A Navy destroyer that was involved in fighting Houthi rebel attacks on shipping in the Red Sea last year is being deployed a lot closer to home. The Pentagon says the USS Gravely is being sent to boost border security in waters normally patrolled by the Coast Guard, the Washington Post reports. At 509 feet 6 inches, the guided-missile destroyer is bigger than any Coast Guard vessel. In a news release, US Naval Forces Northern Command said the Gravely will carry a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment, known as a LEDET. "In support of US Northern Command's mission to restore territorial integrity at the US southern border, Gravely reinforces the nation's commitment to border security by enhancing maritime efforts and supporting interagency collaboration," the statement said.
Northern Command said the deployment is part of the Pentagon's "coordinated and robust" response to "combating maritime related terrorism, weapons proliferation, transnational crime, piracy, environmental destruction, and illegal seaborne immigration." It's not unusual for presidents to send the military to the southern border, but it's unusual to send Navy personnel, since the border is mostly land or the Rio Grande river, which mostly isn't navigable by large boats, Axios notes.
The destroyer was deployed from Naval Weapons Station Yorktown on Saturday, WVEC reports. The Post reports that defense officials didn't respond to its question on whether the deployment "is meant to address a possible shortfall in available Coast Guard vessels, or if it is intended to send a signal to drug cartels in the region." (More US-Mexico border stories.)
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