"Spruance's" first operational deployment was in October 1979 to the Mediterranean Sea, as a member of the Carrier Battle Group. The other warships in this task force included , , , and . During this deployment, "Spruance" made a transit into the Black Sea to conduct surveillance on the new Soviet helicopter carrier, , as she steamed from her building shipyard to the Soviet Red Banner Northern Fleet. "Spruance" suffered a malfunction in one of her LM2500 Gas Turbine Main Engines and had to replace the engine while deployed. This was done successfully in port.