DOD Deploys Destroyer to Join Border Security Mission

[rangerrebew]

DOD Deploys Destroyer to Join Border Security Mission
March 17, 2025 | By Matthew Olay, DOD News |   

U.S. Northern Command deployed the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile guided destroyer USS Gravely to Northcom's area of operations March 15, 2025, to assist with border security operations, the Pentagon announced today.
 
"USS Gravely departed from Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, [Virginia], for a scheduled deployment to the Gulf of America," Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell told the media.

"It's not only vital for the United States to have control of our border via land. It's equally important to control our territorial waters, and this deployment directly supports U.S. Northern Command's mission to protect our sovereignty," he added.

According to Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Joint Staff director for operations, once in Northcom's AOR, USS Gravely will participate in drug interdiction missions.

"[USS Gravely] will go down [to] the Gulf of America and surrounding areas and be involved in the interdiction mission for many of the drugs … that are coming in," Grynkewich said, adding that the ship will be partnered very closely with the U.S. Coast Guard's drug interdiction mission.

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4122731/dod-deploys-destroyer-to-join-border-security-mission/

[rangerrebew]

The USS Gravely has a history of active combat deployments. The mentioned stint in the Middle East lasted a total of nine months. Then, the ship escorted aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and intercepted missiles launched by Houthi militants in the Red Sea. That deployment, which was extended twice, was described by the Navy as "unprecedented" due to its intensity and duration, as The Washington Post reports. The ship was launched in 2009 and can hold 312 officers. It can fire from eight guns, has one missile-launcher as well as two torpedoes and carries two helicopters. Its motto is "First to Conquer."

The Gravely, coming off combat, is deployed to the Gulf of America.  Why not some other ship?  Is the condition of the fleet so shabby they couldn't deploy another destroyer?