them into submission. could oil suppliers ( 90 percentile ) last without selling their supplies ? is a war really worth it ? do they have due bills to pay ? do they have dependant investments on the sale of their oil ? how long could they last with a shutdown ? could we do better without their supplies ? would it impact the world ecomony ? and how ? would an attack force America to counter strike ? how soon and to what magnitude ? would the battle in the straights of hormooz be worth any of the opposing factions effort ? the greatest meeting of the minds of the world need to rationalise before someone puts the blitz on each other. MONEX has a free DVD on the gold and silver markets. 1 800 804 1933. its th yr of th golden pig. Pax Omnia , Dei Gratia.
What in the world is he talking about?
These comments are so typical of the uninformed armchair general (or admiral). This is a positive effort by a branch of our armed forces to take the fight to the enemy from another angle. The risks in combat don’t change. You come home or you don’t, been that way for thousands of years. Waterborne mines are harder to accuratly control than the roadside counterpart. Additionally if the enemy now has to divert resoures to a new threat they will be spread thinner.
Hey, go for it Navy. Way back when, before SEALS, worked with a UDT team. They did their gig, we did ours. The SeaBees, constuction, did a fantastic job. We were not trained to be carpenters or such. We were trained to demolish things, in a different sort of way.
Semper Fi Navy.
The vessel hides with speed. Even a skilled sniper is going to have real trouble hitting a fast, erratic target on the water at normal sniper engagement range.
Mass AK fire is a problem.
Aircraft hide behind speed as well, but then you have this damn new SAM threat. And the fact that pilots tend to love their schedules. Insurgents love schedules too.
There’s no system out there that can survive IED strikes or direct hits from mortars. Even an up-armored humvee will get blown to heck by RPG-7s and 14.7mm.
The thing is, if everyone and their neighbor is throwing ordnance at you, you are not in control of the country. To gain control, you can convince them to stop shooting or you can kill them all. Our forces do not have the resources to do the former, and we can not conscience them doing the latter. And thus things remain.
Wish I did not retire, I would be all over that mission!
I have to say, this is a great idea, put some Bee’s on the boats and let them do the 2nd job they’re trained for. After field exercise after field exercise, it’s nice to finally do what SeaBee’s are trained for. Using Amphibious vessels only makes sense to put the Navy’s “land lovers” on it.
“those mothballed riverine battleships with the rpg cages on them and such” — were but mothballed, but turned over to the Vietnamese Navy. Virtually anything left Stateside is either a razor blade or a safe haven reef. ONE of the “battleships” is part of a Brown Water Navy memorial in Coronado, CA
i think the navy should have never got rid of the riverine force. it’s good that they are bringing it back. they should also let Beachmasters crew too.
I think that what they are doing is great for the navy, and why should we think otherwise. They are all on the same side and why should it be just a job for coast guard or army.…..I support them in everyway possible and hope that they get the job done at gods speed.
Support Riverines as they support our country!!!!!
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