At 2:46 p.m. local time, the guided‑missile destroyer USS Gravely found itself at the centre of the most dangerous clash yet in the Strait of Hormuz, as Iranian forces fired 18 anti‑ship missiles in a coordinated salvo designed to overwhelm the ship’s defences and send a message to Washington.

Combat alarms blared as radar screens lit up with multiple low, fast tracks racing in from Iran’s coast and nearby islands. Within seconds, Gravely’s Aegis system unleashed a wall of SM‑2 and ESSM interceptors while CIWS guns spat streams of tracers at sea‑skimming threats. Fourteen missiles were confirmed destroyed in mid‑air; four detonated close aboard, showering the destroyer with shrapnel, scorching sensors and lightly injuring several sailors, but failing to cripple the ship.

The US response was immediate and brutal. Using the missile trajectories as a roadmap, Gravely and a supporting cruiser fed coordinates to a waiting strike package: submarine‑launched Tomahawks, ship‑fired cruise missiles and armed drones hammered the Iranian coast within the hour. Pentagon officials say nine separate launch sites — including coastal batteries, camouflaged pads and a command node — were “neutralised” in a rolling series of precision blasts.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is hailing the barrage as proof it can put US warships in its crosshairs; Washington counters that Gravely remained in the fight and that any future attempt to close Hormuz “will be met at the source.”

For oil markets and nervous Gulf capitals, the lesson is stark: one afternoon, 18 missiles and nine smoking launch sites were all it took to show how close the world’s most vital waterway now sits to all‑out war.