Royal Marines have “dominated” US forces during a training exercise in California, using a new battle structure.

       Royal Marine commandos exercising in California trialled the new Littoral Response Group (LRG) structure, around which the Future Commando Force will be built, and outperformed their US adversaries in the Mojave Desert.

       Within the first four hours of Exercise Green Dagger, a five-day warfighting exercise, LRG South delivered decisive blows against three waves of attack helicopters and drones, forcing the enemy to rethink their strategy.

       Britain will have two LRGs, each based around an existing unit of Royal Marines. LRG North will be based in the UK to cover Nato’s northern and Baltic flanks. LRG South will be based in and around the Omani port of Duqm, focussing on British military activity in the Indo-Pacific region.

       LRG South, based around 40 Commando, will be held at a high state of readiness from next year. The LRG concept aims to produce flexible and mobile commando forces and will operate alongside allies and partners. The LRGs will be able to work with the carrier strike group to produce an expeditionary strike force.

       Exercise Green Dagger is a multi-national, multi-domain exercise, played out across one of the biggest military training areas in the world. It is designed to test the United States Marine Corps in preparation for operational readiness.

       Based around three urban areas set within a vast expanse of over 3500 square kilometres of mountainous and desert terrain, and including an interactive civilian population, the exercise facilitated complex operational scenarios.

       As the warfighting exercise, developed the LRG infiltrated behind the the enemy’s front lines, causing havoc by striking high value targets and command and control nodes, which paralysed any counter-attack.

       The enemy were forced to avoid decisive engagement with the LRG, but were eventually defeated via a daring long-range helicopter commando assault supported by fighter aircraft.

       The exercise concluded with a last minute and unsuccessful enemy assault that was repelled, leaving the LRG in control of over 65 per cent of the entire battlespace, having started with less than 20 per cent.

       Lt Col Andy Dow, the commander of LRG South, said: “Throughout this deployment our focus has been on integrating game-changing capabilities from across the Commando Force to deliver disproportionate effect in the face of a free-thinking peer adversary.

       “Our success has proved the new Commando Force concept is more lethal and sophisticated than ever before and I am immensely proud of every member of the LRG and their vital contributions.

       “Operating alongside our partners from the US, Netherlands, Canada and the UAE gives us a fantastic opportunity to test, integrate and continue to push our capabilities in new and innovative directions.”