MARCOS

MARCOS (India)
Active	1987 - Present
Country	India
Branch	Navy
Type	Special Forces
Role	Amphibious warfare
Nickname	Magarmach (Crocodiles)
Operations	Operation Cactus, Operation Pawan, Kargil War, Raid on LTTE in 1987, Operation Black Tornado, Operation Cyclone

Indian Navy's marine commandos during a training exercise in the Philippine Sea.

MARCOS (previously named as Marine Commando Force (MCF)) is an elite special operations unit of the Indian Navy. "MARCOS" is short for "Marine Commandos".

The force started off as the Indian Marine Special Force, the first batch qualifying in February 1987. It was later renamed as the Marine Commando Force (MCF) in 1991. The force has acquired a reputation for its tough professionalism over the two decades it has been in existence. Now it is considered amongst the finest maritime special forces in the world and one of the few units qualified to jump in the water with a full combat load.

The force was initially trained by the other special forces of the country, including those under the Home Ministry, the Army, Air Force, Police and paramilitary units.Over the years, the force set up its own training facility, first as an adjunct of the operational company at Mumbai, later as the Naval Special Warfare Tactical Training Centre. Wide exposure to different forms of warfare have been obtained through field operations in counter insurgency and anti terrorist operations within the country, and joint exercises with more than a dozen countries across the world.

Strength and operations

The MCF presently has approximately seven hundred personnel, though its actual strength remains classified.

Operations undertaken by MARCOS usually remains classified though some of the known operations are:

• Operation Pawan (Sanskrit for Wind): Part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka in 1988.

• Operation Cactus: Part of the Indian Navy contingent defending the democratic government of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Maldives from a coup. The force played a supporting role in India's successful military aid in helping foil the attempted coup by Sri Lankan militants from the PLOTE and ENDLF. A group of 47 mercenaries attempted to escape by sea with 23 hostages, on a hijacked vessel, MV Progress Light. The MCF was pressed into service along with INS Godavari, a multi role frigate carrying Seaking helicopters, Alize aircraft operating from the Navy's base at Kochi. INS Godavari trailed the hijacked vessel for a couple of days, firing intermittently with her guns on the vessel's superstructure. An Alize anti-submarine aircraft dropped two depth charges near the vessel, causing the motley collection of militants to come up on the upper decks and surrender. A contingent of the Marcos operating from Ratmalana Airfield on the outskirts of Colombo, with some help from the Sri Lankan Army in terms of specialised equipment, thereafter boarded the ship and accepted the surrender of the militants and took them into custody.

• Operation Leech, which resulting in the slaying of a number of Burmese rebels at Narcondum Island in the North Andaman group of Islands. A small contingent of marcos was reputed to have been involved in the murky operation, which has found intermittent mention in various media.

• Operation Tasha, which was instituted after Operation Pawan wound up, and was more a coastal security operation on the Tamil Nadu coast to thwart operations of the LTTE there, than something belonging to the realm of special operations.

• Operation Swan, which was a similar exercise on the Gujarat and Maharashtra coasts, after the December 92 blasts in Mumbai, wherein the MARCOS were used for patrolling.

• The MARCOS are presently deployed at the Wular Lake in Kashmir, one of Asia's largest fresh-water lakes, where they have achieved significant success in counter insurgency operations against terrorists and militants in Jammu & Kashmir. They have earned reputation for their lethality and the speed with which they launch assaults from the water.

• Kargil War. Covert operations behind enemy lines. Classified.

• Protecting offshore oil rigs and platforms. The MARCOS maintain a quick reaction team at Mumbai, to deal with threats to the offshore oil assets at Bombay High.

• Operation Black Tornado: MARCOS stormed the Trident and Taj Hotels at Mumbai during the recent terrorist attacks on 26 November, 2008 during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, wounding one terrorist at the Taj, and sustaining two injuries.

• In its first ever action in the Gulf of Aden, MARCOS thwarted an attempt by pirates to capture the Indian merchant vessel MV Jag Arnav on November 11, 2008.

