United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance

United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance

The Force Reconnaissance companies (abbreviated as either 'Force Recon' or FORECON) are one of the United States Marine Corps's special operations "capable" forces (S.O.C.) that provide essential elements of military intelligence to the command element of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF); supporting their task force commanders, and their subordinate operating units of the Fleet Marine Force (FMF).

Historically, the Force Recon companies, detachments and platoons performed both deep reconnaissance and direct action (DA) operations. Some missions are now shared by the Marine Special Operations Teams (MSOT), due to the establishment of the U.S. Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC) in 2006. MARSOC was formed from Force Recon's direct action platoons, and now are capable of performing many of the same mission sets for USSOCOM. This dual existence now allows the FORECON companies to focus on excelling in their primary intelligence-gathering mission, as well as the VBSS (Visit Board Search and Seizure) side of the specialized raid mission.

FORECON is responsible for operating independently behind enemy lines performing unconventional special operations, in support of conventional warfare. The unit's various methods of airborne, heliborne, submarine and waterborne insertions and extractions are similar to those of the Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, United States Army Rangers, or Air Force Combat Controllers, although Force Recon's missions and tasks do differ slightly with a focus on primarily supporting Marine expeditionary and amphibious operations.