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US Marines conduct live-fire drills with LAV-25 IFVs in Puerto Rico amid Venezuela tensions.
The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit shared images of a LAV-25 gunnery exercise held at Camp Santiago, Puerto Rico, highlighting light armored reconnaissance training in the Caribbean. The event underscores how Marine Corps units sustain regional readiness as tensions continue to rise between Venezuela and the United States.
On 2 November 2025, the official X account of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit released images of Battalion Landing Team 3/6 conducting an M242 25 mm Bushmaster chain-gun range at Camp Santiago, Puerto Rico, documenting training that occurred on 23 September 2025. As reported by the X account of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, the shoot highlights a reconnaissance-focused Light Armored Vehicle-25 (LAV-25) crew working up in the Caribbean. The timing and location are notable: Puerto Rico sits roughly 550 miles from Caracas, a relevant geography as U.S.–Venezuela frictions have intensified. The vignette offers a concrete look at how Marine light armored reconnaissance firepower, mobility, and sensors could be tasked in a regional contingency.
U.S. Marines from the 22nd MEU conducted LAV-25 gunnery training in Puerto Rico, underscoring regional readiness amid ongoing tensions near Venezuela (Picture Source: USMC)
The defense system at the center of the images is the LAV-25, an 8×8 amphibious reconnaissance vehicle with a two-man turret mounting the M242 25×137 mm chain gun. The gun’s externally powered, dual-feed design allows rapid switching between armor-piercing and high-explosive loads, enabling the crew to suppress dismounts, defeat light armor, and engage soft targets out to roughly 2 km with practical rates around 200 rounds per minute. In Marine service the LAV-25 typically carries a crew of three and scouts, combining mobility with stabilized optics and turreted fire to shape the battlespace for the larger Marine Air-Ground Task Force. Images from Camp Santiago show tall whip antennas consistent with reconnaissance configurations, underscoring the vehicle’s role as a sensor-shooter node rather than a main battle tank substitute.
In a hypothetical U.S. intervention against Venezuelan forces, LAV-25 detachments would likely be tasked to screen amphibious lodgments, probe along coastal corridors and road nets, secure key terrain for helicopter landing zones, and conduct route and area reconnaissance to open mobility corridors for heavier follow-on elements. This is doctrinal employment for Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR) units: shaping, information gathering, and economy-of-force security, missions where speed, communications, and disciplined gunnery matter more than armor mass. Marine doctrine also cautions that LAR is not optimized for anti-armor decisive fights and should avoid closing with enemy formations equipped with medium-caliber cannons and modern anti-tank weapons, a consideration that would heavily influence task organization in any Caribbean littoral campaign plan.
Compared with newer systems, the LAV-25’s 25 mm M242 offers reliable, precise fire but less standoff and terminal effect than 30×173 mm cannons now proliferating on peer 8×8s. The Marine Corps’ ACV-30 variant, entering production with a Kongsberg remote turret and Mk44 Bushmaster II, extends reach and lethality while keeping troops under armor, reflecting a service-wide shift to higher-caliber, remotely operated weapon stations and improved protection. In that light, the Puerto Rico gunnery demonstrates two things at once: legacy LAV-25s remain the reconnaissance workhorse today, and the Corps is already architecting the follow-on mix of ACV-30 and the Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV) to replace the LAV family in the 2030s with more sensors, networking, and survivability.
Geopolitically, the choice of Camp Santiago as a training venue is not incidental. From Puerto Rico, a MEU(SOC) can flow quickly across the Eastern Caribbean to deter, reassure, or, if ordered, open corridors for humanitarian evacuation or limited forcible entry. The U.S. has already signaled interest and presence around the Essequibo dispute, including flight operations with Guyana and public diplomatic backing, while regional naval and air incidents have kept risk elevated. LAV-25 live-fire workups in this theater therefore signal readiness at the contact layer: reconnaissance elements capable of rapidly fusing sensors, comms, and precision autocannon fire in littoral terrain where distances are short, maritime lines of communication are exposed, and escalation dynamics can move quickly.
Taken together, the 22nd MEU’s documented LAV-25/M242 training in Puerto Rico reads as purposeful preparation rather than routine range time. It sustains core reconnaissance gunnery skills, underlines a near-term ability to project light armored forces across the Caribbean, and frames how the Marine Corps intends to bridge from today’s LAV-25 to tomorrow’s ACV-30/ARV suite. In any U.S.–Venezuela confrontation scenario, the unit that sees first, talks first, and shoots accurately at range will shape outcomes; this is exactly what the Marines were rehearsing on 23 September, quietly captured for the record, then shared on 2 November.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.