Three Maine Guided-Missile Vessels Make U.S. Naval History Over 40 Years Using Deck Blasters

When the USS Spruance fired its five-inch gun at an Iran cargo ship earlier this week it made Maine – and naval – history.

Not only was it the first time in nearly four decades a U.S. warship struck another vessel with its deck gun.

But the last time it happened was 1988 in a duel between the U.S. and Iranian navies in the same area of the world – the Persian Gulf – also involving Maine-built ships.

“That’s when the guided missile cruiser USS Wainwright, destroyer escort USS Bagley and guided missile frigate USS Simpson all fired upon the Iranian Karman class fast attack ship IRIS Joshan,” according to TWZ.com.

Two of the ships in the 1988 Operation Praying Mantis deck-firing were built – as was the Spruance – at Bath Iron Works in Maine.

The Wainwright used a five-inch deck gun and the Simpson a three-incher, said TWZ’s Howard Altman.

The Wainwright, built by BIW in 1965, also lodged anti-ship missiles in the attack.

BIW launched the Simpson in 1984.

“Praying Mantis was part of the much larger Operation Ernest Will, which began in 1987 when Iraqi and Iranian forces increased attacks on merchant ships in the Persian Gulf during latter stages of the Iran-Iraq War,” Altman writes.

Operation Praying Mantis was the largest of five major U.S. Navy surface actions since World War II, the first time the Navy exchanged surface-to-surface missile fire with an enemy.

The confrontation resulted in the largest warship sunk by the U.S. Navy since World War II.