Life-Cycle Management - Army Logistics University - U.S. Army

The Role of Britain’s 17 Port
and Maritime Regiment
in Force Projection
BY MAJOR LYNDON M. ROBINSON, ROYAL LOGISTIC CORPS
Many of you reading this article have had firsthand
experience in working with British
forces, either on exercise or on an actual
operation. What may prove surprising, however, is that
some U.S. Army soldiers have served at the very heart
of British Army regiments. For example, a U.S. Army
Transportation Corps officer, a major, served as the
Operations Officer of 17 Port and Maritime Regiment,
Royal Logistic Corps, during that unit’s deployment to
Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. However, this
article is not about that officer or the regiment’s
exploits during what the British call Operation Telic
[the code name for the British campaign in the Persian
Gulf in 2003]. Rather, it is about the regiment’s role in
enabling the United Kingdom to project military
power throughout the world by sea.
Sea Move Issues
Her Majesty’s Armed Forces have the capacity to
deploy, sustain, and recover a combat force, including
an armored division, to and from any continent in the
world. That it can do so is utterly dependent on its
logistic enablers, one of which is 17 Port and Maritime
Regiment, complemented by its reserve component,
165 Port Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps (Volunteer).
The bulk of any expeditionary force invariably
moves by sea. The most complex logistic aspect of a
sea move is loading the force onto the ships and its subsequent
offloading. It is complex because the move
must be sequenced, the assets to be moved must be
tracked, different cargo commodities must be handled,
and, if necessary, the move must be completed at night.
Moreover, the ships involved may be at sea, possibly in
adverse weather, and trying to avoid an enemy that is
doing its utmost to wreck the offload. These factors
combine to make a sea move difficult. However, 17
Port and Maritime Regiment has the physical, moral,
and conceptual components to do the job.
History
In the annals of British military history, 17 Port and
Maritime Regiment is a relative newcomer. It was created
in 1949 as a Corps of Royal Engineers unit and
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was tasked with operating ports and beaches all over
the world in support of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces.
Since that time, the unit has been based at the military
port of Marchwood opposite the international trading
port of Southampton, which is on England’s south
coast. Army restructuring over the years saw the regiment
evolve from the Corps of Royal Engineers to the
Royal Logistic Corps. Notwithstanding this evolution,
the regiment’s disciplines remain the same. It continues,
to this day, to provide the watercraft, rail, and
port-operating skills required by an army that is serious
about expeditionary warfare. This is important
because, sadly for the British people, war is an everpresent
factor in their national life.
Britain has been involved in large-scale conflicts
during every decade of the last century. Two were
major conflagrations. Superimposed on this catalog of
conflicts were the peace-support operations associated
with Britain’s withdrawal from Empire [withdrawal
from its colonies in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and the
Pacific] and its historical duty to prevent the two communities
of Northern Ireland from tearing themselves
apart and descending into an abyss of hatred. Not surprisingly,
17 Port and Maritime Regiment has been
involved in numerous conflicts from Korea to Iraq.
Mission
The regiment’s mission is to maintain the readiness
of the United Kingdom’s deployable port, maritime,
and rail capabilities. The regiment is charged
with providing a sea point of embarkation or
disembarkation using a well-found [properly
equipped] port, an austere port, or a simple beach
and, having done so, operating rail and riverine lines
of communication. The regiment also must be able
to provide a tactical loading and discharging capability
to support the Royal Marine Commandos on
amphibious operations.
Put simply, the regiment must be able to load and discharge
ships at sea or in port, whether or not the enemy
is around, and then move supplies forward by rail and
river. To accomplish this, the regiment can operate over
a beach or through a port. If necessary, the regiment can
MARCH–APRIL 2005