The Marine Expeditionary Unit and additional warships are being deployed to the Middle East as Iran steps up attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has approved a request from U.S. Central Command for an element of an amphibious ready group and an attached Marine Expeditionary Unit.
USS Tripoli and the 31st Marine Expeditionary United are being deployed from the Pacific to CENTCOM’s area of responsibility. Officials say the deployment does not yet indicate plans for a ground invasion of Iran, but instead that it provides commanders with a range of land, amphibious, and aviation assets if needed.
The move comes as Iran has attacked the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly 20 percent of all global oil exports flow — as an economic weapon against the U.S.
Iran’s attacks on tankers and commercial vessels in and around the strait have nearly paralyzed shipping traffic, driving oil prices to nearly $100 a barrel and sending energy shocks through the global economy.
Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign, launched Feb. 28. Thirteen American servicemembers have been killed in action since operations began, including all six crew members aboard a KC-135 refueling aircraft that went down over western Iraq Thursday.
Secretary Hegseth said the U.S. military is actively “dealing with” Iran’s Strait of Hormuz attacks and said Iran had not mined the waterway.
“We’ve heard them talk about it just like you’ve reported recklessly and wildly about it. But we have no clear evidence of that,” Hegseth said.
“Their production lines, their military plants, their defense innovation centers — defeated,” Hegseth said. “Iran’s leadership is in no better shape. Desperate and hiding, they’ve gone underground, cowering — that’s what rats do.”
Marines are already present in the Middle East supporting the operation. The additional deployment means a much larger U.S. military footprint as the war, now on its 14th day.