In the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

, the logistics combat element (LCE), formerly ''combat service support element'', is the portion of the

Marine air-ground task force Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine current power * Marine debris * Marine energy * Marine habitats * ...

(MAGTF) responsible with providing logistical support. It provides equipment and personnel to keep the MAGTF running logistically. The logistics combat element (LCE), organized into battalions, regiments, and groups, has its own headquarters element for command and control (management and planning for manpower, intelligence, operations and training, and logistics functions) of its subordinate units and contains the majority of the

combat service support The term combat service support (or CSS) is utilized by numerous military organizations throughout the world to describe entities that provide direct and indirect sustainment services to the groups that engage (or are potentially to be engaged) ...

units for the MAGTF, including: heavy motor transport, ground

supply Supply or supplies may refer to: *The amount of a resource that is available **Supply (economics), the amount of a product which is available to customers **Materiel, the goods and equipment for a military unit to fulfill its mission *Supply, as ...

, heavy engineer support, ground equipment maintenance, and advanced

medical Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

and dental units, along with certain specialized groups such as air delivery, EOD, and landing support teams. The size of the LCE varies in proportion to the size of the MAGTF. A Marine expeditionary force has a Marine logistics group or MLG. A Marine expeditionary brigade holds a combat logistics regiment or CLR, often reinforced with equipment and personnel from other logistics units. The various

Marine expeditionary unit A Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU, pronounced as one syllable "" IPA: ) is the smallest Marine air-ground task force, air-ground task force (MAGTF) in the United States Fleet Marine Force.combat logistics battalion. Generally, MEF postings are permanent, while MEBs and MEUs rotate their GCE, ACE, and LCE twice annually.