USS Virginia (CGN-38)

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Virginia in 1991 in the Mediterranean
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 flag
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
2 guns 127 mm
2 torpedo launchers, later also 2 starter anti-ship missiles
2 starter cruise 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 .

Web links

Commons : USS Virginia  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files