The U.S. Northern Command announced it will be deploying the USS Spruance, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, near the southern border as part of its border security operations.
In a press release, NORTHCOM said USS Spruance left Naval Base San Diego on Saturday afternoon and will now patrol waters off the West Coast. Its mission will be to combat “maritime related terrorism, weapons proliferation, transnational crime, piracy, environmental destruction, and illegal seaborne immigration.”
The release added that the vessel will be accompanied by a law enforcement team from the U.S. Coast Guard, which leads the government’s efforts to defend and control the maritime environment off the U.S. coasts and has tripled its forces operating on the southern border since the start of the second Trump administration.
This is the second guided missile destroyer deployed to the waters near the U.S.-Mexico border after the U.S. military sent the USS Gravely to the Gulf of America last weekend to crack down on illegal drug smuggling and immigration.
That deployment has already proved successful after the U.S. Coast Guard announced this week that it has interdicted over 80,000 pounds of illegal drugs since President Donald Trump entered office.
NORTHCOM Commander Gregory Guillot said the addition of the USS Spruance will bring “additional capability and expands the geography of unique military capabilities working with the Department of Homeland Security.”
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“With Spruance off the West Coast and USS Gravely in the Gulf of America, our 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,” Guillot added.
The USS Spruance was previously stationed in the Middle East until December 2024 to combat the Houthis, a Yemeni terrorist group that has disrupted commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Trump has made eliminating the Houthis a priority, with strikes launched just last weekend resulting in the deaths of many of the group’s members.
