WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is deploying another three-ship expeditionary unit — with about 2,500 Marines aboard — to the Middle East, the second such dispatch in a matter of days as President Trump attempts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping.
The San Diego-based USS Boxer amphibious assault ship and two other ships comprising the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are sailing to the region – a voyage that will take weeks — the Wall Street Journal and Associated Press reported Friday.
A different expeditionary unit of similar size is already en route, consisting of the Japan-based USS Tripoli, another amphibious assault ship, and two supporting ships.
That group was reported crossing the Strait of Malacca north of Singapore on Wednesday and was expected to reach the waters near Iran by the end of March.
Trump has not ruled out ordering troops to storm Iran’s coastline to secure the strategic waterway.
He said Thursday he had no immediate plans for boots on the ground, but also suggested he wouldn’t preview military moves in the press.
In a Friday interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum, Trump stated that he needed “numbers” to reopen the Strait — after railing hours earlier about “cowards” in the NATO alliance unwilling to help militarily.
The president’s prior naval deployments have foreshadowed large-scale action, including his positioning of two aircraft carrier strike groups near Iran just before launching the joint US-Israeli war on Feb. 28.
Trump previously assembled an armada near Venezuela before ordering the Jan. 3 raid that captured the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, to face US drug and weapons charges.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the latest deployment.
