The UK's Navy has announced the formation of a new elite unit of the Royal Marines that will use "game-changing technology and weaponry" to operate in hot spots across the globe.
In a press release on Monday, the Navy said that over 150 Royal Marines and Army Commandos are due to start training together this fall as part of the Vanguard Strike Company.
The joint training will come amid the implementation of the Royal Marine-related project, also known as the Future Commando Force programme, which the Navy said "will overhaul how the world-famous green berets operate".
The new unit, set to be deployed next year, is expected to operate in smaller, hi-tech groups, which will "give the UK a more agile and lethal capability, ready for missions anywhere in the world at a moment's notice", according to the Navy.
Commandant General Royal Marines, Major General Matt Holmes, for his part, touted the Vanguard Strike Company as a force that will be able "to operate and fight in a dynamic, technological era of warfare".
"We envisage several of these networked sub-units persistently forward deployed around the globe, with an array of sophisticated enabling capabilities, to present dilemmas to adversaries whilst supporting partners. These will all be at high-readiness, as a capable forward contingency force at the core of the Royal Navy's Littoral Response Groups", Holmes underscored.
The new strike force's formation follows last month's unveiling of sophisticated uniforms for the Royal Marines, as part of the Future Commando Force modernisation programme.
The US-made high-tech kit is 17-percent lighter, 60-percent faster-drying, and at least four times more breathable as compared to the previous uniform. The new kit's price tag reportedly stands at about £800 ($987).
