The Royal Marines’ 3 Commando Brigade is to be officially renamed the UK Commando Force, in a change announced by the King that reflects a decade of transformation in how the Corps fights, the Royal Navy has said in a news release.
The change was announced as four Royal Marines units, 40, 42, 43 and 45 Commando, were presented with new Colours at a ceremony at Windsor Castle. Addressing the parade gathered in the Quadrangle, the King said the Marines had consistently demonstrated “that there are no environments in which a Royal Marine cannot operate and win”, whether “in the heat, the cold, or something persistently wet in between.” Marking “the closure of one chapter, and the opening of another”, he announced that 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines would “henceforth be known as the United Kingdom Commando Force.”
The transformation behind the new name began in 2017, as Marines, Army and Navy commandos serving in 3 Commando Brigade modernised with new tactics and ways of operating intended for combat in the most demanding environments, while taking on new technology to meet the changing character of warfare. Since then, the force has introduced crewed and uncrewed systems and vessels, including aerial and surface drones, while investing in new weaponry, surveillance, digital communications and battlefield vehicles.
In what the Royal Navy describes as a bold move away from existing structures, the Commando Force drew on the Marines’ long history of special operations to reorganise for battlefields that now demand dispersal, disaggregation, greater reach, longer endurance and self-sufficiency, operating in small teams spread across a wide area rather than as a single massed amphibious brigade.
The First Sea Lord and Commandant General Royal Marines, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, said the change was “more than a name change” and reflected “a decade of transformation.” The Royal Marines, he said, had evolved “from a very high readiness amphibious brigade into a modern, globally deployed Commando Force, designed to operate in the most demanding environments.”
The new name, he said, better represented who they are now, namely “highly versatile, technologically advanced strike teams, specialised for a huge array of tasks and perfectly adapted to the nature of 21st-Century warfare. A Force ready to fight and win, wherever and whenever the nation requires.”