MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, Hawaii -- The Marine Corps activated its first regiment-level Communications Company at a ceremony here, Feb. 24, 2022. The Communications Company will be a subordinate element of the future 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, which will administratively activate in a ceremony on March 3.

In March 2019, General David H. Berger, Commandant of the Marine Corps released his “Commandant’s Planning Guidance,” which outlined the changes needed to operate from inside contested areas with joint forces, partners, and allies. He emphasized that an effective and resilient command and control system is critical to warfighting success. “Our communications nodes will be hunted and targeted…We must be capable of plugging into naval, joint, and combined communications networks and seamlessly sharing data that enhances situational awareness, targeting, and force synchronization.”

The 3rd MLR will be centered on the ability to effectively integrate with the Joint Force for all-domain operations and conduct expeditionary advanced base operations in support of the fleet. The Communications Company will serve as a critical enabler to the MLR, capable of integrating with the Joint Force, and will provide command and control capabilities to Marines distributed across wide areas of the Indo-Pacific region. To meet the intent, the MLR Communications Company will field equipment and personnel that is not organic to a traditional infantry regiment communications section.

While experimentation for how the company will operate is still ongoing, the company is organized into four platoons: Wideband, Data, Radio, and Maintenance. The company will transition to a Joint Task Force enabler-like construct where each platoon will be composed of a mix of different skill sets that can be task-organized to support different missions.

“Our key to success will be our ability to task-organize our communicators into agile teams that support the command and control of the MLR in distributed operations. Our team is excited to shape the way our Marines are trained, equipped, and educated to best meet this task,” said Capt. David Noble, Company Commander, Communications Company.