| United States Marine Corps |
Introduction
The institutional founding of what was to become the United States Marine Corps took place on10 November 1775.
This was even before the birth of the United States themselves (4 July 1776!) and nobody even thought of flying aircraft.
Since 1775 the Marines serve a proud tradition with a lot of historic fights and battles. The first battle fought was the
Revolutionary War with a succesfull assault on Nassau in the Bahamas. From then on the Marines could be found anywhere in the world.
The first battle overseas was a fight against pirates and the barbary pirates in the Mediterranean kept them exceptionally busy.
After World War One the Marines carried out their first major ground action against Japan on the island of Guadalcanal.
When World War Two was over the Marines went to battle in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and recently the Balcan.
Let us focus now on the United States Marine Corps' aspect that our attention is drawn to mostly: the aircraft they operate.
The Marine Corps exists of three major components: Amphibious Assault (the USMC "business card"),
Close Air Support (to supports its ground troops) and Airmobile (Helicopter) Assault (to deliver groundtroops into enemy territory).
Especially the latter is one of the world's most mobile and well-armed forces. Where the President of the USA would call the
US Navy and ask "Where are the carriers?" the US Marines are waiting for a "Rescue 911"-call from this president
for expeditionary operations or even armed interventions.
The USMC Aircraft
The inventory of the USMC consists of attack and fighter aircraft as well as observation, transport and early warning aircraft.
The flying units are all mainly dedicated to supporting the USMC ground forces and occasionally to augment US Navy units if necessary.
They are, like the US Navy, part of the Naval Aviation and have their own command. The first aircraft in USMC service was a B1
which came on strength on 22 May 1912 and was based at Tampico, Vera Cruz.
At this moment "the Corps" has a big and strong aircraft inventory which is larger than most countries' complete outfit.
Spread over three active wings and one Reserve Marine Air Wing the squadrons are normally shore-based. They often deploy
aboard LHA- and LHD-Amphibious Assault Ships (as part of a Marine Expeditionary Unit-Special Operations Capable) and they also
take part in regular six month land-based deployments all over the world or operate as part of a US Navy Carrier Air Wing.
The USMC inventory will see some changes in the near future. Most important of those is the introduction of the MV-22B Osprey.
These tiltrotor airplanes will replace the CH-46E Sea Knights and the CH-53D Sea Stallions over the next 13 years but the
first operational squadron will reach its Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in 2001 already. The USMC plans to purchase
350 MV-22's. The next project is the Joint Strike Fighter, currently in its demonstration phase contract. The US Marine Corps
will probably acquire this new fighter as the succesor of the older F/A-18's and AV-8B's. The first KC-130J, another new
type for the US Marine Corps, will be delivered very soon. Finally, programs are running in order to upgrade the Bell UH-1
Huey and AH-1 Cobra with more powerfull engines, fourbladed rotors and "glass" cockpits.
Recently the order of battle has been revised as a result of the BRAG. Several USMC bases have been deactivated and
squadrons have been relocated at a large scale. This reorganization was completed by fall 1999 and every squadron is in place now.
The Ships
Ten Amphibious Assault Ships are on strength (an eleventh example will be operational by 2001) and on budget with the US Navy
but manned by the USMC. These form their own Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and usually deploy together with a Carrier Battle Group
(therefore not being part of the CBG) during regular six-month deployments. A few aircraft or helicopters from USMC squadrons
may also be found aboard Landing Dock Ships (LSDs) as deployed detachment. These are not included in our presentation
of the order of battle.
The Scramble homepage informs you about the current status of the assault ships, although this information is very hard to get
compared to information on the US Navy carriers. We try to give an actual status of the Marine Expeditionary Units and the squadrons
of the Aviation Combat Element aboard these big ships. We also try to give information about (future) deployments, depending on the amount
of information we have.
Summary
On these web pages Scramble presents the complete and current order of battle of the United States Marine Corps.
Wherever we have the information we mention future plans concerning bases and squadrons within the framework.
Of course we like to know every detail, so if you know something about the squadrons or bases not mentioned in this extensive order
of battle, please do not hesitate and inform us.
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Photo: Maurice Hendriks
Photo: Rob Schleiffert
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The Order of Battle - Sections: