The regiment owns boats that are small GRP-hull vessels with a basic sensor and a crew-served twin. The Royal Thai Navy (RTN) has a riverine patrol regiment that operates in the upper Mekong and Chao Phraya rivers to combat illegal activities in the area. But navies are more focussed on the offshore or blue water environment and funding is devoted to larger ships as a result. The Myanmar Police Force uses a fleet of 11 Yan Naing- and PCE-class river patrol boats built by the Naval Dockyard in Yangon that have been in-service since about 2013. Myanmar and Thai Patrol craftsĮxisting patrol craft are small civilian vessels such as small boats or rubber inflatable craft operated by police and coastal forces. Whilst governments in the region are more aware of the value of the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of their maritime territory there is less concern about the riverine environment. The main inventories use those craft grandfathered in from the US Vietnam-era or purchased or donated from them. Specialist riverine patrol craft operated by military forces are rare in the Asia-Pacific region. This illustrates the changing operational requirements for riverine craft. A statement by then chief of the Philippine Navy Vice Admiral Jose Luis Alano said that the SURCs would also be used to provide a platform for command and control, reconnaissance, logistic/resupply, medical evacuation, counter-drug operations, humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping and non-combatant evacuation operations. At the time it was fighting against the guerrilla Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) group. In 2013 the Philippines Marine Corps (PMC) received six SURC vessels from the USN to help the force conduct counter-terrorism operations in riverine and littoral environment in the Mindanao region.

These are similar to the PBRs used during Vietnam and the main tasks included the stopping and searching boats on the rivers, searching for hidden weapons stores and engaging in ‘hearts and minds’ operations.

They are designed to transport a 13-man infantry squad and can be fitted with two 7.62mm machine guns on the bow and a. The SURC are 12 metre-long vessels that can reach a top speed of 40 knots using two HJ292 Hamilton waterjets powered by twin Yanmar 6LY2A-STP 440hp six-cylinder diesel engines. Placed under the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) with 220 sailors and using 12 Small Unit Riverine Craft (SURC) from the US Marine Corp, RIVRON 1 was successful during Operation Iraqi Freedom operating on the River Euphrates and reservoirs of northern Iraq near the Syrian border to counter insurgent activity there. It was following the 2003 Iraq War that the USN re-established a new riverine force called RIVRON 1 which deployed in 2007 – the first time it had fielded an active riverine unit since 1975.

Shallow space insurgency