The Pentagon is moving more than 4,000 Marines and sailors toward the Middle East on three warships as U.S. forces keep pressure on Iran and enforce a naval blockade.
Three Navy ships left San Diego on Monday with a large Marine expeditionary force aboard, part of a wider American presence already building across the U.S. Central Command region, The Hill reported.
The vessels are the USS Makin Island, the USS Anchorage, and the USS John P. Murtha. They carry the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a forward-deployed task force of about 2,200 Marines and sailors.
Together, the three ships are ferrying more than 4,000 Marines and sailors toward the Middle East theater as the Navy’s posture there expands.
The Makin Island group is not moving into an empty region. The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are already in the Middle East.
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is also headed to the Centcom region to relieve the USS George Washington, which had shifted there from the Indo-Pacific. The USS George H.W. Bush is in the Middle East as well.
When the Roosevelt is counted with the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, about 9,000 personnel are tied to those ships. The Roosevelt alone typically carries about 5,000.
More than 50,000 U.S. service members are already operating in the Centcom region.
The Navy pointed questions about the movement to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. A fleet spokesperson cast the sailing in familiar terms.
On Wednesday, the spokesperson said:
“The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group and 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit are conducting routine operations in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations,”
The same statement placed the activity inside the Third Fleet’s normal mission set.
“U.S. 3rd Fleet leads naval forces in the region and provides the realistic, relevant training necessary to execute our Navy’s role across the full spectrum of military operations, from combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster response.”
The spokesperson added that Third Fleet works with allies and partners “to advance freedom of navigation and overflight, the rule of law, and other principles that underpin security for the region.”
That is the official line on the San Diego departure. The larger picture in Centcom is a sustained U.S. naval presence, carrier relief, and active blockade enforcement against Iran-linked shipping.
U.S. warships are helping enforce a naval blockade on vessels trying to enter or leave Iranian ports. Centcom said in a Wednesday update that American forces have redirected 125 commercial vessels to ensure compliance since the blockade resumed in July.
That figure is not a talking point. It is a running count of ships turned away under the resumed blockade.
The added Marines, sailors, and amphibious ships arrive while that enforcement work is already underway and while multiple U.S. decks are staged in or bound for the same theater.
President Trump told reporters Thursday that the U.S. effort against Iran will wrap up soon.
“Iran will very soon be ending, one way or the other,”
He also predicted oil prices will fall once the Iran situation ends.
The president’s remarks came days after the Makin Island group left San Diego and on the heels of Centcom’s update on the blockade redirections. The force flow, the carrier relief, and the vessel turn-backs are the concrete moves on the water while that timeline is being set from Washington.
Marines and sailors do not steam west for show. They go because American power still has to be present, visible, and ready where adversaries test the rules.
