Royal Marines of the UK Commando Force are part of the ongoing evacuation mission in Sudan, with Downing Street saying more than 300 people have been brought out and 130 of those are now back in the UK.

There have been lots of pictures of Royal Marines working to assist the evacuation mission in Sudan - notably 40 Commando, who are based in Taunton and Commando Logistic Regiment, who are based in Barnstable.

40 Commando has three companies of Royal Marines called Alpha, Bravo and Charlie, with one of these likely on this tasking.

A company is about 100 people, growing to about 150 with all their attached specialists – and these marines are highly skilled and highly trained in a range of operations, including these non-combatant evacuation operations or NEOs.

They are held at very high readiness for exactly these types of missions and generally, these troops are ready to go anywhere in the world with less than 48 hours notice.

One of the images released is of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Denning and WO1 Duncan Maddocks – respectively they are the Commanding Officer and Regimental Sergeant Major of 40 Commando and essentially they are the two men who lead 40 Commando – so they are there with their troops making sure everything runs as smoothly as it can.

We also know they are being supported by the Commando Logistic Regiment, who are critical enablers in any type of deployment.

They will be providing food, water, equipment and anything else the commandos might need to facilitate their mission.

What is clearly key in what we have seen in the past few days is that this evacuation mission is leading to more than a sum of its parts – the RAF and the Parachute Regiment are involved, the Royal Navy looking at other contingency plans. 

Personnel from across the Armed Forces, working together to get British nationals in Sudan out of the country.

UK forces have been working with the Americans and other countries – again this can happen so seamlessly because of all the joint training that’s undertaken.

This is the reason that military training is so important.

It is a complex and fragile situation in Sudan and there will be lots of information and intelligence that is being gathered to plan and support this mission.

The Headquarters Commando Forces is in Plymouth at Stonehouse Barracks and the Brigade Commander, Brigadier Duncan Forbes, will most likely be extremely busy at the moment following the current situation, contingency planning and feeding it all in to PJHQ, as well as supporting other operations and deployment around the globe.

Article: Forces.net.

Image: MOD.