The USS Laboon, a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, has proven its worth in combat in recent months while countering Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

The Pentagon in October 2023 ordered the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group, which includes the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower, guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea, and guided missile destroyers USS Laboon, USS Mason and USS Gravely, to deploy to the eastern Mediterranean.

Since then, the USS Laboon has taken part in the US-led campaign against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis, who have been launching near-daily attacks against shipping in the vital Red Sea corridor.

The USS Laboon has defeated numerous Houthi unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) and missiles, and escorted merchant vessels.

In one incident on December 23, the ship shot down four UAVs launched from areas controlled by the Houthis in Yemen. On January 6, it shot down another Houthi missile in the Red Sea.

The USS Laboon on December 26 also became the first destroyer to intercept and defeat a ballistic missile using the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6), which has a range of up to 240km and a speed of Mach 3.5.

The destroyer and F/A-18 Super Hornets from the USS Eisenhower shot down "12 one-way attack drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles, and two land attack cruise missiles in the Southern Red Sea that were fired by the Houthis over a 10-hour period," CENTCOM said at the time.

On February 6, the USS Laboon intercepted and shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile targeting the M/V Star Nasia in the Gulf of Aden.

And on February 20, it shot down an anti-ship cruise missile headed towards the destroyer, per CENTCOM.

The Arleigh Burke class

The US Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, with their multi-mission offensive and defensive capabilities, have proven for decades to be successful in a variety of scenarios, including air, surface and subsurface warfare.

The class is centered around the Aegis Combat System, which consists of advanced command and control and Anti-Air Warfare and Anti-Submarine Warfare systems as well as the all-weather, long-range Tomahawk Weapon System.

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers can carry more than 90 Tomahawk missiles and are equipped with the Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) and SM-6 surface-to-air missiles for ballistic missile defense.

In addition to its missile systems, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer is equipped with a range of guns and other weapon systems, which are capable of engaging both air and surface targets.

The ships also carry torpedoes and anti-submarine rockets for engaging submarines and other underwater threats.