QUANTICO, Va. – The Marine Corps is preparing to deploy about 2,100 grunts to be based out of Kuwait in a new unit configuration designed to respond to crises in the region, according to Corps officials.

Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force (SPMAGTF) Central Command will be equipped to perform noncombat evacuation, humanitarian assistance, infrastructure support, tactical aircraft recovery, fixed-site security and theater sustainment missions, said Brig. Gen. John Love, assistant deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations.

Plans to deploy the unit predate the conflict in Iraq and Syria with the Islamic State. Love, who spoke Sept. 25 at the Modern Day Marine expo, made no reference to the militant Islamic group or where the unit would be deployed, and a Marine Corps spokesman would say only that the Marines would be based in multiple locations.

Marine Corps Times, a sister publication of Defense News, had reported that the unit would likely be based at an existing military installation. The service stood up a command element in Bahrain in 2011, which is built around about 150 headquarters staff personnel. The Air Force has a forward presence at an air base in the United Arab Emirates and the Army in Kuwait.

But speaking at the Pentagon on Sept. 25, Col. Kenneth DeTreux, commanding officer of 8th Marine Regiment and the commander of SPMAGTF-Crisis Response, said the new unit's headquarters will be based out of Kuwait.

DeTreux's unit coordinated the evacuation of the US Embassy in Libya on July 26. He said that while his force numbered about 1,200 Marines, the new unit would roughly double that in size.

But size is only part of the story. "Any MAGTF is a tailored force to meet a mission set within a combatant commander's area of responsibility," he said. "No one size fits all."

He added that the new Kuwait-based unit "is to be deployed in [fiscal] '15]."

The unit's air assets will include attack aircraft, the AV-8B Harrier, and support aircraft such as the MV-22 Osprey and KC-130 Super Hercules, Love said. The unit's operations are funded through overseas contingency operations dollars.

In line with the Marine Corps' positioning of itself at the nation's crisis-response force, the Corps envisions itself forward deploying more SPMAGTF units of the sort already postured at Morón Air Base in Spain for operations in Africa.

On July 26, after taking mortar, small arms and rocket fire in the US Embassy compound for several days, a group of 80 Marines led more than 150 embassy personnel on a six-hour drive across the Libyan desert to the Tunisian border after the US ambassador to Libya, Deborah Jones, decided that evacuating staff via MV-22 helicopters was too risky.

The security team led by Capt. Jim Oliveto — who described the operation on Sept. 25 — packed everyone into 40 sport utility vehicles after the embassy negotiated safe passage to the border with the militias that held the ground along the route.

At the border, the Tunisian military escorted the convoy to the airport for flights to Europe.

The convoy was shadowed by two MV-22B Ospreys, a KC-130J and two F-16 jets. The Marines, on the ambassador's request, wore civilian clothes under their body armor instead of uniforms.

While the Marines wouldn't comment on the discussions between the Corps and the civilian ambassador, DeTreux said that "I think as a military guy, you understand there's going to be political and diplomatic lenses you look through. We just have to remain flexible, agile and responsive."

Love said another such unit is planned for US Southern Command, with troops due to be deployed on an episodic basis, and elements of Africa-Europe SPMAGTF are due for operations off the west coast of Africa.

"We believe that by having multiple, forward-deployed, tailored MAGTFs, the efficiencies they gain will provide a sustainable and enduring worldwide crisis-response capability," Love said.

Beyond Central Command, the Europe-Africa MAGTF, which began its deployment in 2013, has grown to full operational capability of about 1,400 Marines, with an infantry battalion and a custom squadron of MV-22s and C-130s. It provides security cooperation and assistance, but could provide two crisis-response elements with its aviation assets, Love said.

In the Pacific, III Marine Expeditionary Force has been reconstituted with three battalions and an additional battalion for the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. In Darwin, Australia, the Corps plans to grow from a company to a battalion-sized rotation — with a similar rotation planned for Guam.

In the Western Hemisphere, the 1st and 2nd Marine expeditionary brigades serve as the US-based crisis-response units.

Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.

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