USS Valley Forge (CG-50)
_passes_by_the_San_Diego_skyline.jpg) The Valley Forge in 2002 off San Diego |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | August 28, 1981 |
| Keel laying | April 14, 1983 |
| Launch | June 23, 1984 |
| 1. Period of service |
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| Commissioning | January 18, 1986 |
| Decommissioning | August 30, 2004 |
| Whereabouts | sunk as a target ship |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
9750 tons |
| length |
173 meters |
| width |
16.80 meters |
| Draft |
10.2 meters |
| crew |
approx. 390 |
| drive |
Four gas turbines, two shafts with a total of 80,000 hp |
| speed |
30+ knots |
| Armament |
2 launchers for anti-ship missiles, 2 triple torpedo launchers, 2 guns 127 mm, 2 twin-arm launchers for missiles |
The USS Valley Forge (CG-50) was a guided missile cruiser of the United States Navy and was one of Ticonderoga-class cruiser to. It was named after the Valley Forge camp , where George Washington camped with his army in the winter of 1777/78 during the American Revolutionary War .
history
CG-50 was commissioned in 1981. Keeled at Ingalls Shipbuilding in 1983 , the ship was launched after around 14 months and was christened. At the beginning of 1986 the Valley Forge could finally be put into service.
In 1987 the Valley Forge began its first mission, making it the first warship with the new Aegis combat system to be deployed in the Pacific. These first missions also took the cruiser to the Indian Ocean and finally the Persian Gulf, where Valley Forge participated in Operation Earnest Will . The second trip to the region began at the end of 1988. Two years later, the ship was again in the waters when it was part of Operation Desert Storm . 1992 were Operation Southern Watch and Operation Restore Hope . In 1993, the Valley Forge first took part in trips to reduce drug smuggling in the Caribbean, and this was repeated in 1994/1995.
After a few exercises, the ship moved again to the Persian Gulf in 1996 to carry out another voyage as part of Southern Watch , it also took part in an exercise with USS Enterprise (CVN 65) and HMS Invincible (R05) . In 1997 a submarine hunt exercise was carried out against the Chilean Simpson and the American USS Salt Lake City (SSN-716) , with USS Elliot (DD-967) and USS Jarrett (FFG-33) flying alongside the Valley Forge . In 1998 the cruiser sailed with the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) in the Pacific, then again in the Caribbean in 2000.
In 2001, the installation of new technologies from the Smart Ship Project was completed. In 2003, Valley Forge took part in Operation Iraqi Freedom , where it was the flagship for the commander of Maritime Interception Operations in the Arabian Sea. In 2004 the ship was finally decommissioned as the first ship with Aegis . The cruiser was then in Pearl Harbor and was sunk as a target ship on November 2nd off Kauai , Hawaii .
