U.S. Marines fired a LAV-25 from the flight deck of USS Portland in the Pacific Ocean on April 25, turning an armored reconnaissance vehicle built for shore missions into a shipboard direct-fire weapon. The drill, disclosed by Defense Visual Information Distribution Service on April 27, took place as the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit operated with the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations.
The exercise involved Marines from Battalion Landing Team 3/5, assigned to the 11th MEU, and used the LAV-25 in a role it is not usually asked to fill at sea. The vehicle is traditionally employed ashore for screening, reconnaissance, security missions and mobile fire support, and it carries a 25mm M242 Bushmaster chain gun backed by 7.62mm machine guns. At about 13 tons and able to exceed 100 km/h on roads, it is built to move fast and hit hard once it gets where it is going.
USS Portland, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock designated LPD 27, provided the platform for the live-fire sequence. The source said the drill illustrates how Marine forces are adapting legacy systems to deliver rapid and flexible combat effects in contested littoral environments, part of wider experimentation for future warfare in the Indo-Pacific.
That is the point of the exercise and the tension inside it: a vehicle designed to work from land is being tested as a sea-based weapon while the Marines sail with the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group in one of the world’s most heavily watched operating areas. The question is not whether the LAV-25 can fire from a ship’s deck — it did — but how far the Marines can push older platforms into new roles before the demands of contested coastal combat outpace them. For readers tracking the region, the drill adds another layer to the military buildup already surrounding Guam and nearby waters, including the separate forecast of Typhoon Sinlaku.