USS The Sullivans (DDG-68)
.jpg) The The Sullivans against Philadelphia, 2005 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | April 8, 1992 |
| Keel laying | July 27, 1994 |
| Launch | August 12, 1995 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | April 19, 1997 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
8315 tons |
| length |
154 m |
| width |
20 metres |
| Draft |
9.5 meters |
| crew |
26 officers, 315 men |
| drive |
2 propellers, driven by 4 gas turbines; 100,000 wave horsepower |
| speed |
31 knots |
| Armament |
90 VLS cells |
The USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) is a destroyer of the American Arleigh Burke-class destroyer . It is named after the five Sullivan brothers who were all killed in the sinking of the USS Juneau (CL-52) during World War II . After the USS The Sullivans (DD-537) she is the second ship of the US Navy of this name.
history
DDG-68 was commissioned from Bath Iron Works in 1992 and laid down there on June 14, 1993. On August 12, 1995, the ship was launched and was christened. After the final equipment and the first test drives, The Sullivans was officially put into service with the United States Navy on April 19, 1997 . Initial tests and trips of the destroyer took the ship to Saint Thomas and Chesapeake Bay , where several ships carried out joint missile tests on July 4th. By the end of November of that year, there was a final lay -in period called post shakedown availability .
On December 8, 1997, The Sullivans joined the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) . When a BAE Hawk of the Big E crashed three days later , The Sullivans recovered several wreckage, the crew had already been picked up by a helicopter.
The first extended relocation began in May 1998 when The Sullivans took part in Unified Spirit '98 , an exercise with the participation of many NATO navies. The first deployment took place in 1999. With the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) the destroyer sailed into the Mediterranean and in 2000 further into the Arabian Sea . At the turn of the year, the ship was in the port of Aden in Yemen when members of Al-Qaida attempted an attack on the ship. A boat loaded with explosives was supposed to ram the Sullivans, causing great damage. However, due to overloading, the boat sank before it could approach the destroyer. Later that year, a similar attack on Sullivan's sister ship USS Cole (DDG 67) resulted in serious damage and death. The next transfer, also with the Kennedy , led the The Sullivans back into the Arabian Sea, in 2002 the aircraft carrier combat group supported Operation Enduring Freedom .
In 2004 it was relocated to the region, and in 2006 the destroyer was involved in the NATO exercise Neptune Warrior . In 2007 The Sullivans moved again to European waters and took part in a total of seven multinational exercises. In May 2008, the destroyer took part in Fleet Week in New York under the leadership of the USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) . In August, The Sullivans then moved alongside the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) towards the Mediterranean. During a voyage in the Persian Gulf, The Sullivans collided with a buoy in the port of Manama on March 20, 2010 , but was able to continue its operation in the region. The ship suffered less than a million dollars in damage. In the wake of this incident, the commanding officer was removed from his post in May 2010.
On August 17, 2011, The Sullivans took fire on a civilian fishing boat instead of the originally intended training platform during a target practice off the coast of North Carolina. The destroyer fired 14 5-inch projectiles at the Zig-Zag , all of which detonated within around 20 meters of the fishing boat. In the incident no one was injured. The commander of The Sullivans was then removed from his post. A mission to European waters planned for the beginning of September was then postponed, instead the USS Monterey (CG-61) remained in action for longer.
Web links
- Entry in the Naval Vessel Register (Engl.)
- Official website ( Memento of March 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive )