USS Gravely is the fifty-seventh Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and has around the world over the years.
The USS Gravely destroyer is being deployed to join the effort to secure the U.S. southern border. According to the Navy, DDG-107 has already left Naval Weapons Station Yorktown and is en route to the southern border where it is set to take part in maritime drug interdictions and thwart illegal seaborne immigration alongside the Coast Guard. Since the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer has most recently been deployed to the Middle East, its journey and mission sets under the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) are quite unusual. Even NORTHCOM commander Gen. Gregory Guillot noted that it was a bit atypical to deploy a capability on the level of the USS Gravely for the southern border security mission set. However, the presence of USS Gravely in its new mission command coincides with U.S. president Donald Trump’s recent executive orders to protect the southern border.
Issued last month, Trump’s directive to impose duties to address the situation at the southern border centers around preventing the influx of “illegal aliens” and “illicit opioids.” USS Gravely’s journey to the south is meant to fulfill these objectives. In a statement, the commander of NORTHCOM asserted that “USS Gravely’s deployment will contribute to the U.S. Northern Command southern border mission as part of the DOD’s coordinated effort in response to the Presidential Executive Order. Gravely’s sea-going capacity improves our ability to protect the United States’ territorial integrity, sovereignty, and security.”
Introducing the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
USS Gravely, like its sister ships, was named to honor World War II American destroyer officer Admiral Arleigh Burke. The DDGs designated in this class are widely considered to represent highly capable, multi-mission ships. Able to conduct missions ranging from anti-air warfare and anti-submarine warfare to anti-surface warfare, the Arleigh Burke destroyers are equipped with the cutting-edge Aegis Weapon System (AWS) and the SPY-1D multi-function passive electronically scanned array radar. As a destroyer class, the Arleigh Burke ships naturally pack quite the punch. The DDGs in this class are armed with fifty-six Raytheon Tomahawk cruise missiles and a combination of land-attack missiles, anti-ship missiles, and a Tercom-aided navigation system. Both types of missiles are launched from a pair of Lockheed Martin MK41 vertical launch systems.
USS Gravely
USS Gravely is the fifty-seventh destroyer in its class. First commissioned in the early 2000s, the destroyer has served the Navy in various capacities over the years. In 2010, it was deployed to patrol the eastern Mediterranean Sea at the onset of the Syrian Civil War. In the following years, Gravely would sail alongside USS Sirocco to provide assistance as the warship seized an illicit weapons shipment. In 2019, the Arleigh-Burke destroyer would receive the Meritorious Unit Commendation award in support of its role in Operation Inherent Resolve. Most recently, Gravely completed a nine-month deployment fighting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
Considering Gravely’s extensive service history and notable capabilities, its presence in NORTHCOM to aid in securing the southern border is certainly unique.
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin. Carlin has over 1,000 articles published over the last several years on various defense issues.
Image: DVIDS.
