New US Warship Deploys in Support of Border Security Operations

The destroyer USS Stockdale will take over from USS Spruance, which began supporting border security efforts in March.

The U.S. Navy has dispatched a warship to help support ongoing U.S. border security operations on April 11.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale departed from Naval Base San Diego on Friday, with orders to support multi-agency efforts along the U.S.–Mexico border.

“Stockdale’s departure reinforces the Navy’s role in the Department of Defense’s coordinated effort in response to the Presidential Executive Order,” the Navy Fleet Force Command said in a statement announcing the deployment.

A U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment is embarked aboard the destroyer, and the ship stands ready to assist in a range of missions, including maritime interdictions and humanitarian operations.

Stockdale is taking over responsibilities for the destroyer USS Spruance, which deployed from San Diego on March 22.

The warship was deployed on the same day President Donald Trump issued a memorandum, authorizing the U.S. military to assert control over areas along the U.S. southern border, to better detect and prevent cross-border human smuggling and drug trafficking.

“Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats. The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past,” Trump wrote in the memo, addressed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Trump’s memo specifies federal lands where the military may assert control in order to facilitate the installation of new border barriers, along with detection and monitoring equipment.

Since taking office in January, Trump has boosted the overall military footprint along the U.S.–Mexico border.

Around 2,500 U.S. troops were assigned to assist federal border security efforts at the time Trump returned to the White House. As of last month, around 9,600 military personnel had been assigned to support federal border security operations.

Before this deployment, Stockdale had taken part in a seven-month independent deployment across the Pacific, spanning the U.S. 3rd and 7th Fleet areas of operation.

As Stockdale’s recent deployment wore on, the destroyer went on to deploy to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in the Middle East, where it joined up with the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and helped repel drone and missile attacks Yemen’s Houthi rebels directed at ships operating in the region. The warship also conducted escort operations to protect U.S.-flagged vessels in the Gulf of Aden.

Stockdale wrapped up this seven-month tour of duty and returned to its home port in San Diego in February.

Bill Pan contributed to this report.