Why doesn't India have the MARINES

Ja said: It’s also interesting to note that a private in the royal marines can take command of a mission out ranking an Army officer who would be subserviant to the Marine, though the respect will carry over, as it should.

That might be overstating it chap. A rank and file Marine can supervise the positioning of army troops subject to his own specialised task, he cannot take command in lieu or otherwise of an army platoon or section. There is a big difference in standards between the British Army Infantry and the Royal Marines but it is not as pronounced as Joe Public actually think. It takes the better part of a year to train a Royal Marine compared to about 6 months for an army infantry soldier but although standards of fitness are higher in the marines the main difference is in operational doctrine and specialisation which is responsible for the bulk of the extra time needed to train a Royal Marine. Make no mistake, army physical fitness standards, particularly for the infantry are very demanding.

Phil 🙂

Is there a need for India to set up a seperate marine force?India doesn’t plan to attack anyone unlike US.She already has considerable assests and a seperate command for Special Forces are coming up.They are trained for underwater ops too.Navy has Marines which have close tie-ups with British SAS.So I dont see any need of seperate Arm which will cost dearly

The USMC is not a truly separate service, it IS a part of the Department of the Navy. The Commandant of the Marine Corps takes his orders from the Chief of Naval Operations and is one rank lower than him.

The USMC has no medical personnel, they are provided by the USN, even the medical Corpsmen in the combat units. All the clinics and hospitals on USMC bases are designated as Naval Medical Facilities, and are staffed by Naval personnel.

Both the USN and USMC use the same training schools, with students from both services in the same classes. Basic Training (boot camp) is the only exception, as the Navy corpsmen assigned to combat units go to the USMC Infantry Training School (ITS) before joining their units.

The USMC aviation uses the same types of aircraft (mostly) as the USN, and the logistical support is procured with the same contracts for parts, common equipment, etc. All repair manuals and test & repair equipment are purchased and maintained the same way.

When I was in the USMC, many of the repaired parts that I got from supply to install on our aircraft had just been repaired by a USN workshop, and many of those I repaired went to USN squadrons. My attack jet (A-6 Intruder) squadron was also part of a Carrier Air Wing, and deployed aboard the CV-61 (USS Ranger) to Japan, Korea, Phillippines, and the Arabian Sea from 1985-1987.

The current plans are (to my admittedly second-hand information) to fully merge the USMC and USN Aviation departments, with (I believe) USMC pilots in the same squadrons as USN pilots, doing both the classic USN roles and the USMC “ground support” missions.

The only areas the USMC is considered separate from the USN are in appropriations, internal administration, and in having its own seat along-side the other services on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A naval special operations unit is good,but not on its own.Perhaps the easiest option would be a marine force based on the Iranian or UK model,where it is an integrated branch of the navy & not a separate force,like the US marines.
Specialist support like aviation,medical & field artillery can then be provided by existing units of the military.

hi all, how different will be an infantry regiment than those of the Marine. Will they use different kinds of inventories and different stratagies at the tactical levels.
Regards.

Hi JonS

LEt’s not get confused here.
The crux of this thread is about India not raising a FOURTH force (MARINES). We all know that India has the MARCOS but they function as separate commandos, initially styled as per US NAVY SEALS.
FYI, the MARCOS of India do not mean that we have a full fledged “FOURTH FORCE” like the US/UK /Philippine/Chinese Marines.
Hope all’s clear.

Cheers
dandpatta

[
QUOTE=JonS]huh? IN does have marcos

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NAVY/Marines.html[/QUOTE]

Didn’t India raise their numbers to regiment size?

Indian Marine Commandos to rule high seas

JOSY JOSEPH

INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 04, 2004 09:27:32 AM ]

NEW DELHI: Indian Navy is all set to raise nation’s most advanced commando training facility for amphibious operations in Goa.

The services of the proposed special operations school will be utilised to raise a regiment of Marine Commandos (Marcos) capable of carrying out surgical operations, especially in high seas where terrorist threat is very high.

The Marcos School will be set up in the Naval Academy in Goa, which in turn will be shifted to Kerala by 2006.

The Navy’s plan is to set up a full-fledged school for special operations on the lines of international schools in the West for marine commandos.

