Amphib USS Boxer Deploys to Join Naval Buildup in Mideast
The U.S. Navy is dispatching the amphibious assault vessel USS Boxer and her escorts from California to the Mideast, where they will be on hand for ongoing hostilities with Iran. Boxer will be the second "big deck" amphib to arrive in the region, following the USS Tripoli, which is currently under way in the eastern Indian Ocean.
Boxer and Tripoli bring a combination of capabilities to the fight. As "big-deck" amphibs, they can carry the Marine Corps' F-35B fighter, the vertical takeoff and landing variant of the Lightning II stealth jet. While limited in range compared to the Navy's carrier-borne F-35C, the F-35B would add capability to the fight. The design is not invulnerable - Iran hit and damaged an F-35 with a surface-to-air missile on Thursday morning - but the aircraft are much harder to track and engage than conventional fighters.
The vessels' core capability is not in aviation, but in launching and supporting Marine Corps amphibious assault operations. The White House has floated the possibility of seizing one or more of Iran's islands in the Arabian Gulf as part of a mission to open the Strait of Hormuz; on Thursday, President Donald Trump appeared to rule out this form of a "boots on the ground" operation. "I'm not putting troops anywhere," he said - though he noted that he would not tell the press if an operation were in planning.
USS Tripoli departed the Philippine Sea last week and got under way with Marines of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard, headed for the Mideast to augment the capabilities of carriers USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln.
USS Boxer - accompanied by USS Comstock, USS Portland, and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit - is departing San Diego, multiple reports confirm. Four officials told Newsmax that the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group is departing earlier than originally planned, responding to a request from the Pentagon for more combat capability in the Mideast. From her location on the eastern side of the Pacific, roughly 12,000 nautical miles from the Gulf of Oman, Boxer is at least three weeks of steaming away from the combat zone; her late arrival suggests planning for a longer Navy/Marine Corps presence in the region.
Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Rushmore is expected to deploy from Japan to join Tripoli. USS San Diego, the third vessel in the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group, is remaining behind for maintenance, Newsmax reports.
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The Navy's amphib fleet is aging and has known repair challenges. USS Boxer has had years of difficulties with maintenance, including repeated problems with her steam plant propulsion system and her rudder. The Navy has made moves to address the problems with revised procedures for amphib yard periods, among other changes.
Per a Navy contract solicitation released in 2024, Boxer was originally scheduled to be in drydock for most of this year for major depot maintenance, a process planned years in advance. That selected restricted availability (SRA) is now scheduled for February 2027 through October 2028, according to a Navy RFP released earlier this month.