The Marine Corps has long insisted that it needs enough amphibious ships to keep three ready groups deployed at all times, but the demand for those units is much higher than that, the service’s commandant said Thursday.
Every combatant commander—from U.S. Central Command to Africa to Southern—has requested an ARG with a Marine Expeditionary Unit on board, Gen. Eric Smith told an audience at the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington, D.C.
“I won't say how many of the ARG-MEUs our combat commanders ask for, but it is well north of three,” he said. “I'll just say that it is well north of three—like double that.”
The 22nd MEU is off the coast of South America supporting Operation Southern Spear, the administration’s anti-drug trafficking effort, while the 31st MEU is in the Middle East supporting the U.S. blockade of Iran.
They’ll soon be joined by the 11th MEU, Smith said, which just finished typhoon disaster response in the Northern Mariana Islands.
“I just wish I had more of them to offer,” he said.
Having an ARG-MEU constantly off both coasts of the U.S. and in the Indo-Pacific is the goal, and while the Corps has the Marines to do it, it does not have the ships.
Out of the Navy’s 32 amphibious ships, only about half are in good enough condition to keep deploying, according to a 2024 Government Accountability Office report. The Navy would need to have nine in deployable condition at any given time to get to the 3.0 presence the commandant wants, with the rest in various stages of maintenance and pre-deployment training in order to keep the pipeline primed.
The service needs more like 40 to support the effort, Lt. Gen. Jay Bargeron, deputy commandant for plans, policies, and operations, said during a presentation Wednesday at Modern Day Marine, but an ongoing analysis is working on a precise number. By law, the Navy has to have 31, but the law doesn’t govern whether they are deployable.
“The Navy and the Marine Corps are aligned on this: 31 is not the right number,” Bargeron said. “It’s a floor, as was described.”
The Navy is working on building more amphibs, while also tackling the problem of delayed and backlogged maintenance to its existing fleet with the Amphibious Force Readiness Board.
“Its purpose is simple: to increase operational availability, to reduce maintenance delays, to prioritize modernization that actually improves readiness, to improve accountability across the enterprise, better synchronize daily Marine Corps demand signals, and last, generate more usable presence from the force we already have,” Adm. Daryl Caudle, the chief of naval operations, said Thursday at Modern Day Marine.
Caudle said he is encouraged by some of the maintenance that West Coast ships have been able to fast-track, and acknowledged that the East Coast is making a similar effort.
“But we are not declaring victory early,” he added. “This will take sustained pressure and leadership from the Pentagon to the commanding officers on the waterfront.”