Defense officials report that the United States is sending more aircraft and personnel to Nepal to support the effort to transport relief supplies from Kathmandu to people in need after a recent earthquake there. The death toll there now exceeds 7,000 with thousands more in need of relief.

The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) is sending three UH-1Y Iroquois helicopters, which are being transported to Nepal in Boeing C-17 Globemasters from the Air Force. A spokesman for Marines Corps, Pacific, Major Christopher Logan, reported that USMC is also sending four Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotors and two Lockheed-Martin KC-130 cargo aircraft. The Iroquois helicopters (unofficially known as Hueys) are made by Bell Helicopter and come from Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469. They are now on the island of Okinawa, Japan, at the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station bur normally based at Air Station Miramar in California. The Ospreys are normally based at Futenma, part of the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 262. The two KC-130s are based at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, part of Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152.

Although it is still too early in the relief effort to know the full personnel requirements, Stars and Stripes, a newspaper that reports issues related to the U.S. Armed Forces, reported that 150 service members will initially be tasked.

Nepal’s government has requested assistance and the Pacific Command, a Unified Combat Command of the U.S. Armed Forces, which is responding along with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the State Department, and other agencies.

The additional aircraft are expected to be in Nepal in the next few days. C-17s from the Air Force – one from South Carolina’s Charleston Air Station and another from Dover Air Force Base in Maryland, have already flown cargo and rescue personnel to Nepal. Also, a C-130 Hercules transport from Yokota, Japan has lifted a humanitarian team comprised of 17 Marines, two airmen and one soldier.