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The USS Boxer amphibious ready group and more than 4,500 sailors and Marines pulled into Pearl Harbor Wednesday for a port visit following a six-month deployment which included downing an Iranian drone that military officials said was “threatening the safety” of the Boxer in the Strait of
Hormuz.
The group includes the amphibious assault ship Boxer, amphibious transport dock ship USS John P. Murtha, and the amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry with the embarked 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
The Marines said the Boxer group participated in three exercises in early October with Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines across the South China Sea that demonstrated the U.S. commitment “to ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific” — a phrase used to describe push back against China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea.
The Boxer group also operated with the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its escort ships in the South China Sea.
“It has been a successful deployment for the sailors and Marines of the Boxer ARG and 11th MEU,” Capt. Dale Heinken, commanding officer of USS Boxer, said in a Navy news release. “I am incredibly proud of them, and we look forward to a pause in our schedule to
enjoy the culture and history of Hawaii as well as picking up some of our families for the return to San
Diego.”
Hundreds of families will ride back to San Diego with the Navy ships on what’s known as a “tiger cruise.”
The ships left May 1 on the deployment.
Boxer, which has a flight deck for short takeoff aircraft, arrived at Pearl Harbor loaded with V-22 tilt-rotor Ospreys on its forward deck.
On July 18 in the choke-point of the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, the Boxer was in international waters when a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system approached the 843-foot ship and closed “within a threatening range,” the Pentagon said at the time.
President Donald Trump said the same day that the Boxer “took defensive action against an Iranian drone which had closed into a very, very near distance,
approximately 1,000 yards, ignoring multiple calls to stand down and was threatening the safety of the ship and the ship’s crew.”
The drone “was immediately destroyed,” Trump said.
Fox News reported that Boxer may have downed not one, but two Iranian drones, using a Marine Corps drone jamming system known as the Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System.
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