Marine Col. Jason Berg, left, commander of Combat Logistics Regiment 3, and Col. Scott D. Welborn, commander of Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji, and survey the supply ship Resolution at Numazu Beach, Japan, on Feb. 27, 2025. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
NUMAZU BEACH, Japan — A trial by the Marine Corps of an experimental landing ship ended recently with the vessel failing to offload equipment at this coastal training area southwest of Tokyo and heading back to port.
The 254-foot Resolution, a converted offshore supply vessel with over 6,000 square feet of deck, spent the morning of Feb. 27 just off Numazu Beach, a 1,000-foot-wide swathe of coast designated for U.S. military training on Suruga Bay in Shizuoka prefecture.
The vessel appeared to deploy stabilizing pylons while Marines ashore waited for the ship to drop a large ramp and offload tactical vehicles, tents and gear for an exercise at the nearby Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji.
The bay was relatively calm as the Resolution eventually headed out to sea and north to Yokohama to offload its cargo.
Marines from Combat Logistics Regiment 3, the unit involved in the exercise, were in the field Tuesday and had yet to respond to queries about the landing attempt, Song Jordan, a Camp Fuji spokeswoman, said by email that day.
The Marines had loaded their vehicles and gear at Naha Military Port, Okinawa, two weeks earlier, regimental commander Col. Jason Berg told Stars and Stripes at Numazu.
Marines of Combat Logistics Regiment 3 expected to off-load vehicles and equipment from the Resolution onto Numazu Beach, Japan, on Feb. 27, 2025. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
The Marines were bound for Camp Fuji for two weeks of full-spectrum combat logistics training.
“This is the first time we have moved gear like this,” he said of the stern landing effort, which involved the vessel backing up to the beach in the attempt to offload cargo.
In March 2022, landing craft launched from the dock landing ship USS Ashland and dropped off Marines and vehicles at Numazu Beach during training.
The training area there is set aside for ship-to-shore drills and serves as a helicopter landing zone, Camp Fuji commander Col. Scott Welborn said at the beach.
The Resolution went through a series of trials last year in the Del Mar Boat Basin at Camp Pendleton, Calif., as part of Navy efforts to design a new type of landing ship, USNI News reported Feb. 26, 2024.
The vessel is a prototype for a future medium landing ship, Cathy Close, a Marine Corps Systems Command spokeswoman told reporters at the time, according to the report.
