The Navy on Saturday introduced one other destroyer has been despatched to the southern border to help within the ongoing maritime efforts to curb unlawful immigration and drug smuggling.
Navy officers mentioned the USS Spruance, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, departed Naval Base San Diego Saturday to assist southern border operations.
The purpose of the mission is to revive territorial integrity on the US southern border, in accordance with a press release from the Navy.
Spruance will improve maritime efforts, assist interagency collaboration and contribute to a coordinated and strong response to combating maritime-related terrorism, weapons proliferation, transnational crime, piracy, environmental destruction and unlawful seaborne immigration, in accordance with the assertion.
“USS Spruance’s deployment as part of US Northern Command’s southern border mission brings additional capability and expands the geography of unique military capabilities working with the Department of Homeland Security,” mentioned Gen. Gregory Guillot, USNORTHCOM commander.
He added that with Spruance off the West Coast and the USS Gravely, a just lately deployed destroyer within the Gulf of America, the Navy’s maritime presence “contributes to the all-domain, coordinated DOD response to the Presidential Executive Order and demonstrates our resolve to achieve operational control of the border.”
Coast Guard officers instructed Fox Information Digital earlier this month that a whole lot of migrant boat encounters had been logged close to the San Diego coast within the final 90 days, prompting the allocation of further assets.
Spruance will deliver maritime capabilities to the US Northern Command in response to govt orders signed by President Donald Trump, a nationwide emergency declaration and clarification of the army’s function in defending the territorial integrity of the US.
The combatant command “continues to fill critical capabilities gaps in support of DHS and CBP,” in accordance with the assertion.
The destroyer will likely be accompanied by an embedded US Coast Guard Legislation Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) created in 1982.
Coast Guard LEDETs perform a wide range of maritime interdiction missions, together with counter-piracy, army fight operations, alien migration interdiction, army drive safety, counter-terrorism, homeland safety and humanitarian response.
Spruance returned to Naval Base San Diego Dec. 19, 2024, after a five-month deployment to the US fifth and seventh Fleet areas of operation as a part of the Abraham Lincoln Service Strike Group (ABECSG).
The strike group was ordered to the US Central Command space of accountability to bolster US army drive posture within the Center East, deter regional escalation, degrade Houthi capabilities, defend US forces and sail alongside allies and companions to advertise safety, stability and prosperity, Navy officers mentioned.
“Assigned destroyers of the ABECSG, to include Spruance, were essential to providing a layer of defense to US forces and ensuring the safe passage of commercial vessels and partner nations transiting in international waterways like the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden,” in accordance with the assertion.
