Two Navy destroyers are part of an expanding military mission along the U.S southern border. The Norfolk-based USS Gravely left more than a week ago and is now in Texas.
“USS Gravely is now underway to provide immediate augmentation to the thousands of military personnel already supporting Customs and Border Protection operations, working in close coordination with the US Coast Guard to conduct maritime security operations,” said Adm. Daryle Caudle, the head of Fleet Forces, in a recently released video.
USS Gravely’s mission is interdicting drugs and other illegal activity. So far, the ship has not been involved in any interactions, according to U.S. Fleet Forces.
More recently, the USS Spruance left San Diego to patrol the west coast. Each ship has a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment team on board. The Coast Guard has worked with the Navy in the past on drug interdiction and other missions requiring law enforcement.
Typically, the Coast Guard has primary responsibility for patrolling the waters off the coast of North America. Naval destroyers are much larger than Coast Guard cutters, with crews of 300 sailors and an array of weapons that are less likely to be used in customs enforcement.
The destroyers carry up to 90 tomahawk cruise missiles —the same type the Navy used against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen. In fact, both ships now working on domestic border missions were recently in the Red Sea as part of the U.S. mission to protect international shipping.
The U.S. military has stepped up its involvement in providing security along the southern Border since the beginning of the Trump administration in January. At the beginning of March, USNORTHCOM established a joint command at Fort Huachuca, Arizona to coordinate the active duty components being summoned to the border. More than 9,000 troops have been deployed.
This week, the Department of Defense expanded the ability of units on the ground to patrol and monitor the southern border while the border patrol continues to handle apprehension of migrants.
The increased show of force along the southern border comes as U.S Customs and Border Protection data shows encounters have plummeted since mid-February.
