Hard, thinking, adaptable

Monday, April 12, 2010

Versatility and the ability to quickly respond to the unpredictable is all part of the job description for the Royal Marines, as Major General Andy Salmon tells Matthew D'Arcy…

The recruitment phrase of the Royal Marines once read '99.9 per cent need not apply'. While the specific wording has since been refined to deliver a more successful campaign, the meaning that a Royal Marine is something quite special still rings true. For Major General Andy Salmon, it is the versatility and adaptability of the Royal Marines that makes them such a valuable asset to defence. As both Commandant General Royal Marines (CGRM), and Commander UK Amphibious Forces, he sits in the somewhat unique position of understanding how his organisation fits into modern day defence.

And 'fit in' the organisation does. "We are inherently joint," says the General. "You can't separate the Royal Marines from other organisations." He refers to the fact that the Royal Marines are closely interwoven, not only with other services in the British Armed Forces but also with multinational organisations as well. "50 per cent of my HQ is Royal Marines, the rest is multinational. It's got Royal Navy, Air Force, Dutch Navy, Dutch Marines, French Navy, US Marine Corps – so it's really a combined organisation, which makes us very good at working in multinational environments."

Indeed, the adaptability of the Royal Marines means that they are in incredibly high demand and General Salmon says that they are at the core of a lot of organisations in defence. "You should never think that the Royal Marines are just about 3 Commando Brigade, we've got a heck of a lot more," he says. In fact, the significant role played by the Royal Marines on current operations in Afghanistan is only part of what they do. For example, the Royal Marines provide a 600-strong Fleet Protection Group, and at sea marines play a vital role: "We guard the nuclear deterrent and provide specialist boarding teams to counter piracy and drug smuggling," he explains.

But this flexibility and adaptability is not available by chance, rather it is the result of design and of an historical role.

"We are creatures of our background, our environment," says General Salmon. "For us that means maritime legacy, amphibious, expeditionary and commando – you put all those things together and it makes us incredibly flexible, adaptable and responsive. We come from the sea, you don't always know what you will find on land; we've got to be able to operate on land, and because we're autonomous, we've got to have greater capacity in our command of control systems and in our planning areas. Nobody else is going to support us once we're committed to operations from the sea."

Major General Salmon believes this makes the Royal Marines "a ubiquitous capability that can fit seamlessly into routine operations in Afghanistan, that can come from the sea and do things like Sierra Leone and intervene in a very flexible way, and that doesn't need a massive HQ and logistic footprint ashore when we're in the littoral." The general adds that this means the Royal Marines are able to understand the environment and work out how to tailor their capabilities to what is needed, whether that be on the ground, in mountain terrains, in cold weather warfare, in jungle environments or in the desert.

Equipment is seen as an important element in allowing the multi-capable force to function. Service chiefs have voiced their opinions on equipment priorities, but as the head of an organisation that is core across defence, General Salmon's priority is to have interoperable equipment that can function and enable Royal Marine operations in the myriad of environments in which they may be expected to work.

In terms of future procurement, he is eager to pursue a very modest programme, with requirement for equipment like a new landing craft, fast patrol boats, and upgrades on hovercraft. However, he makes the point that "investment has been made already in much of the equipment that we need."

Specifically, with foresight and planning, the Royal Marines were able to push for much of the equipment they need today back in the 1990s. Again, with recognition that the organisation could be called on to perform a range of tasks, the focus had been to tailor equipment to the needs of expeditionary intervention. The 1998 Strategic Defence Review, for instance, took into account the need for new specialist amphibious shipping, which has contributed to a transformation in the fighting capability of the Royal Marines today.

Also foreseen back in the 1990s was the need for the Viking vehicle. "Naval funded to start with, we developed the requirement in 1995 and got it into the defence programme because we knew that we needed protected mobility because of the environments that we were going to work in, amongst the people," says General Salmon. "What we've found is that they're exactly the sort of equipments that
were required for operating in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Indeed, Viking has proven to be a popular choice for commanders in these environments and has been the subject of Urgent Operational Requirement acquisitions for other services. "It was incredibly successful because it was the only vehicle that could manoeuvre over the terrain of Afghanistan, that had the protection, firepower and agility to be able to really surprise the opposition, and
gave us the tactical edge in that particular environment," says Salmon.
He adds: "It's stayed in Afghanistan, and we had to form a new Viking capability for the whole of defence. We had to train the army to operate it, and it's been a hugely significant piece of equipment – at one stage battle-winning."

Since then, however, developments in threats have led to the requirement for under vehicle protection, leading to the acquisition of the Warthog vehicle. Nevertheless,
Salmon stresses the point that decisions made in 1995 have allowed for required capability today. In essence, he says, these decisions were made "anticipating wars amongst the people, and wanting to have a strategic and operational tactical ability to have kit that you can put in ships, in helicopters and landing craft and kit that is highly mobile and agile." The General says: "We've found that some of the initiative and innovation that we've taken has been used by defence and it's been incredibly successful and significant."

However, suitable and adaptable equipment alone does not make the Royal Marines what they are. Major General Salmon believes that the mindset of the Royal Marines is central to their versatility: "There is the need to rapidly adapt, innovate and absorb operational knowledge, and the challenges of operating amongst the people. You need incredibly flexible, well-trained soldiers who have got to understand how to use myriad weapon systems, how to operate in a high-tech environment, how to operate amongst the people and connect with them, and you need to have people with open minds who can learn fast."

As a learning organisation, he stresses that in 2006 the Royal Marines recognised that they were not learning and absorbing effectively from the work they were doing on operations and in their various specialist roles. This led to significant changes in the training programmes given at the Commando Training Centre In Lympstone. This, he says, has been vital, as Royal Marines and officers go straight from training to operations, with nothing in between, and so they have to be fit-for-purpose at the end of their training from Lympstone.

But more generally, he says that the current Royal Marines recruitment campaign 'Royal Marines Commando: It's a state of mind', sums up the essence of what they are about. He says it is important the Royal Marines attract the right sort of people, people who are "hard, thinking, adaptable commando soldiers". These people, he says, when they come out of Lympstone are "modern commandos who can do all these different things". He adds: "They're marines first, specialists second, and that's what really counts in this current operational environment."

And so, with a future defence review on the horizon, Major General Salmon is confident in one thing: "The one thing you can predict about the future is that it will be as unpredictable and uncertain as the past."

With this in mind, his message to defence is clear: "If you want to be able to deal with and address instabilities, you need real flexibility, adaptability, responsiveness and agility. You need specialised forces who are multiskilled and can work in all of these different environments with lots of different people, different departments and interagencies.

They've got to be inherently joint and combined. They've got to rapidly reorganise themselves to tailor accordingly to whatever is required."

He concludes: "If you look at the history of the Royal Marines and amphibious forces, that's exactly what we've always been doing. Those are exactly the sort of capabilities that you need to deal with hybrid globalised challenges."