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units serving aboard ships. The principal missions of the corps are to carry out amphibious operations, to assure defense and security of naval bases and installations, to provide detachments serving as members of ships companies, and to assist naval authorities when required and directed.

The corps is made of of the headquarters in Madrid and the following main elements:

Current overall strength is some 600 officers and 8,000 enlisted men.

The Fleet Marine Force, the main combat force of the corps, is an operational element of the Amphibious Command responsible to the Commander of the Fleet. This landing force, which holds all heavy weapons and equipment, includes six rifle companies, a company of tanks (17 M-48s), two batteries of artillery, and an anti-tank company. Equipment includes 105-mm self-propelled howitzers, 90-mm self-propelled anti-tank guns, 106-mm and 75-mm recoilless rifles, M274 weapons carriers, 4.2-inch heavy mortars, rocket launchers, flame throwers, LVTs (tank landing vehicles), and some 250 wheeled vehicles.

Sealift is provided by the Amphibious Group based at Cadiz. Ships include one amphibious transport (LPA), one amphibious cargo ship (LKA), one dock landing ship (LSD), three tank landing ships (LST), and three medium landing ships (LSM), all ex-US types, plus some 30 landing craft.

The landing force can conduct a reinforced battalion landing team-type of operation against a lightly defended beach and carry out amphibious raids and reconnaissance missions. Limitations include lack of an airlift capability and dependence upon the Spanish Air Force for air support. As a partial solution to the latter problem, eight AH-1G (Huey Cobra) gunship helicopters have been acquired for the Fleet Marine Force.

The defense and security forces are operationally responsible to local naval commands. The three regiments, two groups, and smaller detachments perform guard and security duties. The personnel of the Southern Regiment are part of the Fleet Marine Force. The Northern and Eastern Regiments each have a landing force whose strength is normally that of a reinforced company, plus a battalion staff. These are well-trained units designed to provide a nucleus for a quickly-mobilizable battalion of reservists in the event of war, and also to provide a company for integration into the Fleet Marine Force for exercises and emergency use. Detachments serve aboard ships as crews for light air defense guns, as military police, and as a nucleus for ships' landing parties.

Training exercises are carried out periodically with the Spanish Army, the French Navy, and marine elements of the US Sixth Fleet. Tactics and weapons are generally the same as those employed by the US Marine Corps.

6. Naval air arm

The naval air arm has the primary mission of providing air support to naval surface forces in the conduct of their ASW mission. Secondary missions include support of both search and rescue (SAR) and naval infantry vertical assault operations.

Command of the naval air arm is exercised by the Chief of the Naval General Staff through the Chief of the Air Arm Section. Directly subordinate to the Chief of the Air Arm Section is the Chief of the Helicopter Flotilla, who maintains direct operational control of the naval air squadrons and concurrently serves as Director of the Naval Helicopter Aviation Instruction Center (CIANIIE) as well as Commanding Officer, Rota Heliport, at the Rota Naval Station. He maintains close liaison with the air force's HU-16B squadron which provides fixed-wing ASW support to the navy.

Operational ASW helicopters are organized into three frontline squadrons. Two squadrons (one with SH-3D and the other with four AB-204B helicopters) operate from the helicopter Dedalo, and one squadron with five Hughes 500M helicopters operates from destroyer-type combatants. The ASW capability is enhanced by three P-3 Orion and HU-16B fixed-wing aircraft belonging to the air force. Use of the HU-16B aircraft would probably be confined to ocean surveillance. Other established units include a newly-formed attack helicopter squadron (eight AH-1G Huey Cobra), one transport/utility helicopter squadron (seven Sikorsky S-55), one training helicopter squadron (12 OH-13G Sioux), and one fixed-wing liaison communications squadron (four Piper Comanche, none of which is operational). All units are stationed at the Rota Naval Station. The

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090014-1