The Arleigh Burke Destroyer’s Mk 45 Cannon Has a New Role: Drone Defense
American missiles were used to engage most of the enemy targets, but the destroyer was forced to employ the five-inch gun against one of the drones.
As previously reported earlier in the week, the United States Navy is now upgrading its Mk 45 five-inch guns. The weapons, which first entered service in 1971 and have been subsequently updated in the five decades since, are employed on the service’s Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers.
Anyone who might have questioned why the U.S. Navy continues to arm the warships with such weapon systems might have gotten the answer on Thursday. The deputy commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) told attendees of the WEST 2025 conference, hosted by AFCEA and the U.S. Naval Institute, that the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Stockdale (DDG-106) used its “five-inch gun to shoot down a Houthi uncrewed aerial vehicle” last fall.