Latest news with #TomahawkLandAttack
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Navy Plans to Deploy Second Destroyer to Patrol Waters Off US and Mexico This Week
The Navy plans to send a second warship to patrol the waters off the U.S. by the end of this week after a destroyer was deployed on Saturday as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration and the border, a U.S. official confirmed to on Wednesday. The official, who was given anonymity to discuss military plans, told that a second destroyer will deploy from the West Coast, joining the USS Gravely, which left a naval base in Virginia over the weekend headed for the waters around the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Northern Command announced Saturday that the Gravely deployed with a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment aboard, allowing the vessel to conduct missions such as ship interdictions and drug seizures. The Trump administration has already deployed thousands of troops to the southern border and designated Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations amid promises to curb border crossings. Read Next: Bill to Provide Full Retirement, Disability Pay to Combat-Injured Veterans Is Reintroduced by Lawmakers The Coast Guard seemed to reveal the plan to deploy a second warship on Tuesday when it released a statement that touted its success in interdicting drug shipments at sea and repeatedly mentioned it was working with more than one Navy ship. "U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) deployed two U.S. Navy warships to the southern border to support Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Coast Guard operations," the statement said. Cmdr. Liza Dougherty, a spokeswoman for Northern Command, wouldn't confirm or deny the plan for a second destroyer to join the Gravely. The Coast Guard's statement said "these U.S. Navy warships" -- plural -- "will operate in direct support of the Coast Guard and carry Coast Guard law enforcement teams." Adm. Kevin Lunday, the Coast Guard's acting commandant, was also quoted in the news release as saying that "these Navy ships provide unique capability to complement U.S. Coast Guard operations to achieve 100% operational control of the border." Unlike a Coast Guard cutter, a Navy destroyer is a far more heavily armed vessel -- the Gravely alone can carry 96 missiles, including Tomahawk Land Attack cruise missiles -- and it is moving into the area after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wouldn't rule out conducting strikes into Mexico less than two months ago. However, for now, officials say that the mission of these destroyers will be assisting the Coast Guard with patrolling the border. Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the operations boss for the Joint Staff, who briefed reporters Monday, said that the Gravely would "be involved in the interdiction mission for any of the drugs and whatnot that are heading in." It is not clear how long the destroyers plan to be at sea carrying out their mission -- several officials wouldn't say, citing operational security -- but Northern Command's news release on the Gravely used the phrase "scheduled deployment," which typically means a multiple-month mission. The deployment of not one but two warships to the waters off the U.S. is highly unusual. Northern Command, which has been around since 2002, is largely set up to cover defense of the homeland, and its commander oversees much of the waters off the coast of America and Mexico but not Central America or the Caribbean. The latter belong to the head of U.S. Southern Command. Officials at the Navy's History and Heritage Command told on Wednesday that Navy ships do frequently participate in short exercises, operations and patrols within Northern Command, but deployments of multiple months are very unusual outside of a disaster response. The officials said that, since the Cuban Missile Crisis, Dominican Republic, and various Haiti incidents were all within the Southern Command's area of responsibility, "it's entirely possible there hasn't been anything major since Vera Cruz in 1914." The Battle of Vera Cruz was a seven-month military conflict between the U.S. and Mexico that took place in the Mexican port city of Vera Cruz amid poor diplomatic relations between the two countries that stemmed from the ongoing Mexican Revolution. -- Patricia Kime contributed to this report. Related: Navy Destroyer Deploys Off US and Mexico as Part of Pentagon Border Focus
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Navy Destroyer Deploys Off US and Mexico as Part of Pentagon Border Focus
The Trump administration is taking the unusual step of deploying a Navy warship off the waters of the U.S. as part of its broader crackdown on security and migration along the Mexico border. The destroyer USS Gravely departed for the deployment on March 15 and will have a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment aboard that will better enable it to conduct missions such as ship seizures and drug interdictions, according to a statement released by U.S. Northern Command over the weekend. However, Pentagon officials did not offer more details as to why a Navy destroyer, and not a Coast Guard cutter, was chosen for the mission at the Defense Department's first briefing under the Trump administration on Monday. Read Next: VA Halts Transgender Care for New Veteran Patients as Advocates Warn of Dire Consequences Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's top spokesman, told reporters that "this deployment directly supports U.S. Northern Command's mission to protect our sovereignty" and that part of the Gravely's mission will be to "secure those water routes in defense of our southern border." Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the operations boss for the Joint Staff, who was briefing alongside Parnell, said that the ship will "be involved in the interdiction mission for any of the drugs and whatnot that are heading in." Grynkewich added that the ship will be closely partnered with the U.S. Coast Guard. Unlike a Coast Guard cutter, though, a Navy destroyer is a far more heavily armed vessel -- the Gravely can carry 96 missiles, including Tomahawk Land Attack cruise missiles -- and it is moving into the area after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently wouldn't rule out conducting strikes into Mexico. One defense official, who spoke with on the condition of anonymity, said Northern Command did notify Mexican counterparts that the ship would be off their coast through internal channels. Another official suggested that the move was far more about the dramatic visual of a warship operating off the Mexican coast than the need for any of its more advanced weapons and capabilities. The Trump administration has already utilized military assets for dramatic visuals on several occasions -- only to halt after concerns over cost or efficacy were raised. Both the administration's efforts to use military flights to deport people it claimed to be in the country illegally and the use of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a detention center have run into issues. The flights raised questions about cost at a time when the administration was also pushing massive government cuts in the name of efficiency. Efforts to use the naval base at Guantanamo Bay to house tens of thousands of immigrants have yet to materialize because the tents that service members were directed to set up were not meeting habitability requirements. President Donald Trump announced plans to use Guantanamo Bay to hold around 30,000 migrants, but last week defense officials said that there were only 60 detainees on the remote military installation in Cuba, none of whom were being housed in the tents service members were recently ordered to set up. Meanwhile, the Gravely has been back in the U.S. for less than a year. The ship returned from a storied and dramatic deployment to the Middle East in July. While in the Middle East, the destroyer had its deployment extended twice, for a total of nine months away from home. The Gravely faced one of the greatest threats that the Navy has publicly acknowledged during the deployment. The ship shot down a missile using its Close-In Weapon System, or CIWS -- a gatling gun system that is one of the vessel's last lines of defense -- after it came within a mile of the destroyer in January 2024. Officials at the Pentagon and Northern Command wouldn't say how long they planned to have the destroyer patrolling the waters off Mexico. Northern Command's statement said the ship would operate in international waters, as well as within 12 miles of the U.S. coast. Related: Trump Wants to Detain 30,000 Migrants at Guantanamo Bay. It Can Hold Only 130 Now.
