American assault ships enter Eastern Mediterranean Sea

The Wasp-class amphibious ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) and the Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) transited from the Red Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and will join the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19).

With the embarked 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), these ships will re-aggregate as the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) in the eastern Mediterranean.

A typical U.S. Amphibious Readiness Group, courtesy of Wikipedia here, consists of:

Ships

• One amphibious assault ship; a Landing Helicopter Assault (LHA) or Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD): the primary landing ship, resembling a small aircraft carrier, designed to transport troops into the war zone by air using transport helicopters. In a secondary role, these ships perform sea control and limited power projection missions using AV-8B Harrier II or F-35B Lightning II Marine aircraft and Navy airborne assets including MH-60S Seahawk. There are currently two classes of amphibious assault ships in service: the Wasp-class (LHD) and the America-class (LHA) (Flights 0 & I).
• One amphibious transport dock ship; a Landing Platform Dock (LPD): a warship that transports troops into the war zone by sea, primarily using conventional landing craft and Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) hovercraft, although they also have the capability of operating helicopters from their flight decks as well. There is currently one class of LPDs in service: the San Antonio-class (Flights I & II).
• One dock landing ship (LSD): a warship supporting amphibious operations including landings onto hostile shores via LCAC, conventional landing craft, and helicopters. There are currently two classes of LSDs in service: the Harpers Ferry-class and the Whidbey Island-class.

Troops and equipment

• A Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU): the smallest configuration of a Marine Air-Ground Task Force that is deployed from an amphibious assault ship. Each MEU includes: a ground combat element of a Marine infantry battalion reinforced with M1 Abrams tanks, artillery, combat engineers, amphibious vehicles, light armored vehicles, and other ground combat assets; an aviation combat element composed of a composite squadron of rotary-wing aircraft and AV-8B Harrier II ground attack and close air support jets, and an Air Traffic Control and command and control detachment; a battalion-sized logistics combat element, and a command element. Each Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) typically consists of about 2,200 Marines and is usually commanded by a colonel. The makeup of the MEU can be customized as situations require; additional artillery, armor, or air units can be attached, including squadrons of F/A-18 Hornet multirole jet fighters (deployed from aircraft carriers or ground bases).

Aircraft

• AV-8B Harrier IIs or F-35B Lightning IIs: ground-attack aircraft designed to attack and destroy surface targets. F-35Bs also have the secondary role of fighter support.
• MV-22B Ospreys or CH-53E Super Stallions transport personnel, supplies and equipment in support of amphibious and shore operations.
• AH-1Z Vipers: attack helicopters providing fire support and fire support coordination to the landing force during amphibious assaults and subsequent operations ashore.
• UH-1Y Venom: Provides command and control during heliborne operations as well a light attack and assault capabilities.
• USMC MV-22B squadrons are designated as Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadrons (VMM), and CH-53E squadrons as Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadrons (HMH). When assigned to a MEU, the detachments of the various other squadrons are combined with either the MV-22 or CH-53 squadron to create a reinforced, composite squadron. The reinforced squadron is designated as VMM-XXX(REIN) for MV-22s or HMH-XXX(REIN) for CH-53s, where the Xs are the squadron’s number. As such, the various aircraft will don the tail codes and markers of the VMM or HMH squadron, though will usually keep their own squadron tail art.