{"id":242419,"date":"2026-03-29T19:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/242419\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T19:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:15:11","slug":"little-known-marine-group-deployed-from-california-to-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/242419\/","title":{"rendered":"Little-known Marine group deployed from California to Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three warships from San Diego and more than 2,000 Marines headed to the Middle East may have a crucial role to play<\/a> in the U.S. fight against Iran.<\/p>\n

The San Diego-based USS Boxer amphibious assault ship and two other ships comprising the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are en route to the region<\/a>, the Post previously reported, as President Donald Trump attempts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. Marines with Battalion Landing Team 3\/5, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, don M50 joint service general purpose masks. 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit<\/p>\n

The deployed Marines had been training in Southern California\u2019s Camp Pendleton in recent months, with families tearfully saying good bye<\/a> recently as the troops departed.<\/p>\n

The USS Boxer carrying the 11th Unit is part of what\u2019s known as an ARG, or Amphibious Ready Group. Such groups consist of an assault ship, a transport dock and a support vessel, according to military news site <\/a>Breaking Defense.<\/p>\n

The unit itself is an impressive conglomeration of infantry, artillery, combat engineers, vehicles and aircraft.<\/p>\n

The ARG-MEU combo \u201cis the most versatile, flexible and lethal global response force the United States has to offer,\u201d said Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith.<\/p>\n

Smith added, in a speech last year reported by Breaking Defense, that the ARG-MEU has the potent ability to strike from range and return to the sea without the need to access resources on foreign land. The unit can wait off coasts for months and conduct attacks by air, sea and land, as the name suggests.<\/p>\n

The highlight of the ARG deployed from San Diego is the assault ship USS Boxer. An 844-foot amphibious ship with roughly 30 years of service, the USS Boxer can function as an aircraft carrier for F-35B stealth fighters, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. Marines with Battalion Landing Team 3\/5, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct drills with M240B machine guns during training aboard Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Boxer. 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit<\/p>\n

The stealth fighters can fly 1,200 miles per hour and are already being used in the Iran war, targeting Iranian air defense systems<\/a> and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

In addition to the stealth fighters, the USS Boxer also carries attack helicopters and contains a hospital.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has been eyeing an island located off the Iranian coast, the Post reported<\/a>, that if invaded could deal a blow to Iran\u2019s economy and help open up the Strait of Hormuz. ARGs like the USS Boxer are designed for missions like that, though it\u2019s unclear where the San Diego deployment will go.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has also deployed another ARG-MEU to the Middle East, consisting of the Japan-based USS Tripoli, another amphibious assault ship, and two supporting ships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three warships from San Diego and more than 2,000 Marines headed to the Middle East may have a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,536,19378,7341,4182,3586,2664,108813],"class_list":["post-242419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-marines","tag-metro","tag-us-news","tag-war","tag-warships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}