Recognizing the likelihood it will skirmish with the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army-Navy in the coming years, the U.S. Navy recently attacked one of its own decommissioned vessels, the USS Ford.

As Defense News reports, the Ford took a heavy beating before descending to its well-deserved slumber at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. That’s not coincidental. The Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate class, of which Ford was a part, are notorious for their survivability under heavy fire. This exercise thus allowed the U.S. Navy and Air Force to do two things: test their weapons against a hard target, and learn how to better integrate their capabilities in any future conflict.