Assigned to the carrier battle group, "Merrill" again deployed to the Middle East in 1991. On the way to Persian Gulf "Merrill" took part in Operation Fiery Vigil in June 1991. Arriving in the region after the ceasefire of the Gulf War, "Merrill" became the flagship for the coalition minesweeping forces in the Persian Gulf and was the second warship to visit the liberated port of Kuwait City after the Iraqi invasion. 1992 found "Merrill" underway on a counter-narcotics deployment in the Central America area of operations. In September 1992 "Merrill" was sent to Long Beach Naval Shipyard for an extensive overhaul which lasted into late 1993. This overhaul consisted of upgrades to the control panels of the radar systems, an entire level added to the ship to contain previously installed CIWS control computers, and most importantly, RAM (Radar Absorbent Material) was added to the entire ship, a first for a destroyer. Upon receiving notice of the planned closure of Long Beach, The USS Merrill relocated to San Diego Naval Base in 1994 and spent the next few months as a test platform in deployment for the RAM material, which was designed to make the ship appear as small as a tug boat on radars.