NORFOLK, Va. — Less than a year after returning from fighting Houthis in the Red Sea, the USS Gravely, stationed at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, is heading south.
“The Navy’s still developing its role in what bodies of water we’re actually going to primarily emphasize during southern border protection," said U.S. Fleet Forces Commander Adm. Daryl Caudle.
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The Norfolk-based USS Truxtun, which left Naval Station Norfolk March 15 for an unrelated deployment, and the Norfolk-based USS Normandy have also been involved in southern border protection.
Caudle said the overall goal is to stop what he calls transnational criminal trafficking activity.
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“You may see things where we pull in to support operations like in Guantanamo Bay. But as soon as that ship gets underway, she could be tasked with immediately to go do intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance missions in an area where we are getting intelligence that there could be trafficking going on," Caudle explained.
Meanwhile, the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group was expected to deploy over the summer, according to Caudle, to the Navy’s 6th Fleet area of operations, which includes Europe and Africa.
This will be the second deployment for the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier.
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The strike group will undergo a training exercise this week in preparation for the deployment. The exercise is an opportunity for the strike group to prove it can operate effectively.
“There’s a massive learning cycle between each COMPTUEX that we go through to improve; to make sure that every time we do this it’s not some stake version, that it’s completely up to date with the latest intelligence, the latest threats, the latest scenarios, and the things that we have learned since the last time we did a COMPTUEX," said Caudle.
The last time one was done was for the Norfolk-based Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, which deployed last September.
News 3 will be on board the Ford to cover part of the exercise.
