A landing of the Spanish Marine Infantry on the shores of the United States

On August 28, the Spanish Navy began the third phase of deployment of the Expeditionary Combat Group (GCE) 'Dédalo' 25.

The battle group 'Dédalo' of the Spanish Navy in a large NATO photo series
The Spanish Marine Infantry will receive 34 new amphibious combat vehicles

This phase, which will run until October 24, is carried out in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean with the participation of the amphibious assault ship (BAA) "Galicia" L-51 and the frigates "Almirante Juan de Borbón" F-102 and "Canarias" F-86, as well as support during the voyage of the combat supply ship (BAC) "Cantabria" A-15.

1,230 Spanish soldiers are participating in this deployment, including 350 marines. The GCE 'Dédalo' 25 is under the command of Rear Admiral Antonio Gonzalez-Tanago de La Lasta. Below these lines, we see marines on the flight deck of the BAA "Galicia" L-51.

The Spanish Navy also contributes three aircraft to this deployment: two Sikorsky SH-60F Seahawk transport helicopters from the 5th Squadron (below these lines we can see one of them), embarked on the BAA "Galicia" L-51, and an SH-60B anti-submarine helicopter from the 10th Squadron, embarked on the frigate "Canarias" F-86.

The Marine Infantry participates in this deployment with a Reinforced Landing Battalion, generated with troops from the Second Landing Battalion of the Tercio de Armada, with the support of boats from the Naval Beach Group of the Spanish Navy.

In addition, the Marine Infantry also provides two Security Operational Teams (EOS) of the Protection Force (FUPRO): that of the Tercio del Sur, embarked on the F-86, and that of the Canary Islands Security Unit (USCAN), on the L-51.

As part of this deployment, the GCE 'Dédalo' 25 is participating in the Unitas 2025 exercise off the East Coast of the United States, along with the US Navy, a Guatemalan Navy ship, and a Mexican Navy ship. This week, the two Spanish frigates participated in a simultaneous refueling with the USNS Leroy Grumman (T-AO-195), a Henry J. Kaiser-class military tanker that also refueled the BAA "Galicia" L-51, as seen below.

This Friday, Spanish soldiers from the Tercio de Armada (TEAR) participated in a landing exercise on the US coast, specifically at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, an important US Marine Corps (USMC) base that has a training area with an enormous surface area of ​​640 square kilometers (to give us an idea, it is an area larger than the total surface area of ​​the city of Madrid).

The exercise took place on Onslow Beach, a 12-kilometer stretch located in the southeast of the US military base. Yesterday, the USMC published a series of four photos of this landing, which you can see along these lines.

In these photos we see Colonel Ben Reid, commander of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (26th MEU, based at Camp Lejeune), welcoming Lieutenant Colonel Emeritus Pablo Álvarez León, commander of the Reinforced Landing Battalion of the Spanish Marine Infantry, upon his arrival at that beach.

The series of photos released by the USMC also includes two images of Spanish TEAR soldiers disembarking from two Spanish Navy LCM-1E Landing Craft at Onslow Beach, a landing that also included VAMTAC ST-5 tactical vehicles. Unitas (unity in Latin) exercises have been taking place since 1960, and this is now in its 66th year.

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Photos: Estado Mayor de la Defensa / United States Marine Corps.