The Marine Corps has long insisted that it needs enough amphibious ships to keep three ready groups deployed at all times, but the demand for those units is much higher than that, the service’s commandant said Thursday.

Every combatant commander—from U.S. Central Command to Africa to Southern—has requested an ARG with a Marine Expeditionary Unit on board, Gen. Eric Smith told an audience at the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington, D.C. 

“I won't say how many of the ARG-MEUs our combat commanders ask for, but it is well north of three,” he said. “I'll just say that it is well north of three—like double that.”

The 22nd MEU is off the coast of South America supporting Operation Southern Spear, the administration’s anti-drug trafficking effort, while the 31st MEU is in the Middle East supporting the U.S. blockade of Iran.

They’ll soon be joined by the 11th MEU, Smith said, which just finished typhoon disaster response in the Northern Mariana Islands.

“I just wish I had more of them to offer,” he said.

Having an ARG-MEU constantly off both coasts of the U.S. and in the Indo-Pacific is the goal, and while the Corps has the Marines to do it, it does not have the ships. 

Out of the Navy’s 32 amphibious ships, only about half are in good enough condition to keep deploying, according to a 2024 Government Accountability Office report. The Navy would need to have nine in deployable condition at any given time to get to the 3.0 presence the commandant wants, with the rest in various stages of maintenance and pre-deployment training in order to keep the pipeline primed.

The service needs more like 40 to support the effort, Lt. Gen. Jay Bargeron, deputy commandant for plans, policies, and operations, said during a presentation Wednesday at Modern Day Marine, but an ongoing analysis is working on a precise number. By law, the Navy has to have 31, but the law doesn’t govern whether they are deployable. 

“The Navy and the Marine Corps are aligned on this: 31 is not the right number,” Bargeron said. “It’s a floor, as was described.”

The Navy is working on building more amphibs, while also tackling the problem of delayed and backlogged maintenance to its existing fleet with the Amphibious Force Readiness Board.

“Its purpose is simple: to increase operational availability, to reduce maintenance delays, to prioritize modernization that actually improves readiness, to improve accountability across the enterprise, better synchronize daily Marine Corps demand signals, and last, generate more usable presence from the force we already have,” Adm. Daryl Caudle, the chief of naval operations, said Thursday at Modern Day Marine.

Caudle said he is encouraged by some of the maintenance that West Coast ships have been able to fast-track, and acknowledged that the East Coast is making a similar effort.

“But we are not declaring victory early,” he added. “This will take sustained pressure and leadership from the Pentagon to the commanding officers on the waterfront.”

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It’s been two months since the U.S. began strikes on Iran without authorization from Congress, so the clock is about to run out on the legal amount of time a president has to carry out a military operation without congressional approval. But the administration has given no indications they hope to make Operation Epic Fury legal.

Asked during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday whether an authorization or extension request are coming, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demurred, arguing that the current ceasefire with Iran has paused the 30-day clock.

“I do not believe the statute supports that,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told Hegseth. “We have serious constitutional concerns and we don’t want to layer those with additional statutory concerns.”

A White House spokeswoman did not respond to a request from Defense One to clarify whether the president has asked Congress to vote on an authorization for use of force in Iran, or whether he will submit a written request for a 30-day extension that would give troops time to withdraw.

One or the other is required to extend a military operation past 60 days, per the War Powers Resolution of 1973.

“The current ceasefire does not affect the clock,” David Janovsky, acting director of the Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight, said in a statement Thursday. “The War Powers Resolution is written in very broad terms. It refers to ‘hostilities,’ not ‘war,’ and it even covers situations where hostilities are imminent but not actually occurring.”

Though the ceasefire began April 8, the U.S. has since instituted a blockade against Iran, Janovsky said, “an act of war in its own right, and one that has included U.S. troops boarding multiple Iranian ships.”

“And yet, Secretary Hegseth, you declared victory a month ago,” SASC ranking member Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said during Thursday’s hearing. “On April 8, you said, ‘Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory … By any measure, Epic Fury decimated Iran’s military and rendered it combat ineffective for years to come.’ “

Republican lawmakers have blocked multiple attempts by Democrats to hold a war powers vote. Senate Democrats on Thursday announced they would force an initial same-day vote, though a final vote wouldn’t be scheduled until Friday, despite the 60-day clock running out Thursday night. 

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