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Yeah, reduced amalgamation of the previous Navy Security Battalion and most of Specialized Forces Navy (Mine Diver and Boarding Company; the Kampfschwimmer became independent again under the nominal designation Special Forces Command Navy, just their small company and a training unit under a common HQ). It's the third time the Seebataillon name is used in the Bundeswehr; there was one 1959-1965 (one HQ, beachmaster, beach engineer and boat company each) and one 1988-1990 (just the beachmaster and Kampfschwimmer company, which were previously independent), both subordinated to the Bundesmarine's Amphibious Group which was disbanded in 1993.

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Looks like the Seebataillon amounts to handmaidens for the Navy, although updated for current problems, just as the USMC FAST Companies replaced the old shipboard Marine Detachments, unchanged since 1776,

 

This means no change in German doctrine since the Empire was founded, and the Heer will have to do the heavy lifting in the event amphibious operations other than raids are called for. IOW, how's the fording gear project going for Leo IIA7?

 

ETA: The Heer can find the still good landing plans for Oesel and Muenin in the Potsdam archives!

Edited by Ken Estes
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  • 2 months later...

I'll put this here rather than into the Cold War thread since it is aimed at the southern European periphery.

 

With fewer ships at their disposal, Marines turn to allies

By Steven Beardsley
Stars and Stripes
Published: July 16, 2015
NAPLES, Italy — The HMS Ocean is the flagship of the British Royal Navy, a 22,000-ton amphibious assault ship that can launch helicopters, landing craft and — if U.S. Marines get their way — the MV-22 tilt-rotor Osprey.
The Corps is working with European allies, including the United Kingdom, to see if it can deploy small aviation-based quick-response task forces aboard ships like the Ocean during a crisis. The initiative is the latest effort to offset what Marine leaders say is a lack of sealift for the kind of missions the service is increasingly emphasizing.
The Allied Maritime Basing Initiative would center on quick-response teams with about 150 Marines and a minimum of three to four MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. It comes as Congress is hammering out a contentious defense bill and services are jockeying for more money by highlighting the dangers of operational deficits.
Yet Corps leaders say the new initiative is a creative response to a lack of resources in a region with big challenges. The 2012 attack against an American diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, in which the U.S. ambassador and three others were killed, pointed to the need for fast-response military options in North Africa. The region’s danger was underlined last month when a gunman killed 38 people at a beach resort in Tunisia, the majority of them British tourists.
Navy warships rarely spend much time in European or African waters. Alternatives such as converted cargo ships have yet to arrive in the fleet in substantial number. Meanwhile, land bases are limited and don’t offer the flexibility of being afloat, said Brig. Gen. Norm Cooling, deputy commander of Marine Forces Europe-Africa in Stuttgart, Germany.
“None of those assets are currently here,” Cooling said in a recent phone interview. “What is here that we can use?”
The Marines have singled out ships belonging to five nations so far: The U.K., the Netherlands, France, Spain and Italy. The Corps will test capabilities for the first time in November during the large NATO exercise Trident Juncture, Cooling said, putting Marines aboard the Ocean for two weeks and working on the Spanish amphibious ship Juan Carlos I for several days and then the Ocean for two weeks.
The Navy’s aviation arm, Naval Air Systems Command, began working with Marines on the project in February, according to officials. Engineers will collect data and work with counterparts from each nation to certify the ships can work with Ospreys. They’ll look at flight decks, aerodynamics and load capabilities. A fully loaded Osprey can weigh more than 60,000 pounds and create significant heat on takeoff and landing.
Hangar space, elevator availability and resources for maintenance also will be looked at, according to the command. Marines landed an Osprey on the Juan Carlos I last year and are already familiar with some of the other ships. Some ships may have to make adjustments to handle the Osprey, Cooling said.
“Some can do it right off the bat and some need modifications, and obviously that will be the decision of our allies about whether they choose to take that expense or not,” Cooling said.
The general said even smaller foreign ships could be certified for Osprey flight operations, something that could come in handy for moving officials and resources between allied ships around an operation.
For years the Marines have said they need more ships to meet the demand from global commanders. With little relief in sight, they’ve created land-based task forces in Spain, Romania and Sicily. A heavy-weapons company is slated to arrive in Bulgaria later this year.
The Corps is also looking at adapting its large pre-positioning ships — cargo ships, essentially — to house Marines and handle Ospreys if they are needed in a pinch.
Marine leaders consider both alternatives stop-gaps to deploying more conventional warships to the region. Putting Marines on foreign ships is a similar workaround, Cooling said. “It gives us options we wouldn’t otherwise have.”

 

http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/with-fewer-ships-at-their-disposal-marines-turn-to-allies-1.358252

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Nobody's going to buy them. The USMC is making a pitch for a capability to outdo the other services with no assets in the theater. The so-called Benghazi scenario remains imaginary because nobody would want to put 3-4 helos of troops into a zone with no prep and no intel. Gen. Dempsey said it straight within 24 hours of the event that there were simply no forces at hand to make a military response feasible. It remains so today, if the Sixth Fleet is so weak.

