USS Spruance Blasting A Ship With Its Deck Gun Is A First In Nearly Four Decades

Key Points:

• On April 19th, the USS Spruance, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, fired its 5-inch deck gun at the Iranian cargo ship Touska, marking the first U.S. Navy deck gun attack on another vessel in nearly 40 years.
• The previous similar incident occurred on April 18, 1988, during Operation Praying Mantis, where U.S. Navy ships engaged the Iranian fast attack ship IRIS Joshan with missiles and deck guns in the Persian Gulf.
• Operation Praying Mantis was a response to Iranian attacks on merchant shipping during the Iran-Iraq War and involved the largest U.S. Navy surface action since World War II, resulting in significant Iranian naval losses.
• Unlike the 1988 event, the Touska was an unarmed civilian cargo ship attempting to evade a blockade; it was damaged but not sunk, and was subsequently boarded and seized by U.S. forces.
• Iran condemned the Touska incident as piracy, demanding the ship and crew's return and threatening retaliation, but no direct Iranian response has occurred, and the incident has not led to renewed negotiations.