More Marines and Warships Head to Middle East as Hormuz Mission Intensifies
The Pentagon is also weighing sending more destroyers to escort tankers
- The Pentagon is moving additional Marines and warships to the Middle East as Iran steps up attacks on the Strait of Hormuz.
- Iran’s attacks have paralyzed Strait of Hormuz traffic, disrupting the global economy; the U.S. will release 172 million barrels of oil.
- U.S. forces won’t begin escorting vessels through the strait until the threat from Iran is reduced, which could take a month or more.
The Pentagon is moving additional Marines and warships to the Middle East, as Iran steps up its attacks on the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. prepares to escort tankers through the waterway.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved a request from U.S. Central Command, responsible for American forces in the Middle East, for an element of an amphibious-ready group and attached Marine expeditionary unit to head to the region, according to U.S. officials.
Two ships from the Japan-based USS Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit are now headed for the Middle East, one of the officials said. Marines are already in the Middle East supporting the Iran operation, and several more flights of Marines have moved into the theater in recent days, according to flight tracking data and U.S. officials.
The move comes as Iran’s attacks on the strait have paralyzed traffic through the strategic waterway since the start of the war, disrupting the global economy, driving up gas prices and posing a major military and political challenge for President Trump. The U.S. announced it will release 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a rare emergency measure aimed at bringing down crude prices.
A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment. One of the officials said the additional assets would initially be involved in strike operations on Iran. The USS Tripoli is equipped with F-35B jump-jet fighters.
An amphibious-ready group is a fast-response unit used to conduct sea-based amphibious assaults, humanitarian aid missions and special operations. The group’s embarked Marine expeditionary unit includes more than 2,000 Marines.
In addition to the Marine unit, the Pentagon is also weighing Centcom’s request for two additional destroyers to help escort commercial ships through the strait, one of the officials said.
Sending the USS Tripoli from Japan to the Middle East further decreases the American forces deployed to the Pacific. Trump has also redirected the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln from the South China Sea for the Iran operation.
Even with additional warships, U.S. forces won’t begin escorting vessels until the threat from Iran is reduced, the officials said. That could take up to a month or more, even as U.S. military strikes continue to target Tehran’s arsenal of missiles and drones.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran’s armed forces, struck three cargo ships attempting to transit the waterway on Wednesday, as Iran’s new hard-line Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed Thursday to continue blocking the strait.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that while the U.S. isn’t ready to escort oil tankers through the strait quite yet, he hopes it will happen in the next month.
“All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran’s offensive capabilities and the manufacturing industry that supplies their offensive capabilities,” he told Fox News. “We don’t want this to be a brushoff for a year or two. We want to permanently destroy their ability to build missiles, to build drones, to have a nuclear program.”
Hegseth said Friday that the Pentagon wants to reopen the strait “sequentially, in a way that makes the most sense for what we want to achieve and ensure that we’re sending the right signals to the world when we do so.”