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Nevertheless, qualifying a cross-decking capability rather than winging it when needed seems like a good plan.

 

EMI on flat tops is serious concern - for those who don't know, it is RN practice to qualify each aviation type for each designated deck landing spot against EMI from shipboard emissions. Release To Service restrictions apply to some types and some deck spots on Ocean, for example.

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  • 3 months later...

On the Dutch-German armor battalion, read somewhere last week that the Dutch will in fact transfer their remaining Leopard 2s to Germany which will update them for service in the joint unit. Which to me sounds like all the tanks in the battalion will be "owned" by the Bundeswehr and made me puzzle whether there will in fact be a distinct Dutch company, or they're going one step further with personnel of both nations fully integrated.

 

On cooperation in submarines, saw sometime ago already the Dutch are looking to replace their Walruses by a joint Damen-Saab development, so integration with Germany would be supposedly rather organizational.

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On the Dutch-German armor battalion, read somewhere last week that the Dutch will in fact transfer their remaining Leopard 2s to Germany which will update them for service in the joint unit. Which to me sounds like all the tanks in the battalion will be "owned" by the Bundeswehr and made me puzzle whether there will in fact be a distinct Dutch company, or they're going one step further with personnel of both nations fully integrated.

 

On cooperation in submarines, saw sometime ago already the Dutch are looking to replace their Walruses by a joint Damen-Saab development, so integration with Germany would be supposedly rather organizational.

 

One of the tank companies in the 414th Panzer Battalion will be all Dutch personnel, with the other companies being German. Here's the Jane's article that has the information:

 

 

Dutch mechanized brigade to be integrated into German panzer division

 

The Royal Netherlands Army's 43 Mechanized Brigade will be integrated into the Bundeswehr's 1st Panzer Division, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen and her Dutch counterpart, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, told their respective parliaments on 15 September.

 

A formal agreement to this effect will be signed later this year, with integration work starting at the end of the year or beginning of 2016, and the unit becoming operational at the end of 2019.

 

Before it is integrated into the 1st Panzer Division, 43 Mechanized Brigade will be reinforced by German 414 Panzer Battalion, which will include a Dutch Leopard 2A6 tank company with 100 personnel based in Bergen-Hohne, Germany. The remainder of 43 Mechanized Brigade will stay in the Netherlands.

 

To ensure commonality, Germany will upgrade the Netherlands' 16 remaining Leopard 2A6 tanks to A7 standard and pool them with its own Leopard 2 tanks. The Netherlands will lease the tanks necessary to form a company of 18 Leopard 2s.

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:D I thought the same, but the one expressively mentioned is recently-finished JSS Karel Doorman which hasn't even been officially commissioned yet AFAIK (though she was already used for delivery of aid to the Ebola-stricken West African countries). She only narrowly survived a decision to not commission her at all for cost reasons in 2013, and is basically what Germany intended to get for an own JSS design if there ever was any money for it, so I guess sharing operating costs is good for both sides.

 

Dutch "De Telegraaf" reports that the Dutch and German defense ministers will sign an agreement at the upcoming summit with their EU colleagues on 4/5 February which will deeply integrate parts of both navies with Karel Doorman as the centerpiece.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The abovementioned letter of intent was signed today; the Seebatallion is to be integrated into the RNLN in several steps, though as in all previous measures units will remain based where they are now. There will be regular joint exercises and exchange of personnel however.

 

Of course they had to embark two German Leopards on Karel Doorman for the photo op.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

As stated earlier, D/NL Panzerbataillon 414 was officially stood up today and assigned to NL 43rd Mechanized Brigade, which in turn was assigned to D 1st Panzerdivision. Video of recent training of the battalion at Bergen:

 

 

Notably it says that a Dutch platoon is currently part of the battalion's 2nd Company, which will eventually form the core of the Dutch company when the formation is fully established by the end of 2017.

 

I learned about some additional projects from the reports on today's event. Besides the naval cooperation mentioned a couple times, there is also Project Apollo between the Luftwaffe and Dutch Army, which is aimed at putting the German V/SHORAD troops of Air Defense Group 61 under Dutch command; having the Luftwaffe run Ozelot and Mantis was very strange from the beginning, anyway. Also, the Czechs suggested last year to put their 7th Mechanized Brigade under 1st Panzerdivision, too, though the Defense Ombudsman of the Bundestag, Hans-Peter Bartels, pointed out that South German-based 10th Panzerdivision would be a better fit (less crowded, too). Meanwhile the planned swapping of one battalion each between a German and Polish brigade is reported to be currently affected by some "paralysis" due to purges in the Polish military leadership.

Edited by BansheeOne
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RE the Seebataillon pics, [and thanks for these and others, Banshee] I am always impressed with the hopefulness of these guys and US Marines, inter alia, who think they can fire and fight from an inflatable craft at speed against some sort of enemy. Even in inland waters, the doubtful accuracy of one's fire makes for a bad situation in a serious firefight. A single LMG on the targeted ship or shore can ruin one's day.

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