U.S. Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit carried out amphibious drills in Puerto Rico on November 1, 2025, according to U.S. Southern Command. The exercise underscores Washington’s effort to strengthen rapid-response operations across the Caribbean in support of ongoing counter-narcotics and regional security missions.
On November 1, 2025, U.S. Marines of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit conducted training operations in Puerto Rico, as reported by U.S. Southern Command via X and in an accompanying official video release. The activity unfolds within a broader Caribbean deployment focused on counter-narcotics and homeland defense, with Puerto Rico serving as a forward staging area for rapid action. The footage highlights amphibious and littoral mobility assets working as an integrated package, underscoring a fast-reaction posture tailored to interdict maritime drug routes. The timing is relevant as Washington expands theater-wide counternarcotics efforts and refines force readiness in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility.
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U.S. Marines conducted amphibious drills in Puerto Rico to sharpen rapid-response capabilities for counter-narcotics operations across the Caribbean (Picture Source: USMC)
The defense products visible in the training form a coherent Marine Air-Ground Task Force toolkit. Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) hovercraft provide high-speed, heavy-lift ship-to-shore movement that bypasses ports and beaches equipment directly onto contested or austere littorals. Bell AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters furnish armed escort and close air support against agile surface threats, while Bell UH-1Y Venom utility helicopters enable command-and-control, troop movement, medical evacuation, and precision effects with door-mounted weapons or guided rockets. LAV-25 reconnaissance vehicles push sensors and firepower inland to secure landing areas and extend the force’s awareness, and Polaris MRZR ultra-light vehicles give small teams the mobility to fan out rapidly, block trails, and relay real-time updates. This mix is purpose-built to move fast, establish a foothold, and sustain tempo across sea and shore.
Viewed through operational history and development, the pairing of AH-1Z and UH-1Y stems from the H-1 modernization program, which delivered common avionics, improved range, shipboard suitability, and rapid weapons employment for embarked operations. The LAV-25 family, in Marine service since the 1980s, remains a proven wheeled scout with amphibious mobility and a 25 mm M242 chain gun well suited to littoral reconnaissance. LCACs, fielded in the same era and progressively upgraded, were conceived to move heavy loads at speed from well decks to the beach, enabling logistics without ports. The MRZR, procured in a JP-8/diesel-compatible configuration and optimized for internal or sling transport by helicopter, gives infantry patrols immediate, long-range mobility upon landing. Together, these programs explain why the force-on-display remains the baseline for rapid, expeditionary employment.
The readiness message embedded in the drills is straightforward: with LCACs delivering combat power to shore, H-1 helicopters stitching together air and ground maneuver, LAV-25s extending reconnaissance, and MRZRs accelerating small-unit actions, commanders can act within hours rather than days. That speed turns intelligence cues into interdiction opportunities, supports maritime boarding or seizure operations, and preserves options to pivot to humanitarian assistance if severe weather strikes regional partners. The package is scalable, capable of surging for a major interdiction push or dispersing into small, low-signature teams across multiple coastal points, while remaining logistically sustainable from the sea.
Strategically, these drills signal several layers of intent. Geopolitically, a visible, ready force in Puerto Rico reassures Caribbean partners of U.S. commitment to shared maritime security while warning criminal networks, and any state enablers, that interdiction pressure will be immediate and persistent. Geostrategically, the ability to establish temporary, low-signature positions ashore and to surge from sea lines aligns with Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations, reinforcing sea-control and sea-denial functions in confined waters. Militarily, rehearsing LCAC-to-LAV-to-MRZR flows under H-1 escort refines the Corps’ playbook for distributed littoral operations and shows how small, well-armed teams can seize chokepoints, protect key infrastructure and support law-enforcement boardings without a large footprint.
The wider context has grown more kinetic: senior Pentagon leaders have framed the current Caribbean posture as an operational counternarcotics mission rather than routine training, and SOUTHCOM has announced a new joint task force to tighten intelligence fusion and accelerate interdictions. Against this backdrop, the Puerto Rico sequences are not simply demonstrations; they are rehearsals for near-real-time tasking in contested littorals where speed, endurance and integrated fires can decide whether a shipment is stopped before it reaches U.S. territory.
These Puerto Rico operations show a coherent, scalable package built for the Caribbean fight: fast ship-to-shore lift, immediately employable ground reconnaissance and mobile fires, and rotorcraft that stitch the system together across sea and land. As SOUTHCOM sustains presence in the region and partners intensify information-sharing, this mix gives commanders the tools to act first, act fast and act with precision, disrupting illicit flows while keeping options open for crisis response across the hemisphere.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.