Marine Expeditionary Brigade

A Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) is a formation of the United States Marine Corps, a Marine Air-Ground Task Force of approximately 14,500 Marines and Sailors constructed around a reinforced infantry regiment, a composite Marine aircraft group, a logistics group and a command element. The MEB, commanded by a general officer (usually a Major General or sometimes a Brigadier General), is task-organized to meet the requirements of a specific situation. It can function as part of a joint task force, as the lead echelon of the Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF), or alone. It varies in size and composition, and is larger than a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) but smaller than a MEF. The MEB is capable of conducting missions across the full range of military operations.

In 2013 Maj. Gen. Frank McKenzie stated that as part of the 2013 QDR, the MEB would now become more independent of support from the MEF, as part of a plan to deactivate MEF2.

Command Element (CE)

 * MEB Staff
 * Detachment, Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company
 * Detachment, Communications Battalion
 * Detachment, Force Reconnaissance Company
 * Detachment, Intelligence Battalion
 * Detachment, Radio Battalion

Ground Combat Element (GCE)

 * Infantry Regiment (w/ 3 Infantry Battalions), reinforced
 * 14 Main Battle Tank, M1A1, Abrams (1 Tank Company)
 * 2 Assault Breacher Vehicle, M1, Shredder (Combat Engineer Company)
 * 2 Armored Recovery Vehicle, M88A2, Hercules
 * 48 Amphibious Assault Vehicles, AAV-7A1 and variants (1 Amphibious Assault Vehicle Company, reinforced)
 * 27 Light Armored Vehicles, LAV-25A1 and variants (1 Light Armored Reconnaissance Company, reinforced)
 * 24 Howitzer, 155mm, M777A2 (1 Artillery Battalion w/4 firing batteries of 6 guns each)
 * 24 Mortar, 81mm, M252 (4 tubes per section, 2 sections per platoon, of the Mortar Platoon, Weapons Company, Infantry Battalion x 3)
 * 27 Lightweight Mortar, 60mm, M224 LWCMS (3 tubes in the Mortar Section of the Weapons Platoon, Rifle company x 3, Infantry Battalion x 3)
 * 24 Anti-Tank Missile Launcher, BGM-71, TOW (8 launchers in the TOW Section of the Anti-Tank (AT) Platoon, Weapons Company, Infantry Battalion x 3)
 * 24 Anti-Tank Missile Launcher, FGM-148, Javelin (8 launchers in the AT Section of the Anti-Tank Platoon,Weapons Company, Infantry Battalion x 3)
 * 18 Automatic Grenade Launcher, 40mm, Mk 19 (6 guns per Heavy Machine Gun Platoon, Weapons Company, Infantry Battalion x 3)
 * 18 Browning Machine Gun, Cal. .50, M2, HB, Flexible (6 guns per Heavy Machine Gun Platoon, Weapons Company, Infantry Battalion x 3)
 * 54 Machine Gun, 7.62mm, M240 (6 guns in the Machine Gun Section, Weapons Platoon, Rifle Company x 3, Infantry Battalion x 3)
 * 243 Light Machine Gun, 5.56mm, M249 (9 guns per Rifle Platoon x 3, Rifle Company x 3, Infantry Battalion x 3)

Aviation Combat Element (ACE)

 * Marine Aircraft Group (MAG) [notional organization shown below]
 * 45 AV-8B (3 VMA squadrons w/ 15 aircraft each)
 * 24 F/A-18 (2 VMFA squadrons w/ 12 aircraft each)
 * 5 EA-6B (1 VMAQ squadron w/ 5 aircraft each)
 * 6 KC-130 (1 VMGR detachment)
 * 32 CH-53E (2 HMH squadrons w/ 16 aircraft each)
 * 48 CH-46E or V-22B (4 HMM or VMM squadrons w/ 12 aircraft each)
 * 18 AH-1W/Z (1 HMLA squadron) [each HMLA squadron contains both AH-1 & UH-1 aircraft
 * 9 UH-1N/Y (1 HMLA squadron) [each HMLA squadron contains both AH-1 & UH-1 aircraft
 * 45 Stinger missile teams (1 firing battery w/ 3 platoons of 15 Stinger missile teams each)

Logistics Combat Element (LCE)

 * Combat Logistics Regiment (CLR) (w/ 1 to 3 Combat Logistics Battalions) [notional equipment shown below]
 * 1 medium girder bridge
 * 6 cranes:
 * 1 30-ton crane
 * 5 7.5-ton cranes
 * 2 600k-gal fuel systems
 * 44 100-kW generators
 * 75 7-ton trucks
 * 9 Water purifying units
 * 116 forklifts
 * 5 bulldozers
 * 3 road graders

List of MEBs

 * 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade (United States)
 * 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade (United States)
 * 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade (United States)

Historical MEBs
The following MEBs were deployed operationally:
 * Task Force Tarawa for the Iraq War
 * Task Force Leatherneck for the Afghanistan War
 * 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (United States) for the Vietnam War - deployed March 8, 1965