USS David R. Ray (DD-971)
_with_ASROC_without_CIWS.jpg) The David R. Ray at sea in the 1980s |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | 15th January 1971 |
| Keel laying | 23rd September 1974 |
| Launch | August 24, 1975 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | 19th November 1977 |
| Decommissioning | February 28, 2002 |
| Whereabouts | Sunk as a target ship |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
9100 standard tons |
| length |
171.6 meters |
| width |
16.8 meters |
| Draft |
9.8 meters |
| crew |
30 officers, 350 sailors |
| drive |
2 propellers, driven by 4 gas turbines; 80,000 wave horsepower |
| speed |
33 knots |
| Armament |
2 × Mark 45 lightweight guns , 2 x 20 mm Phalanx CIWS , 2 x Harpoon starters , 1 anti-aircraft missile starter, 2 torpedo tubes 324mm, 1 ASROC starter, later replaced by 61-cell VLS |
The USS David R. Ray (DD-971) was a destroyer in the United States Navy and belonged to the Spruance class . It was named after Hospital Corpsman David R. Ray (1945-1969), who died in the Vietnam War and posthumously received the Medal of Honor .
history
DD-971 was commissioned in 1971 and laid down at Ingalls Shipbuilding in 1974 . In 1975 the destroyer was launched and was christened, Ray's mother was godmother. In 1977 the David R. Ray was put into service.
In the first five years, the Ray relocated three times to the Pacific and from there partially the Indic, in 1984 it was used as a test platform for the new RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile , the starter was installed aft. In 1988, another overhaul followed in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard , during which other weapon systems were replaced. In 1990 the destroyer moved again, at the beginning of the fighting in the Gulf War , the David R. Ray was in the Persian Gulf. Further relocations to the region followed by 1999, interrupted by an overhaul in 1996.
In March 1999, the Ray was requested together with the submarine USS Bremerton (SSN-698) to sink the general cargo ship M / V New Carissa, which ran aground off Oregon . To do this, the destroyer shot the wreck with 69 cannon projectiles before the Bremerton sank it with a Mark 48 heavyweight torpedo . This was followed by another trip into the Gulf, and in 2000 the Ray was last used for an operation against drug smugglers.
In 2002 the Ray was decommissioned and towed to the Bremerton Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility . The ship was there until 2008.
On July 11, 2008, the destroyer was sunk by the USS Lake Erie (CG-70) and Japanese ships as a training target during exercise RIMPAC .
In culture
The ship is a subordinate plot location in volume 45 ( Les secrets de la Mer Noire , plot set in the early 1990s) of the gang dessinée series Buck Danny - two of the three main characters, Jerry Tumbler and Sonny Tuckson, are on board as part of one Cover mission for Buck Danny himself, who is on a PR mission on the Soviet aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov .
