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The U.S. Marine Corps will participate in unprecedented exercises with the Sri Lankan navy at the end of October, deploying more than 1,000 Marines and large support ships to drill with the Sri...

Elements of the U.S. 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) embarked the ships of the USS Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) to travel to Sri Lanka for large-scale amphibious exercises with the Sri Lankan armed forces, slated for the last week of October. The MEU is equipped with a robust amphibious assault capability, including armored amphibious assault vehicles and landing craft. The ESG's smaller amphibious ships -- the USS Dubuque and USS Comstock -- and their embarked Marines will reportedly play a prominent role in the maneuvers.

The exercises will no doubt threaten the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is part of the U.S. reasoning behind the exercises. However, the site of the maneuvers -- off the southern beaches of Hambantoa, where China is planning to build modern harbor facilities -- shows that India likely signed off on this venture as a way to signal to China that the Indian Ocean is U.S.-Indian territory.

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