Mallory Shelbourne – August 14, 2025 5:54 PM
Amphibious warship USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) left Norfolk Va., Thursday, the first time a U.S.-based Amphibious Ready Group with embarked Marines has deployed since December.
The departure of the Wasp-class big-deck amphibious ship ends an eight-month gap in the Navy and Marine Corps’ Amphibious Ready Group and Marine Expeditionary Unit presence.
The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, will embark on Iwo Jima and the other two ships in the ARG – USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28) and USS San Antonio (LPD-17).
“The IWO ARG is capable of conducting global missions to accomplish U.S. strategic goals, deter adversaries, and ensure unimpeded commerce by keeping the high seas open and free in accordance with international law,” the Navy said in a news release announcing the ships’ departure. “The 22nd MEU (SOC) provides a forward-deployed, flexible sea-based Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) capable of conducting amphibious operations—including enabling the introduction of follow-on forces and designated special operations to meet Combatant Commander’s requirements.”
The deployment comes as the Navy struggles to improve the amphibious fleet’s readiness, which has delayed ships leaving the pier and led to disaggregated formations operating on the high seas.
The last three-ship ARG/MEU that deployed was the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, which left California one ship at a time in early 2024 due to maintenance issues on each ship that caused delays.
Leading up to the deployment, sailors aboard flagship USS Boxer (LHD-4) were the subject of two command investigations that discovered serious maintenance deficiencies and problems with crew discipline. As a result, Boxer left for deployment late on April 1, 2024, but returned to the pier just over one week later after a bearing and starboard rudder failed. It took three months for the big-deck to get underway again in mid-July.
The other two ships in the Boxer ARG – USS Somerset (LPD-25) and USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49) – left at different times. Somerset deployed in January 2024, when the ARG was originally scheduled to leave. Harpers Ferry left in mid-March. The delays altered planned exercises in the Indo-Pacific last year and frustrated operational forces in the region, USNI News reported at the time.
While Navy officials originally touted the Boxer ARG deployment as an example of making lemonade out of lemons, the service has since acknowledged that it must improve the material condition of its amphibious fleet to support a higher ARG/MEU presence than it can currently meet.
“I want to maximize the availability of our amphibious ships and I’ve done poorly in that, particularly in [USS Wasp (LHD-1)] and Boxer deployments,” acting chief of naval operations Adm. Jim Kilby told the House Armed Services Committee in June. “I’m committed to getting our amphibious maintenance done on time so the Marines can embark and we can deploy as scheduled for the global force management process.”
Kilby also told lawmakers that he needs 46 amphibious warships, which is 15 more than the Congressionally-mandated requirement for 31. Marine Corps officials say the joint force needs a 3.0 ARG/MEU presence to meet the needs of combatant commanders.
The Navy’s changing rhetoric about amphibious ship needs followed a December Government Accountability Office that revealed a 46 percent readiness rate – or the percentage of time the amphibs were able to deploy – despite a requirement for 50 percent.
“[P]oor material condition of the ships and delays in their maintenance has negatively affected availability of the amphibious fleet,” reads the report. “Decisions in recent years to divest ships before reaching the end of their expected service lives and prior to completing a waiver process involving submitting a certification to congressional defense committees triggered decisions to forego critical maintenance and worsened the condition of those ships.”
The Navy is starting a pilot program this year on both the east and west coasts that is meant to drive down maintenance delay days for the amphibs by locking in the work package for the overhauls sooner, giving the yards more time to plan. Under the pilot, the Navy will finish the maintenance packages 500 days before a “signature availability” starts and issue the contract one year out.
Compounding the readiness problems with the ships already in service are the delays to the new America-class amphibious assault ships currently under construction at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. The future USS Bougainville (LHA-8) and USS Fallujah (LHA-9) are each delayed about one year due to workforces issues at the yard.