The San Diego-based destroyer USS Spruance was sent to sea Saturday to help “restore territorial integrity at the U.S. southern border”, the United States Northern Command said in a statement.
The deployment came one week after the U.S. Northern Command ordered the destroyer USS Gravely, which is based in Norfolk, Va., to travel to the Gulf of Mexico for the same reason.
The movements are part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to more effectively patrol the southern border by air, sea and land.
The Northern Command said that Spruance, a 14-year-old Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, will be accompanied by an embedded U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment, whose duties include border control, counter-terrorism and homeland security.
Saturday’s deployment represents a quick turnaround for Spruance, which returned from deployment to the Indo-Pacific and Middle East barely three months ago.
In mid-November, Spruance and the USS Stockdale, another San Diego-based destroyer, repelled missile and drone attacks launched against them in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthis, the Pentagon said.
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