The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches one of a barrage of Tomahawks against a target in Syria while in the Mediterranean Sea, April 7, 2017. (credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ford Williams)
In the early hours of Friday morning, two US Navy guided-missile destroyers in the waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea launched a barrage of Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs) toward a Syrian Air Force airstrip at Ash Shayrat, Syria. The launch was President Donald Trump’s response to the sarin gas attack on civilians in Syria earlier this week.
Both ships—the USS Porter and the USS Ross—essentially emptied their vertical launch tubes of TLAMs. The Department of Defense said 59 missiles were launched, which would be about half the total missile capacity of the two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers combined. The Porter and Ross are half of the Navy’s forward-positioned destroyer force based in Rota, Spain, as part of NATO’s European ballistic missile defense, so they were in the best position to undertake the Syrian strike.
The USS Porter empties its TLAM launch tubes in the Syria strike. (video link)
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