The last time the Pearl Harbor guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal left on a major deployment, the Iraq War was ending. That sea duty was in the 2011-2012 time frame.

But the long dry spell for the youngest cruiser in the Navy fleet — and one with prized ballistic missile shoot-down capability — is ending today.

The Navy announced Wednesday that the Port Royal, with a detachment from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 37, and guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper will depart today from Pearl Harbor for an independent deployment to the Western Pacific and Middle East.

“Port Royal and Hopper crews are trained and ready to execute higher headquarters tasking. We join their friends and families in wishing them a safe and successful deployment,” Rear Adm. John Fuller, commander of Navy Region Hawaii and Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, said in a release.

The 567-foot Port Royal deployed on June 24, 2011, and returned to Hawaii on Feb. 13, 2012, after eight months at sea. The cruiser was the final ship to assume command of Task Group Iraqi Maritime and was instrumental in the handover of the Al Basrah Oil Terminal, according to the Navy.

In the interim, the ship was sidelined by Navy and congressional wrangling over tightening budgets and the Navy’s eventual desire to put the Port Royal and other cruisers into long-term maintenance and storage. That plan failed, and in March the Navy said it had been forced to catch up on deferred maintenance and plan for the cruiser’s deployment this summer.

“Since returning to the deployment rotation, Port Royal has completed her maintenance availability and is completing her basic and integrated training in preparation to deploy,” Lt. Rebecca Haggard, a spokeswoman for Naval Surface Group, Pacific Fleet, said in March.

The Port Royal’s hard luck began with a bad grounding in 2009 off Honolulu Airport’s reef runway, after which the Navy decided — incorrectly, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said — that the $1 billion warship had hidden maintenance problems and was a write-off.

In an effort to achieve cost savings with sequestration in 2011, the Navy decided to decommission seven cruisers, the Port Royal included. But that plan and others were rejected by Congress in an effort to keep a maximum number of cruisers operating.

By comparison, the destroyer USS Chafee at Pearl Harbor deployed for three months to the Western Pacific in 2010 and for six months to the western Pacific in 2011-12. In December the Chafee returned from a seven-month deployment.