Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime)

Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime)
HMS Albion (the then Fleet Flagship), RFA Fort Rosalie and HMS Ocean of the RFTG conducting replenishment at sea during Cougar 11
Active	2010–present
Country	United Kingdom (under the Joint Expeditionary Force if required)
Branch	Royal Navy
Role	Expeditionary
Part of	Joint Expeditionary Force
Commanders
Current commander	Commander Littoral Strike Group

His Majesty's Naval Service of the British Armed Forces
Components
Royal Navy Surface Fleet Fleet Air Arm Submarine Service Royal Naval Reserve Royal Navy Medical Service Nursing Service (QARNNS) Chaplaincy Royal Navy Police Royal Marines Royal Marines Reserve Royal Marines Band Service Organisation Equipment Uniforms Special Forces Special Boat Service Naval Careers Service
History and future
before 1707 / after 1707 / future History of the Royal Marines Coloured squadrons Customs and traditions Flag officer command flags
Operations
Current deployments Naval parties Shore establishments
Equipment
Current fleet Historic ships Equipment
Personnel
The Admiralty Senior officers Uniforms Officer / ratings rank insignia
Auxiliary services
Royal Fleet Auxiliary Marine Services
v t e

The Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime) (or JEF(M)) (formerly the Response Force Task Group (RFTG), and prior to that the Joint Rapid Reaction Force (JRRF)), is the Royal Navy's contribution to the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) maintained at very high-readiness and available at short notice to respond to unexpected global events.^[1] In addition to the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines, the JEF(M) also includes elements of the British Army and the Royal Air Force. While it is primarily poised to conduct war-fighting or strike operations, the JEF(M) is capable of undertaking a diverse range of activities such as evacuation operations, disaster relief or humanitarian aid.^[2]

Under the name of RFTG, this high-readiness Maritime Task Group was established under the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, and was initially focused on periodic deployments centered around amphibious shipping, initially termed Cougar deployments,^[3] but now named according to the focus of the main activity; although not mandated as an annual activity, these deployments tend to alternate between operating in North West Europe and the Mediterranean Sea,^[4] and deploying East of Suez to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. On these deployments, the Task Group regularly conducts exercises with allies and partners.^[5] As a Task Group, the RFTG was activated on operations during the 2011 Libyan Civil War, provided humanitarian aid during Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, and elements were activated to deploy to the Caribbean in 2020 under an augmented Atlantic Patrol Task (North) deployment.

As of late 2024, the U.K.'s capacity to make major contributions to JEF(M) was brought into question with the decision by the newly-elected Labour government to retire both of the Royal Navy's Albion-class landing platform dock vessels by March 2025.^[6] Simultaneously, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary was suffering severe crewing problems, as well as a labour force disruption, meaning the manning of its three Bay-class landing ship dock vessels was facing serious challenges.^[7][8] This brought into question the entire concept of the navy's ability to conduct even medium-sized amphibious operations.^[9]