USS Virginia (CGN-38)
The Virginia in 1991 in the Mediterranean |
|
Overview | |
---|---|
Order | December 21, 1971 |
Keel laying | 19th August 1972 |
Launch | December 14, 1974 |
1. Period of service | |
Commissioning | September 11, 1976 |
Decommissioning | November 10, 1994 |
Whereabouts | Canceled |
Technical specifications | |
displacement |
approx. 12,000 tn.l. fully loaded |
length |
178.60 meters |
width |
19.20 meters |
Draft |
9.8 meters |
crew |
39 officers, 539 sailors |
drive |
2 propellers, driven by a nuclear reactor; 60,000 wave horsepower |
speed |
30+ knots |
Armament |
2 starter anti-aircraft missiles |
The USS Virginia (CGN-38) was a nuclear cruiser of the United States Navy and belonged to the Virginia class named after it .
history
The Virginia was commissioned from Newport News Shipbuilding in 1971 and laid down in the shipyard in Newport News , Virginia in August 1972 . Launch and christening (by Virginia Warner , daughter of then Secretary of the Navy John Warner ) took place in December 1974, 1976 the Virginia was put into service with the United States Navy .
The ship spent the first few months with test drives off the US east coast. In 1977 she was brought to the shipyard for five months to go through the post-shakedown-availability phase. The Virginia carried out its first maneuvers from September, including anti -submarine exercises and rocket launch exercises.
In 1978, the cruiser took part in the NATO exercise Operation Northern Wedding in Western European waters. She called at the ports of Oslo , Rotterdam and Portsmouth . In October, the Virginia returned to her home port in Norfolk .
In 1980 the ship went on missions in the Indian Ocean . During the 1983 deployment in the Mediterranean Sea, she fired 300 projectiles from her Mark 45 lightweight gun at targets in Beirut . Afterwards (1984) which ran Virginia the Norfolk Naval Shipyard , where she among others, two Armored Box Launcher with four cruise missiles 109 Tomahawk BGM- received.
In 1990, the Virginia ran out for a mission as part of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm , where she shot down two Tomahawk on targets in Iraq. Virginia spent the next two years in the Caribbean hunting down drug smugglers.
In 1994 the cruiser was decommissioned and canceled between 1999 and 2002 as part of the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard .