United States Marine Corps Reconnaissance Battalions - Mission

Mission

Reconnaissance forces are a valuable asset to the Marine Air-Ground Task Force when the MEF Commander is faced with uncertainty in the battlefield. Reconnaissance provides timely intelligence to command and control for battlespace shaping, allowing the MAGTF to act, and react, to changes in the battlefield. While Marine reconnaissance assets may operate in specialized missions, they are unlike the unconventional SOCOM's forces counterparts. Both division and force are solely reserved for supporting the infantry, which are directly involved in the commander's force of action in the battlefield, or battlespace shaping.

Many of the types of reconnaissance missions that are conducted by Marine Recon units are characterized by its degree in depth of penetration. This greatly increases the mission time, risk, and support coordination needs. Division reconnaissance are in charge of the commander's Area of Influence, the close and distant battlespace; the force reconnaissance platoons are employed farther in the deep battlespace, or the Area of Interest.

These are the main missions that are outlined to some, or all of, the reconnaissance assets in the Marine Corps:

• Plan, coordinate, and conduct amphibious-ground reconnaissance and surveillance to observe, identify, and report enemy activity, and collect other information of military significance.
• Conduct specialized surveying to include: underwater reconnaissance and/or demolitions, beach permeability and topography, routes, bridges, structures, urban/rural areas, helicopter landing zones (LZ), parachute drop zones (DZ), aircraft forward operating sites, and mechanized reconnaissance missions.
• When properly task organized with other forces, equipment or personnel, assist in specialized engineer, radio, mobile, and other special reconnaissance missions.
• Infiltrate mission areas by necessary means to include: surface, subsurface and airborne operations.
• Conduct counter-reconnaissance.
• Conduct Initial Terminal Guidance (ITG) for helicopters, landing craft, parachutists, air-delivery, and re-supply.
• Designate and engage selected targets with organic weapons and force fires to support battlespace shaping. This includes designation and terminal guidance of precision-guided munitions.
• Conduct post-strike reconnaissance to determine and report battle damage assessment on a specified target or area.
• Conduct limited scale raids and ambushes.