Fleet Contingency Troop

The Fleet Contingency Troop (FCT) is a specialised team drawn from the Fleet Protection Group (FPG). The FCT specialises in compliant and non-compliant boarding operations, with a focus on boarding pirate-held vessels.

FCT personnel are experts in boarding vessels from both surface boats such as rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) and offshore raiding craft (OCR) and by fast-roping from Royal Navy helicopters such as the Lynx Mk 8 and Merlin. They work closely with their comrades in the Maritime Sniper Teams that frequently provide top cover for boarding operations.

Since being deployed off the Horn Of Africa as part of multi-national counter-piracy efforts, they have intercepted and boarded numerous pirate ships. Typically operating from Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxillary vessels such as HMS Somerset and RFA Fort Victoria, FCT Royal Marines have been involved in a series of incidents:

• Royal Marines Snipers Help Capture Pirates
  
  
• Royal Marines Capture Pirate Mothership
  
  
• Royal Marines Raid Pirate Mothership
  
  
• 'British Special Forces' Storm Hijacked Ship
  
  
• Royal Marines Rescue Hostages
  
  

A Royal Marine with the Fleet Contingency Troop pictured while taking part in a boarding exercise on RFA Fort Victoria. He is wearing a dry suit with inflatable life jacket and is armed with a 9mm MP5 sub machine gun, fitted with EOTech sight, torch and blank-firing adapter. FCT personnel arre typically armed with the SA80a2 rifle, SA80A2K carbine or mp5a3 smgs. 9mm Sig Sauer pistols are carried as a secondary weapon.

photo : LA(Phot)AJ MacLeod / MOD | © UK MoD Crown Copyright (C) 2010

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