A U.S. Marine with India Co., 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment (Reinforced), Marine Rotational Force – Darwin 23 provides security during Exercise Talisman Sabre 23 at Lakeside Airpark, Queensland, Australia, July 28, 2023. US Marine Corps Photo
What began with 250 American Marines and sailors at Australia’s “Top End” 12 years ago has grown into a Marine air-ground task force of 2,500 that spends its seven-month rotation spread across Australia and the western Pacific. Read More
US Army High Mobility Artillery Rocket System fires during a littoral live fire event during Balikatan 23 at the Naval Education, Training and Doctrine Command, Philippines, April 26, 2023. US Marine Corps Photo
MANILA – A combined force of Filipino and American troops sank a decommissioned corvette of the Philippine Navy during a littoral live-fire drill in the waters off Zambales in Central Luzon on Wednesday, officials from both countries said in a statement. Read More
PFC Nathaniel Jackson, a mortarman with 3d Littoral Combat Team, 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3d Marine Division, demonstrates how to adjust the alignment of an M252 81 mm mortar system to a member of the Philippine Marine Corps during bilateral weapons familiarization during Balikatan 2023 in Santa Juliana, Philippines, April 10, 2023. US Marine Corps Photo
The Marine Corps is ready to use its new formation developed for the island-to-island fight of the future in a major joint exercise in the Indo-Pacific for the first time.
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U.S. Marines with Marine Rotational Force – Darwin receive COVID-19 test at Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin in NT, Australia on June 18, 2020. US Marine Photo
A Marine assigned to the rotational force in Northern Australia has tested positive for COVID-19, the service announced early Friday. Read More
U.S. Marines with Marine Rotational Force – Darwin receive COVID-19 test at Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin in NT, Australia on June 18, 2020. US Marine Corps Photo
This year’s deployment to Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory, hasn’t gone as initially planned. Travel restrictions and quarantining requirements due to the novel coronavirus drove the Marine Corps to send a smaller, 1,200-member force for the rotational deployment program, now in its ninth year. That’s less than half the size that deployed in 2019, the first time Marine Rotational Force-Darwin reached its 2,500-personnel maximum. Read More
Marines with Marine Rotational Force – Darwin arrive at RAAF Base Darwin in Darwin, NT, Australia, June 2, 2020. US Marine Corps Photo
Marines are on the move this week, with the latest contingent arriving in Australia for the resumption this summer of the rotational forces to Darwin and the command element of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit taking the helm of a Middle East-based response force. Read More
U.S. Marines with Marine Rotational Force – Darwin (MRF-D), arrive as part of the force enhancement for the 2019 rotation at RAAF Base Darwin, Australia, on July 17, 2019. Marine Corps Photo
U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific will resume its annual deployment to Australia, after the U.S. and Australian governments previously announced a delay due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions. Read More
U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. David H. Berger, left, outgoing commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific (MARFORPAC) and Lt. Gen. Lewis A. Craparotta, incoming commander of MARFORPAC, speak after the MARFORPAC change of command ceremony at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Aug. 8, 2018. US Marine Corps photo.
Lt. Gen. Lewis Craparotta relieved Lt. Gen. David Berger as commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific at a ceremony at Camp Smith, Hawaii, earlier this week, in what has become a common thread linking the careers of both generals.
U.S. Marines with the 5th Battalion, 11th Marines, and U.S. Air Force airmen with the 17th Special Operations Squadron, load a high mobility artillery rocket system onto a C-130 Hercules on the flightline at Kadena Air Base, Japan, Jan. 23, 2017. A HIMAR is a self-propelled artillery piece mounted on a 5-ton chassis with a rocket pod on the back that shoots rockets and missiles. The Marines will eventually deploy HIMARS on a ship to serve as an anti-ship weapon system. US Air Force photo.
U.S. Pacific Command has plans to put into practice a joint-service concept to integrate air, land and sea operations, with a mandate for all the services to incorporate the concept into their exercises in a lead-up to the Army sinking a ship at next year’s Rim of the Pacific exercise, the PACOM commander said last week. Read More
Lt. Gen. David H. Berger (right), the outgoing commanding general of I Marine Expeditionary Force, passes the unit colors to Lt. Gen. Lewis A. Craparotta (left) during a change of command ceremony at Camp Pendleton on July 27, 2016. US Marine Corps Photo
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The Marine Corps’ largest warfighting command changed hands on Wednesday as Lt. Gen. Lewis Craparotta took the helm of the 50,000-member I Marine Expeditionary Force from Lt. Gen. David H. Berger. Read More
