Maine Destroyer Fired Five Warning Shots At Iranian Ship Before Going For Broke

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is revealing riveting new details surrounding the takedown by a Bath-built warship of an enemy vessel.

The USS Spruance, built by Bath Iron Works, used its five-inch gun on April 19 to cripple an Iranian Cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

The nation’s top military officer is now sharing new details on how the guided-missile destroyer shot out the engine of the blockade runner.

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine said the U.S. naval attack represented a rare use of force by against a non-combat vessel.

Since the U.S. launched its blockade of maritime traffic going in or out of Iranian ports earlier this month, 34 ships have turned around at the direction of American forces.

However, one vessel did not comply with those orders, Caine told reporters at a briefing outlined by Business Insider’s Jake Epstein.

Epstein detailed Caine’s breakdown of the takedown.

M/V Touska, an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel, was sailing in the north Arabian Sea, heading toward the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, when it was intercepted by the Spruance.

The destroyer approached the Touska at around noon.

The warship’s crew issued multiple warnings to the Touska, informing the vessel that it was sailing in violation of the blockade and directing it to turn around.

The Touska ignored multiple Navy warnings over a six-hour period before the Spruance “executed a series of preplanned, carefully calibrated escalation options, including firing five warning shots,” Caine said, adding that the cargo ship still didn’t comply.

U.S. commanders then “authorized disabling fire” against the cargo ship.

The Spruance warned the Touska’s crew to abandon the engine room, and after a few hours passed, the destroyer fired “nine inert rounds” from its 5-inch MK 45 gun into the engine room, disabling the vessel.

“The 127 mm Mk 45 deck gun, standard on the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, fires a range of ammunition types tailored to different missions, including high-explosive rounds for direct impact, airburst, and area effects, as well as illumination and inert practice rounds,” Epstein wrote.

The use of inert rounds in an engagement such as this one was prioritizes control and safety over outright destruction.

The tactic is intended to target the ship’s propulsion system to allow boarding while minimizing danger to the crew.

Hours after the Spruance shot out the engine room, U.S. Marines flew by helicopter to the Touska and boarded the ship by rappelling down onto the deck.

American forces have the vessel and its crew in custody.The 510-foot Spruance was built by Bath Iron Works in 2010.