The recent deployments of two joint Marine and Navy units to Europe and the Indo-Pacific highlighted ongoing ship maintenance issues that caused commanders to have to adjust or miss training programs necessary to prepare troops for global operations, among other issues and triumphs.
Leaders involved in the 2023-2024 deployments of the Wasp and Boxer Amphibious Ready Groups, or ARGs, including officers from their Marine Expeditionary Units, described the maintenance shortfalls for amphibious ships as "challenges" to reporters on Tuesday, but noted they weren't the only ones, nor were they the only takeaways from the operations.
The units deployed new Marine Corps vehicles for the first time, contended with aircraft restrictions in the wake of deadly crashes -- in addition to the maintenance issues with the Navy's amphibious fleet -- and used generative artificial intelligence. They also responded to global turmoil, such as the redirection of a MEU to the eastern Mediterranean Sea as tensions in Israel broiled, and assisted in humanitarian relief in the Pacific.
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In total, both units trained with more than 40 allied countries, including the Philippines, Japan, Greece and Sweden, according to fact sheets provided to reporters by the service, which touted the ARG-MEU's ability to project power around the world and the deployments as a demonstration of commitment to those allies.
But the reflections from on-the-ground leaders also highlighted the trials units endured before and during their missions, and the larger interservice struggles.
The Navy and Marine Corps have been grappling with how to best deploy and restock troops, equipment, supplies and other necessities critical to the Corps' round-the-clock, round-the-globe aims, all while the readiness rates for the Marines' primary mode of transportation, the amphibious warship, hover in the dismal 40th percentile.
‘A Whole Deployment Ahead’
The deployments for the 24th and 15th MEU -- the two Marine Corps elements that join the Navy's ships to complete a full ARG-MEU -- were also marred by two incidents on the eves of their embarkments.
Just weeks before the Wasp ARG deployed, 35 Marines and sailors were hospitalized after two air-cushioned landing craft, or LCACs, collided off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, during a night operation. In December 2023, a Marine with the 15th MEU was killed in a vehicle rollover that also injured more than a dozen other service members.
"Sgt. [Matthew] Bylski's death was tragic and it affected a lot of Marines, myself included," Col. Sean Dynan, then-commander of the 15th MEU, said on Tuesday, "especially those aboard the USS Harpers Ferry who still had their whole deployment ahead of them."
From early to mid-2024, the 15th MEU embarked on an "unprecedented" staggered deployment model, which saw ships within the ARG leaving from port at different times -- in this case, by months in between -- to contend with maintenance.
The 24th MEU replaced the 26th MEU, a unit out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, last spring after the latter had its deployment extended multiple times due to maintenance issues and as military officials saw a growing need to maintain a response-ready deterrent force near the Middle East as instability spread.
The 26th MEU returned in March, but the 24th MEU did not deploy until May, resulting in a gap in MEU coverage for the U.S. European Command area of responsibility, which also includes the Mediterranean Sea.
When asked, a spokesperson for the service said they could not comment on what caused the gap between the two units' deployments for "operational security purposes."
"The USMC has continued to be the premier crisis response force with a credible power-projection capability for the joint force and the combatant commander, and our Marines remain ready tonight," Capt. Brenda McCarthy said in an emailed statement to Military.com.
"However," McCarthy emphasized, "the issue of amphib availability, which is exacerbated by maintenance issues, continues to complicate crisis response efforts, and degrades America's ability to deter adversaries and enable Marines to be a '911' force."
While the services contend with the maintenance problems, mission commanders also expressed conviction in their units' abilities during the recent deployments.
Col. Todd Mahar, the commander of the 24th MEU, told reporters that combatant commanders, embassies, decision-makers in Washington, D.C., and American citizens "can have confidence that you've got essentially sovereign U.S. territory -- which is the amphibious warships with 2,300-2,500 Marines and sailors -- that are out there" to respond to crises or engage in "limited combat operations."
