// UNMANNED SYSTEMS AND NEXT-GEN WARFARE TERM
Amphibious Ready Group
An Amphibious Ready Group is a U.S. Navy task force of several ships that transport and support a Marine Expeditionary Unit. This combined force can rapidly respond to crises, conduct combat missions, or provide humanitarian assistance from the sea without needing bases on land.
TECHNICAL DEFINITION
An Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) is a U.S. Navy doctrinal formation of amphibious warfare ships (typically an LHA/LHD, LPD, and LSD) that embarks, transports, and supports a U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). This integrated ARG/MEU team functions as a forward-deployed, sea-based, rapid-response force capable of power projection, amphibious assault, crisis response, and non-combatant evacuation operations.
BACKGROUND
Expeditionary Strike Group SEVEN/Task Force 76 is a United States Navy task force. It is part of the United States Seventh Fleet and the USN's only permanently forward-deployed expeditionary strike group. It is based at the White Beach Naval Facility at the end of the Katsuren Peninsula in Uruma City, Okinawa, Japan.
READ MORE ON WIKIPEDIASYNONYMS & ALIASES
- ARG
- ARG/MEU
- Amphibious Task Force
- PHIBRON
- Expeditionary Strike Group
- Gator Navy
USAGE NOTE
The term is frequently used as 'ARG/MEU' to emphasize the integral, symbiotic relationship between the Navy ships and the embarked Marine Corps unit.
DEVELOPERS
Organizations developing technology related to Amphibious Ready Group.
The primary U.S. shipbuilder of the large-deck amphibious assault ships (LHA/LHD) and amphibious transport docks (LPD) that form the core of a modern Amphibious Ready Group.
Manufactures the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) for ship-to-shore maneuvers, as well as providing naval gun systems (like the Mk 38 and Mk 45) and electronic warfare suites for amphibious warships.
Developer of the Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC), the next-generation air-cushioned landing craft that transports personnel, equipment, and vehicles from ARG ships to the beach.
Prime contractor for the F-35B Lightning II Short Take-Off/Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft, the primary strike fighter embarked on ARG vessels. Its subsidiary, Sikorsky, builds the CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopter.
Co-produces the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and manufactures the AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom helicopters, all of which are core aviation assets for the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) operating from an ARG.
Provides critical self-defense and sensor systems for amphibious ships, including the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM), Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM), and the AN/SPY-6 Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR).
A major shipyard that has built several classes of auxiliary and amphibious ships for the U.S. Navy, including Dock Landing Ships (LSDs) and Expeditionary Sea Bases (ESBs) that can support amphibious operations.
Supplies secure communications systems, data links, and electro-optical/infrared sensors that enable command, control, and interoperability between the ships, aircraft, and ground forces of an Amphibious Ready Group.