Bold Alligator 2012 to Conduct a Nighttime Amphibious Raid on Ft. Story

More than 100 Marines operating from Navy ships offshore will take part in a night training raid against targets at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Ft. Story Feb. 5, as part of a certification exercise (CERTEX) for Amphibious Squadron 8 (PHIBRON 8) and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (24 MEU). 

The CERTEX is part of Bold Alligator 2012 (BA12), the east coast’s largest joint and multinational amphibious assault exercise in the past 10 years.

The nighttime raid, coordinated by the II Marine Expeditionary Force Special Operations Training Group, will feature a Marine Corps motorized rifle company amphibious landing at Ft. Story before proceeding to a simulated village in order to identify and disrupt hostile forces in the area. The raid will utilize highly-trained role players to provide the most realistic training scenario possible.

The purpose of BA12 is to revitalize Navy/Marine Corps amphibious expeditionary tactics, techniques and procedures and reinvigorate its culture of conducting combined Navy/Marine Corps operations from the sea.

BA 12 is a live and synthetic, scenario-driven, simulation-supported exercise designed to train Expeditionary Strike Group 2 (ESG 2), 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade (2d MEB) and Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 12. Staffs will plan and execute a MEB-sized amphibious assault from a seabase in a medium land-and-maritime threat environment and anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) environment to improve naval amphibious core competencies.