The Armed Reconnaissance Company is a specialized reconnaissance unit under the US Marine Corps. It is well-trained, highly specialized and has special combat capability. The Armed Reconnaissance Company is one of the two special forces of the US Army that can conduct frontal battlefield confrontation, and the other is the "Ranger" special force.

Development history

The origin of the armed reconnaissance company can be traced back to the amphibious reconnaissance battalion of the US Marine Corps. In the Battle of Guadalcanal, the amphibious reconnaissance battalion conducted many enemy beach reconnaissance operations and directly reported important and useful information to the landing force commander.

1943, the amphibious reconnaissance battalion was reorganized into an amphibious reconnaissance company, which was sent to the Pacific war zone, and submarines scouted the islands and reefs to collect enemy information. In the second year, the amphibious reconnaissance company participated in important landing wars such as Iwo Jima and Ryukyu Island. After the end of World War II, the amphibious reconnaissance company was dissolved, and these marines were incorporated into other infantry platoons or reconnaissance tanks at that time, as well as the marine reconnaissance division at that time.

1954, Lemuel Sheppard, commander of the US Marine Corps, established a temporary unit: the Marine Corps Tactical Test Team, which was established to test and study new tactics or reconnaissance means suitable for the Marine Corps.

Bruce Myers, its director, and joseph taylor, the team's experimental reconnaissance platoon leader, put forward many innovative reconnaissance technologies at that time, such as using armed parachuting for infiltration reconnaissance with high jump and low pull, or using helicopters for infiltration reconnaissance, which gave the Marine Corps a further advantage in the reconnaissance behind enemy lines at that time.

The Marine Corps Tactical Test Team put forward a new concept of armed reconnaissance. Its main purpose is that based on the development of new military technology and reconnaissance technology, the US Marine Corps should strengthen the armament and establishment of reconnaissance troops. In view of this, on June 1957, the Marine Corps formally established an armed reconnaissance company. 1957 In July, the Marine Corps Tactical Test Group was merged into the first reconnaissance battalion.

In the 1960s, in order to meet the new operational requirements, the US Navy set up the famous "Seals" commando team, which theoretically replaced the amphibious reconnaissance unit of the Navy. But this only stays at the theoretical level, and I still don't believe that the "Sea Seal" commando team can completely replace the amphibious reconnaissance troops.

During the Vietnam War, the armed reconnaissance company often cooperated with the army's "Green Beret" special forces and the navy's "Seals" commando to carry out infiltration operations. 199 1 year, when the Gulf War broke out, the armed reconnaissance company conducted many reconnaissance and assessments on the enemy forces along the coast of Kuwait, which led the Iraqi army to mistakenly think that the US military would land amphibious on the coast on a large scale.

Today, the Armed Reconnaissance Company has been able to perform many tasks arranged as the US Special Operations Command, and its tasks are divided into "green" operations and "black" operations. Their first task of specialization and specialization is intelligence gathering, that is, amphibious reconnaissance and deep reconnaissance, which is also commonly known as "green" action.

In addition, the ship's surprise missions, such as direct action, maritime interception, anti-piracy, etc., are also called "black" operations. In order to strengthen the anti-terrorism ability of the Marine Corps, in recent years, the US Marine Corps has listed hostage rescue as one of the tasks of the armed reconnaissance company.

Troop establishment

The armed reconnaissance companies of all units of the US Marine Corps are basically the same, including command units and reconnaissance platoons. Each armed reconnaissance company is under the command of the company commander and the deputy chief officer. The command unit includes administrative (army management), intelligence, operations, logistics, communications and other departments, while the reconnaissance platoon includes the logistics platoon, the first platoon (direct action platoon), the second platoon (direct action platoon), the third platoon (deep reconnaissance platoon), the fourth platoon (deep reconnaissance platoon) and the fifth platoon (reconnaissance sniper platoon) of the headquarters.