U.S. Navy Conducts Annual Live Fire Missile Exercise in Arabian Gulf

TR_123456 · Nov 7, 2021

Cyclone class Patrol (coastal) ship USS Tempest (PC 2), fires a Griffin Missile during a test and proficiency fire in the Arabian Gulf Nov. 5. Tempest, assigned to Commander, Task Force (CTF) 55, is supporting maritime security operations and theatre security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. (Photo by U.S. Army Photo by Spc. Aleksander Fomin)

NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY, BAHRAIN --
U.S. Navy patrol coastal ships conducted a live-fire exercise with the MK-60 Griffin guided-missile system in the Arabian Gulf, Nov. 4-6, to test crew proficiency and system functionality.

U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) conducted a previous Griffin guided-missile system live fire exercise in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in December 2019. The system was installed on all forward-deployed patrol coastal ships in 2013.

Exercise participants included patrol coastal ships USS Firebolt (PC 10), USS Thunderbolt (PC 12), USS Tempest (PC 2), USS Chinook (PC 9), USS Hurricane (PC 3), USS Whirlwind (PC 11), expeditionary mobile base platform ship USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB 3) and guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG 115).

Some ships also conducted a live fire exercises with crew-served weapons to maintain operator proficiency and readiness for future missions.

The U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses about 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean. The region also includes 21 countries and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Bab al Mandeb at the southern tip of Yemen.