Like the 26th MEU, the 24th MEU was called to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to act as a crisis response force, prepared to evacuate U.S. citizens from Lebanon if called upon to do so after the Israel-Hamas war plunged the region into instability. Both units earned a "special operations capable" designation prior to departing, meaning they trained to work with other specialized operations to conduct such missions.
"If the situation called for it, we were on a tether to be able to go in within a few days of notification to bring out American citizens or other designated evacuees from Beirut back out to the ships and then onward movement to other safe havens," Mahar said.
As the 24th and 15th MEU were returning from those deployments, the sea service confirmed that it would sideline 17 ships, reigniting long-standing concerns about how to move Marines around the globe "during a strategically vital period for training and readiness," one Marine official told Military.com at the time.
But as the services work to find "bridging solutions" to the amphibious vessel problem, the concerns over the readiness rates reached a flashpoint early on in the Boxer ARG's deployment, when its namesake vessel had to return to port 10 days after it set sail in April, offloading 15th MEU Marines to conduct training while it sat in maintenance for three months.
"Yes, that happened. Yes, that was a significant factor," Dynan, the then-commander of the 15th MEU, said on Tuesday about the Boxer. "MEU readiness and the number of amphibious ships remains an issue."
Capt. Tate Robinson, the commodore of Amphibious Squadron 5, said the unit missed one activity because of the unavailability of the Boxer and "in some cases, exercises were slightly reduced in scope," but "we were able to accomplish what we needed to; it did require us to [rejigger] some exercises and swap out ships and capabilities."
It also appears that the Wasp ARG dealt with maintenance issues of its own namesake vessel, according to Mahar, the 24th MEU commander, who said that the USS Wasp "had some maintenance challenges that we couldn't execute some early on training because she went in for maintenance."
Osprey, ACV Challenges
But leaders stressed to reporters that the maintenance issue was not the only challenge they faced on the deployment, nor did it mean there weren't any lessons learned and achievements for the units who conducted them.
Commanders also had to contend with limitations on the V-22 Osprey after a November 2023 crash caused service leaders to ground the aircraft for months, with other restrictions continuing after the standdown was lifted.
"The Osprey grounding happened during our pre-deployment training program, which impacted our ability to train with that aircraft while we were getting ready for deployment," Mahar said, adding that they were still able to certify their aircraft squadrons and used other assets such as the CH-53E Super Stallion as limitations continued throughout their deployment.
The Osprey -- which has received intense scrutiny after it crashed four separate times, killing 20 service members since 2022 -- was used during the operations, to include Boxer-deployed aircraft delivering 100,000 pounds of aid after a typhoon ravaged the Philippines in October.
The 15th MEU also oversaw the first operational deployment of the amphibious combat vehicle, or ACV, which Military.com previously reported had "surf zone" restrictions, meaning that it could not transit where waves break before the shore.
The service codified standards for the platform in September after it realized it needed to review training and employment guidelines following the two separate 2022 incidents. The 15th MEU deployed the ACVs from the USS Harpers Ferry in May, conducting a waterborne gunnery exercise in Oyster Bay, Philippines.
"It's almost underwhelming to say that we learned a lot," Dynan said, adding that the Marines had to contend with warmer Pacific waters that affected the ACV's cooling systems and that they learned the weight limitations of the platform as the unit conducted route and bridge surveys in the region.
AI Proves Useful
Leaders from the 15th MEU also said that they used generative artificial intelligence, or AI, to consolidate situation reports and foreign media perspectives on a nearly biweekly basis.
They used a program from Vannevar Labs that "filters all mentions of 15th MEU throughout the foreign media and provided us a summary to see how the 15th MEU is being mentioned," Capt. Kristin Enzenauer, a space operations officer for the unit, said.
In December, the service published official guidance on the use of artificial intelligence intended "to balance the efficiencies of AI with protecting national security interests and maintaining public trust," according to the message.
"We're just touching the tip of the iceberg right now with regards to the use of AI," Dynan said. "When we look at how complex it is to load and prepare and supply an ARG-MEU deploying forward, I think that there's significant opportunity for more use of AI in the near future."
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