• On 13 December 2008 MARCOS units operating from the Indian Naval warship INS Mysore foiled a pirate hijack attempt of Ethiopian vessel MV Gibe off the Somali coast. In the process twenty three pirates were arrested

• On August 12, 2011 MARCOS successfully re-captured a hijacked Iranian vessel - MV Nafis-1 which had reportedly sailed from Chah Bahar in Iran to an undisclosed location in July. Navy Intelligence reports revealed that the ship was being used to smuggle weapons and contrabands.

Activities

The Marcos are capable of undertaking operations in all types of terrain, but are specialised in maritime operations from across Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir through the Jhelum River and Wular Lake, a 65 square kilometer freshwater lake. Some Marcos personnel are also attached with the Army special forces units conducting counter-terrorism operations in the area.

The Force has undertaken numerous joint exercises with special forces from around the world, including some of the best known naval special force units of the developed world. 2003 saw MCF participation in joint training exercises called Exercise Balance Iroquois 03-1/Vajra Prahar, with US Special Operations Forces in Mizoram ^[1].

September 2005 again witnessed joint Indo-US naval exercises called Malabar 05, which had significant special operations content.

During the Indian Independence weekend in 2011, on August 12, the Indian Navy spotted an Iranian Cargo Ship Nafis-1 off course in the Indian Sea. Surveillance continued on the ship until August 14, when a MARCOS unit of 9 servicemen was deployed to intercept the ship via helicopter along with support from the INS Mysore. The Marines dropped onto the ship and detained the hijackers. A store of automatic assault weapons was confiscated on board as well.[2]

Bases

The MCF currently operates out of the naval bases at Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Port Blair.

Plans are afoot to shift the existing training facility the (Naval Special Warfare Training and Tactical Centre) to a new facility to be set up at the erstwhile Naval Academy in Goa on the lines of the Indian Army's Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) in Vairengte, Mizoram.

Equipment

Small Arms

• Browning Hi-Power 9mm Semi-automatic pistol
• Glock 17 9mm Semi-automatic pistol
• SIG P226 9mm Semi-automatic pistol
• 1A SMG 9mm Sub-machine gun
• Uzi 9mm Sub-machine gun
• HK MP5 9mm Sub-machine gun
• AKM Assault rifle and it's variants
• AK-103 Assault Rifle
• AKS-74U Compact assault rifle
• INSAS 5.56 mm NATO Assault Rifle
• Colt M16A2 5.56mm NATO Assault rifle
• Colt M4A1 5.56 mm NATO Carbine
• TAR-21 Tavor 5.56 mm NATO Assault rifle
• 1A SLR 7.62mm NATO Battle Rifle
• APS Underwater assault rifle
• Dragunov SVD Semi-automatic sniper rifle
• Heckler & Koch MSG90 Semi-automatic sniper rifle
• OSV-96 Anti-material rifle

Support Weapons

M4A1 with an M203

• IMI Negev Light machine gun
• PK General purpose machine gun
• FN MAG 7.62 mm General purpose machine gun
• GP-25 40mm Grenade Launcher
• M203 40mm Grenade launcher
• AGS-17 Automatic grenade launchers
• RCL Mk III 84mm Recoilless rifle
• Shipon Anti-tank weapon
• 9K38 Igla MANPADS

Transport

HAL Dhruv in-service with the Indian Army at ILA 2008.

• Westland WS-61 Sea King transport helicopter
• Chetak Utility helicopter
• HAL Dhruv Utility helicopter
• Cosmos CE-2F X100 two-man submarines

See also

• SEAL Team Six
• US Navy SEAL
• Shayetet 13
• CIA Special Activities Division
• MARSOC
• Marine Force Recon
• Marines
• Special Forces of India
• Indian Naval Academy
• Force One

References

• De Lionis, Andres. "Marine Commandos: India's Flexible Elite", Jane's Intelligence Review, 8:230-232, May 1996
• "Naval marine commandos bag gallantry awards for operations against ultras", Indian Express, March 10, 2000
• Bharat Rakshak, an Indian defence analysis website