A shortage of sea-ready amphibious ships likely will keep the Marine Corps from deploying a full-sized rapid response force aboard vessels for almost a year, Newsmax has learned.
Four officials tell Newsmax the Marine Corps has entered a nearly year-long gap in Marine Expeditionary Unit deployments on the East Coast and faces a similar gap on the West Coast beginning next year.
The development severely curtails the service's ability to respond to crises around the globe at a period that coincides with China’s stated timeline for potential action against Taiwan.
"We're in a gap right now," Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Steven Keenan told Newsmax. “We went full throttle, and now we are going to collapse back down because we don’t have enough amphibious warships.”
Marine Expeditionary Units generate from either the U.S. East Coast, the U.S. West Coast or Japan, and a full unit typically needs to deploy on three amphibious warships known as an amphibious ready group.
The East Coast gap began on June 6, when the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group returned to Naval Station Norfolk after its deployment with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.
On the West Coast, officials warn a more-than-yearlong gap is expected to begin in the second half of fiscal year 2027 and extend into fiscal year 2028.
Marines aboard the Japan-based USS Tripoli group have had their Middle East deployment extended into the ships’ maintenance cycle to continue supporting Operation Epic Fury.
That Marine unit is scheduled to complete another rotation from Japan aboard the USS Tripoli group later this year, but a U.S. military official and a senior defense official warn there is real concern that deployment will not happen due to ship maintenance issues that can no longer be ignored.
“They’ve been out longer than anticipated,” the senior defense official told Newsmax, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There is a risk that the next patrol will not be able to be executed because of the ships, but that’s left to be seen.”
The overlaps in ship shortages will hit hardest during the second half of fiscal year 2027, hamstringing Marine deployments at a period when they could be needed to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan.
“That's when things are going to dry up," the military official said.
The result will be more missed or incomplete missions for the 2,000 to 2,500-strong forward-deployed Marine response forces and fewer options should they be needed in an emergency, according to Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute.
“It's in a crisis state,” Eaglen told Newsmax. “It means that there have been missions from the National Command Authority, from decision makers in Washington, D.C., and the Marine Corps was ready, but they lacked the transportation to get there and prosecute that mission. And another service had to fill the gap multiple times in the last five years.”
The problem is consequence of an aging fleet of amphibious ships that is not keeping pace with demands. By law, the Navy is required to maintain 31 amphibious ships, but officials say that number is inadequate and, critically, does not ensure those ships are actually deployable.
"The Navy and the Marine Corps are aligned on this: 31 is not the right number," said Lt. Gen. Jay Bargeron, the Marine Corps' deputy commandant for plans, policies, and operations in April at the Modern Day Marine conference. "It's a floor, as was described."
Military officials say the true requirement is more than 40 ships, as past demand from combatant commanders across the globe have needed three Marine Expeditionary Units deployed simultaneously.
The Marines Corps displayed that capability this year: the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) was deployed to US Southern Command with the USS Iwo Jima group for Operation Southern Spear, a counter-narcoterrorism campaign; the 31st MEU is deployed in the Middle East for Operation Epic Fury; and the 11th MEU surged its deployment to the Pacific earlier this year as a standby force for the Middle East operations.
Due to ship shortages, it will take nearly two years before the military could attempt to replicate that effort. The time in between is filled with corner-cutting campaigns that have senior leaders worried.
“There’s no shortage of concerns,” a third official said.
For example, when the 22nd MEU returned to Norfolk, Virginia, from the Caribbean earlier this month, the Navy did not have a trio of amphibious assault ships available for another Marine Expeditionary Unit to deploy on.
SOUTHCOM commander Marine General Francis Donovan, however, had requested a deployment of Marines on a sea-based platform to preserve agility in the Caribbean during Operation Southern Spear.
To meet the demand, one of the ships in the USS Iwo Jima group – the USS Fort Lauderdale—had to immediately head back out to the Caribbean with a smaller unit of Marines after dropping off the 22nd MEU Marines at Norfolk.
“The Joint Staff directed USS Fort Lauderdale to provide an interim capability because they can’t generate three ships,” the senior defense official said. “They have a ship (now), and they can still do missions from shore. It’s just not optimal.”
That ship will soon come back to port in the U.S. to undergo deferred maintenance, and the Navy has yet to determine what ship will replace it in the Caribbean.
Another smaller Marine unit from the West Coast will deploy on just one ship in the coming months because there will not be enough amphibious warships available.
“We have the Marines to put on ships. We just don’t have the ships,” Keenan told Newsmax, echoing a warning that Marine Corps commandant Gen. Eric Smith told VOA last year.
Even the American 250th celebrations will be affected by this crisis. USS Iwo Jima was supposed to participate in a parade of ships in New York on July 4, but one of the military officials tells Newsmax it will be noticeably absent because of post-deployment maintenance.
To combat the amphibious ship crisis, last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act authorized $700 million for amphibious ship spare parts. While officials say the problem is receiving more senior-level attention than it has in years, the problem is still not being solved as quickly as needed.
Additionally, Congress has earmarked $8.3 billion in the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act to build additional amphibious ships, but that will largely maintain the fleet at roughly 32 hulls, with some aging vessels kept beyond their service lives until replacements are ready.
Faced with the ship shortage, military leaders who need a full Marine Expeditionary Unit in a crisis will have to use a workaround: deploying Marines ashore — dubbed a “dirt detachment” or "dirt det" — without a full group of three ships to travel on.
"It changes your ability to respond; it changes your ability to move around," one of the officials said of operating without a full amphibious ready group.
What’s lost when Marines cannot deploy aboard a full amphibious ready group is what another official referred to as "sovereignty afloat" — the ability to project force without asking a foreign nation's permission.
“Whenever we have to fly in Marines to small islands in the Pacific or down in the Caribbean, we have to ask that country for permission to send those Marines. That's a very arduous process if a crisis is unfolding,” Marine Capt. Keenan told Newsmax.
When Marines must be airlifted rather than sea-lifted, officials added, the Marine Corps is forced to compete with other services for aircraft while navigating a time-consuming host-nation permissions process. These issues alone could extend a crisis response time from hours to weeks or months.
"That's why every combatant commander is requesting an ARG/MEU — because it means if a problem starts, there will be Marines there within hours,” Keenan added.
Carla Babb is Newsmax's National Security Correspondent.