The new school will draw heavily from the Army’s Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) in Warangte, Mizoram.

The CIJWS itself is a renowned institution, set on a crooked mountain stretch with thick jungles. It is a favourite among several foreign Armies, including the US Army.

“We would have several facilities that are there in the Jungle Warfare School. However our focus would be to create the perfect Marine Commandos, so much more components would be brought in especially for operations in water bodies including seas,” a senior navy source said.

The source said the school for Marine Commando would be set up in the present Naval Academy in Goa after detailed upgrade of the facility there.

The Naval Academy is being shifted to Ezhimala in northern Kerala where a new modern campus for training navy’s future officers is nearing completion.

The first batch at the new Naval Academy in Kerala would begin training in a year-and-a-half. And in two years from now the new Naval Academy would be functional full-fledged in Kerala.

When the Naval Academy shifts out of its existing location, the Naval War College at Karanja would also shift to the Goa facility.

Naval sources say the decision to raise a full-fledged regiment of Marcos was prompted by the alarm over the possibility of sea-borne terrorist attacks.

The sea-borne threat is much higher in areas such as Palk and Malacca Straits where India has strategic interests and numerous shipping vessels pass routinely.

All major terrorist organisations such as LTTE and al-Qaeda have significant presence in the sea, and almost 90 per cent of India’s foreign trade is carried via sea.

huh? IN does have marcos

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NAVY/Marines.html

Ja Worsely, Indian & Aditya

Thanks for your inputs.
I must say though, that the Marines as a force, are not only in the US or UK. The Chinese AND the Filipinos have them too. I do not know the statistics of the Chinese Marines but the Filipinos, to my research, have at least 4 brigades.

As for the Indian Marine Commandos (styled as per US’ SEALS), it is said that there are at least 2,000 active servicemen, however, Indian military establishments being very sercretive about revellation of numbers, this figure cannot be verified / scrutinised.

Cheers
p2p4

Basically Marines are needed when you want to fight wars around the world. India never intends to do that so is content with some amphibious army Batts.

tell me the last time when any Indian Political boisses had any long-term stratergy for any matter regarding Indian National security or for the region.

It’s not only that mate, if you look at the doctrine of the USMC you’d see why no other country has them! These guys are beachhead specialists. They are trained to go in to the line of fire and secure a beach head on enemy soil, the best example of this was the Normandy landings. If you look at their equipment and setup you’ll find that everything they have is designed for use with beachheads in mind.

The UK Marines are very similar but they are more refined in their knowledge and are usually called upon as specialists in this role, It’s also interesting to note that a private in the royal marines can take command of a mission out ranking an Army officer who would be subserviant to the Marine, though the respect will carry over, as it should.

Some other countries have a seperate marine force and they are all used in the same way, the fact that India doesn’t have them is a result of them not needing this special force since their biggest enemy is across the boarder and not across the sea!

It is now very well known that the Indians have a Marine Commando Force (MCF).

However, I am just curious, what could be the reason that keeps the Indian govt from raising a totaly separate but all encompassing service entity force like the US Marines or UK Marines. Any thoughts?

Learned contributions welcome.

Cheers ,
Dandpatta

tell me the last time when any Indian Political boisses had any long-term stratergy for any matter regarding Indian National security or for the region.

HI Indian – thanks a ton for your inputs. You have a point re. putting in a hundred ton of $$$ to raise a Marine Force.
However, we Indians have taken our military force structures and traditions – almost 90% from the Brits. Why I wonder, did we not transform the Royal Indian Marines (colonial times) into the IMs.

Anyways, thanks for your inputs. I must commend you on your learned comments and inputs on other threads as well. Keep it up.

Cheers
Dandpatta

MEUs cost plenty of $$ in terms of logistics. so the cheaper option is do what is done now – train a few brigades of the army with the navy’s amphib assets.

if we seriously wanted to rip apart the terrorist neighbour limb from limb u will see marines and a 3 million man army. but right now, while the terrorist country is just spoiling to fight us (with new arms from Unkil) we are busy shoring up economic issues , dealing with china and preparing to deal with the inevitable backlash from unkil a few decades hence.