SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — The amphibious assault ship USS Boxer and the guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones arrived Tuesday for a routine port visit before the combined exercise between U.S. and Australian forces called Exercise Talisman Sabre.

Also as part of the exercise in Australia, the 7th Fleet command ship the USS Blue Ridge left its homeport in Yokosuka Naval Base on Monday en route to Australia.

Fleet command staff members will work with their Australian counterparts to create a task force and drill crisis action training and contingency operations.

The John Paul Jones, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer permanently based in San Diego, has a crew of 350 and is berthed in the India Basin, base officials said. The Wasp-class Boxer, also permanently based in San Diego, has a crew of 1,060, similar in size to the USS Essex, already berthed in India.

Because of limited berthing spaces, the Boxer is moored at nearby Akasaki Fuel Terminal, said Lt. Ed Sisk, Amphibious Group One spokesman.

In addition, the Boxer will exchange two Landing Craft, Air Cushioned, or LCACs, with Assault Craft Unit Five, Detachment Western Pacific.

The exchange is part of a rotation program to return LCACs to San Diego for repair, maintenance and upgrades, the spokesman added.

The Boxer, flagship of the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, deployed April 29 to conduct exercises in the Pacific Ocean with allied nations and to demonstrate the Navy’s Fleet Response Plan.

The ship is without its typical load of U.S. Marines.

The ships are “estimated to be in Sasebo for just a couple of days,” Sisk said.