British Royal Marine Special Forces Train For Coastal Raids and Oil Rig Seizures Near Russia

The British Armed Forces have deployed Royal Marine special forces from the 42 and 47 Commando units as part of a Special Operations Maritime Task Group to simulate covert boarding operations against enemy ships, coastal aids, and the seizure of oil rigs. Exercises are taking place in the Eastern Baltic Sea, close to the Ukrainian theatre where Royal Marines have also been involved in open hostilities with Russian forces. Exercises saw the Marines rehearse rapid interdiction and coastal raiding in coordination with the British Army’s 3rd Ranger Battalion on Estonia’s Saaremaa Island, under which they deployed to capture ships and oil installations, while opening littoral waters for allied amphibious landings. The exercises have occurred at a time of rising tensions between Russia and the Western Bloc, with the targeting of Russian shipping and its oil infrastructure expected should hostilities further escalate.

British Deputy Chief of Defence Staff Royal Marines Lieutenant General Robert Magowan in December 2022 revealed that the Marines had been carrying out high risk operations alongside Ukrainian government forces from April that year, with 300 personnel from the Royal Marines 45 Commando Group, a battalion formed during the Second World War, conducting unknown “discreet operations.” Magowan stressed that these were carried out “in a hugely sensitive environment and with a high level of political and military risk.” The Marine presence is part of a broader network of British forces on the ground in Ukraine, which have played key roles in operating complex hardware, include the directing of cruise missile strikes, with Russian sources also claiming that Special Air Service advisors have been deployed on the frontlines to support Ukrainian offensives.

Exercises simulating the seizure of ships comes at a time when Western countries have increasingly launched operations appropriate civilian cargo from adversary states as a means of placing pressure on their economies, with a notable example being the targeting of Iranian oil tankers, the oil from which has been taken by the U.S. Navy and subsequently sold with no compensation paid to Iran. A U.S. Naval Institute paper in 2020 proposed hiring mercenary privateers to target Chinese civilian shipping in a similar way should relations further worsen. Other examples of such actions have most often targeted North Korean and Iranian shipping, which have consistently been carried out without legal pretext. More recently in September, a Russian civilian ship wasseizedin the English Channel by French forces. Such operations are expected to escalate should Western Bloc states seek to further intensify the ongoing war effort against Russia or other adversaries.