 This time, U.S. deploys guided missile destroyer to Gulf against Iran. The U.S. Navy has deployed a guided missile destroyer to the Gulf amid heightened tension with Iran, according to the National Media Outlet. Earlier this month, the U.S. Navy said it had prevented Iran from seizing two oil tankers and released footage from a drone purporting to show an Iranian warship firing on one of the vessels. One of the tankers, the Richmond Voyager, sustained minor damage to its hull. The U.S. Navy said another tanker, the Marshall Islands flagged oil tanker TRF Moss, was being harassed by an Iranian warship until a U.S. guided missile destroyer, the USS McFall, approached both vessels. Both incidents occurred in the Gulf of Oman. There has been a spate of military seizures and attacks on commercial shipping in the waterways of the Gulf this year, including the seizure of two tankers, one of them bound for Texas in the space of a week in May. The U.S. Navy said the latest deployment of a warship was intended to help ensure regional maritime security and stability. Last month, the U.S. sent F-16 fighter jets to reinforce its military presence in the region. The USS Thomas Hoodner is equipped with 96 missiles of various types, including powerful Tomahawk cruise missiles, as well as anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. In April, the U.S. made the rare announcement that one of its most formidable submarines, the USS Florida, a nuclear-powered Ohio-class submarine that can carry 154 cruise missiles, would be deployed to the region. That followed the extension of a tour of the aircraft carrier U.S. George H.W. Bush, one of 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers the largest warships ever constructed.