Heather Mongilio – March 17, 2025 6:23 PM
Guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely (DDG-107) left Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, Va., Saturday for a deployment to U.S. Northern Command. The warship embarked with a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment will patrol U.S. and international waters, Navy officials confirmed to USNI News.
Gravely is heading to the waters off the Gulf Coast as part of the military’s response to President Donald Trump’s executive order and national emergency declaration to secure the U.S. border, according to a Navy press release.
“In support of U.S. Northern Command’s mission to restore territorial integrity at the U.S. southern border, Gravely reinforces the nation’s commitment to border security by enhancing maritime efforts and supporting interagency collaboration,” reads the release. “The ship’s deployment highlights the Department of Defense and Navy’s dedication to national security priorities, contributing to a coordinated and robust response to combating maritime-related terrorism, weapons proliferation, transnational crime, piracy, environmental destruction, and illegal seaborne immigration.”
The ship will operate mainly in NORTHCOM’s area of response, in the waters around Florida, Alabama and Louisiana, U.S. Fleet Forces Commander Adm. Daryl Caudle told reporters Monday. There could be other West Coast-based destroyers that operate off the coast of San Diego.
“But you can think of operations in the Gulf of America being a predominant part of [southern border enforcement] for the East Coast ship, and then on the West Coast ship, you can think of the area in and around the San Diego area, and that traffic area coming in between Mexico and the United States,” he said.
The Navy is still working on where Gravely will operate, but it will be for southern border protection, Caudle said.
The Navy consistently works with U.S. Southern Command as part of the global force management, Caudle said. The difference with Gravely is that it is part of Maritime Command Elements East and West being activated in response to the executive order.
However, the two missions have similarities, and the two combatant commands will work together, he said. Gravely will predominantly sail in NORTHCOM waters, but the warship could also go into SOUTHCOM’s area of response as needed.
“So you’re going to see a seamless transition and force sharing of naval assets across the SOUTHCOM, NORTHCOM boundary to ensure that the mission is complete and we’re not thwarted by a unified command plan boundary between NORTHCOM and SOUTHCOM,” he said.
Gravely is able to do broad tasking, Caudle said, so the ship will be able to adjust to the needs required by NORTHCOM. Similarly, USS Thomas Hudner (DDG-116), which was sent to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to assist with the set up the base as an additional prison for those being deported from the U.S., could be shifted to other tasks depending on SOUTHCOM’s needs, Caudle said.
In July, Gravely returned to Norfolk after a nine-month deployment as part of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group. East Coast destroyers following deployments are often tasked with short missions while awaiting scheduled maintenance periods. In 2020, the Navy surged destroyers to SOUTHCOM for an anti-trafficking mission. In 2021, the Navy established a group of destroyers that could surge to take on anti-submarine operations in the North Atlantic using destroyers that were awaiting repairs.
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