Exercise Corsican Lion

Royal Marines are further strengthening ties between the militaries of the UK and France as they take part in Exercise Corsican Lion in the Mediterranean.

The Royal Marines from 3 Commando Brigade are working alongside their French counterparts to develop the new Combined Joint Expeditionary Force – a specialist amphibious fighting unit that can take part in a range of land operations.

Transferred from Royal Navy warships such as HMS Bulwark – the fleet flagship, the Marines are injected onto the land via boat or helicopter from where they can go directly into combat with land forces.

Although the main training objective is to prove that the two countries can work side-by-side, and can also integrate their equipment and communications, Exercise Corsican Lion comes under Cougar 12 – a three-month deployment involving four Royal Navy warships, one Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship and naval and RAF air power.

Cougar 12 has more than 3,000 Royal Marines, sailors and airmen taking part – with the sole objective of testing the capability of the Response Force Task Group, a rapid reaction force that can be deployed to deal with unexpected world events such as the Libyan conflict.

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Article courtesy of Defence Professionals.