Combined Reconnaissance Team

The United States Navy Combined Reconnaissance Team is an elite special operations force of the Naval Special Warfare Command and United States Special Operations Command. It is responsible for performing clandestine preliminary amphibious reconnaissance of planned beachheads and their littoral area within uncharted enemy territory in advance of U.S. naval operations.

The trademark of the CRT is amphibious techniques utilizing insertion methods under the cover of darkness by small boats. The Combined Reconnaissance Technicians of the CRT apply skills in topographic and hydrographic surveys by charting and measuring water depths, submerged coral heads, and terrain inland; taking photographs and soil samples for permeability for amphibious tractors and landing craft parties.

Their assignments include scouting or reconnoitering a planned, or potential landing site, and intelligence-gathering missions. These Combined Reconnaissance Team also evaluates beaches looking for exits off the hostile beaches inland, for contingency measures if a naval landing force were to necessitate a retreat. Most importantly, U.S. Navy Combined Reconnaissance Technicians compromise the locations of enemy forces, their strengths and weakness, and other importance in the follow-up of an amphibious assault.

Note

 * This fictional military unit appears in the 1997 film G.I. Jane.