3 Commando Brigade

How Many Royal Marines are there....

So I thought this was interesting....

Real figures for Royal Marine headcounts

Table 1:

Royal Marines
Paid Rank	Royal Marines
General	–
Lieutenant General	3
Major General	2
Brigadier	14
Colonel	30
Lieutenant Colonel	130
Major	220
Captain	260
Lieutenant	80
Warrant Officer Class 1	100
Warrant Officer Class 2	240
Colour Sergeant	420
Sergeant	650
Corporal	1,160
Lance Corporal	720
Marine	2,980
Total	7,000

Royal Marine trained personnel strength as at 1 August 2015.


1. Source: Defence Statistics (Navy)
2. All totals are rounded in accordance with the Defence Statistics rounding policy; therefore totals may not equal the sum of their parts. All numbers are rounded to the nearest 10 with numbers ending in 5 rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to avoid bias. Strengths for Senior Officers have been left unrounded as statistics for these personnel are considered non-sensitive and are in the public domain.

3000 marines
4000 NCO's/Officers

Didn't expect that.

Well they are as far as the MOD are concerned - answer to a Parliamentary question from today or end of last week I believe from an MP

Yeah you have to remember many of those officers and NCO's will be liasons, working as MOD representatives to countries, other military, Arms Contractors etc. Nato reps, seconded to other units etc etc etc

There is probably an element of Potential structure there too, as you suggest to allow quick refilling of the ranks.

There's probably very few people that are part of a "8 guy section, 3 section troop, 3 troop company" sort of tree. Lots of people will be working in small 5-20 people mini-groups, e.g. training staff, admin staff, logistics staff, maintenance staff, specialist staff (e.g. EOD, operators for certain complex equipment, etc). So while the numbers don't make sense in the context of how ranks are distributed in a troop/company, in a larger (battalion+) unit a lot of people will be outside of that distribution.

It doesn't really work that way. The Corps is bleeding experienced men, especially J and SNCOs, as it winds back down to a peacetime footing. The constant rotation of Telic and latterly Herrick (plus everything else the Corps is asked to do) took a heavy toll, whilst the current routine of small scale deployments such as Ex. Cougar and Ex. Cetus/Aquilla are getting so repetitive that many experienced people are leaving, coupled with the apparent shift in focus away from actual soldiering ability. Add on to that, many blokes now on the road to becoming JNCOs have little, if any experience



Despite the fact that the Corps is, on paper, overmanned, the distribution of manpower is very unbalanced. Rifle troops in fighting companies are rarely, if ever, manned to full strength. This goes for everywhere else in the Corps. There simply aren't enough people to do the jobs required.

The largest unit in the Corps is 43 Cdo FPGRM, for example, who are tasked with a wide array of tasks, with the greatest percentage of its manpower tied up on protection and final denial of Trident. Add to that the Assault Squadrons for Bulwark, Albion and Ocean, Commando Helicopter Force, Viking Squadron/ASGRM, CTCRM, exchange and foreign military appointments. On top of that, each of the three fighting Commando units has it's own support elements within HQ and Logistics Coy (such as MT Tp, Sigs Tp, Chefs, stores accountants etc) and it's very easy to see where all the manpower is. Be under no illusions, there are approximately 800 members of the "General Duties" branch (Gravs; what everyone seems to think the RM is solely comprised of.)

Ultimately, the Corps is very top heavy, and as I said in my first paragraph, it's bleeding experienced people at all levels.

Good insight Redders (if depressing!)  Cheers