USS Truxtun (DDG-103) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer currently in service with the United States Navy. She is named for American Naval hero, Commodore Thomas Truxtun (1755–1822), one of the first six commanders appointed by George Washington, to the newly formed U.S. Navy. She is the sixth U.S. naval warship to bear his name.
 USS Truxtun (DDG 103) on 21 September 2012
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Truxtun |
| Namesake | Thomas Truxtun |
| Awarded | 13 September 2002 |
| Builder | Ingalls Shipbuilding |
| Laid down | 11 April 2005 |
| Launched | 17 April 2007 |
| Christened | 2 June 2007 |
| Acquired | 24 October 2008 |
| Commissioned | 25 April 2009 |
| Homeport | Norfolk |
| Identification |
|
| Motto | Pursue Attack Vanquish |
| Status | in active service |
| Notes |  |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Class and type | Arleigh Burke-class destroyer |
| Displacement | 9,200 tons |
| Length | 510 ft (160 m) |
| Beam | 59 ft (18 m) |
| Draft | 31 ft (9.4 m) |
| Propulsion | 2 × shafts |
| Speed | In excess of 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph) |
| Range | 4,400 nmi (8,100 km; 5,100 mi) at 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Complement | 380 |
| Sensors and processing systems | |
| Electronic warfare & decoys |
|
| Armament |
|
| Aircraft carried | 2 × MH-60R Seahawk helicopters |
Construction
editTruxtun's keel was laid down on 11 April 2005. During construction at Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi, she suffered a major electrical fire on 20 May 2006, engulfing two levels and causing damage estimated to be worth millions of dollars.[3] She was launched on 17 April 2007,[1] then christened on 2 June 2007, in Pascagoula,[4] with Truxtun's descendants, Susan Scott Martin and Carol Leigh Roelker, serving as sponsors,[5] and commissioned on 25 April 2009, in Charleston, South Carolina. As of July 2020[update] the ship is part of Destroyer Squadron 26 based out of Naval Station Norfolk.[6]
Ship history
editIn 2012, the US Navy contracted with L3 Technologies to develop a fuel-efficient hybrid electric drive train for the Flight IIA Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers. The system proposed used a pre-existing quill drive on the reduction gearbox, allowing an electric motor to drive the ships up to 13 kn (24 km/h; 15 mph). Truxtun was fitted with the permanent magnet motor system in 2012, under a research and development contract with General Atomics.[7] In March 2018, the US Navy announced that the trial program to install hybrid electric drives in 34 destroyers would be cancelled leaving Truxtun as the only ship so fitted.[8]
In March 2014, Truxtun sailed to the Black Sea, to conduct training with the Romanian and Bulgarian navies. The deployment of Truxtun, along with sister ship Donald Cook, to the Black Sea, was intended as a "strategic reassurance" for former Soviet republics and satellite states concerned about the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation[9][10]
On 10 August 2020, Truxtun completed a deployment with the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, without any port calls, that lasted for almost seven months.[11]
At a Pentagon press briefing on 24 April 2023, a spokesperson stated that Truxtun was "... off the coast of Sudan, near the Port of Sudan. It will stay there awaiting further orders should it be needed to support. Also, en route is the USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3)".[12]
On June 12th, 2024, USS Truxtun along with the USS Donald Cook, USS Delbert D. Black, Coast Guard Cutter, the Stone, and a Boeing P-8 maritime patrol aircraft were deployed to track a Russian naval flotilla sailing less than 30 miles off the coast of Key Largo, Florida. The flotilla was expected to arrive the same day in Havana, Cuba for naval and air exercises.[13]
In popular culture
editTruxtun was seen in the feature film Captain Phillips, standing in for USS Bainbridge.[14]
References
edit- ^ a b "USS Truxtun". Naval Vessel Register. Retrieved 22 April 2009.
- ^ Hart, Jackie (17 December 2023). "Decoy Launch System Installed Aboard USS Ramage". navy.mil. Archived from the original on 28 April 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
- ^ Fein, Geoff (23 May 2006). "USS Truxtun Damaged in Weekend Fire at Northrop Grumman Shipyard". Defense Daily.
- ^ Coleman, Leigh (3 June 2007). "New Truxtun joins distinguished line". Sun Herald. Biloxi, Mississippi.
- ^ "Northrop Grumman-built Truxtun (DDG 103) Christening Commemorates a Founding Father of the U.S. Navy" (Press release). Pascagoula, Mississippi: Northrop Grummann. 2 June 2007. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
- ^ "Our Ships". Destroyer Squadron 26. Archived from the original on 20 July 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
- ^ "Navy Set to Install Hybrid Electric Drives in Destroyer Fleet Starting Next Year". public.navy.mil. Archived from the original on 10 March 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
- ^ "US Navy cancelling program to turn gas-guzzling destroyers into hybrids". defenseNews.com. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
- ^ LaFranchi, Howard (7 March 2014). "Ukraine crisis: What's the point of US military activity near Russia?". The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 8 March 2014.
- ^ LaFranchi, Howard (7 March 2014). "Ukraine crisis: What's the point of US military activity near Russia?". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
- ^ "Carrier Eisenhower Returns From Deployment After Spending Almost 7 Months at Sea". USNI. 9 August 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
- ^ "Navy moves ships to Red Sea in case US needs to move Americans out of Sudan". Stars and Stripes. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
- ^ "Navy deploys warships as Russian fleet makes close pass to Florida". tampabay.com.
External links
edit
- Official ship's site Archived 28 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- navsource.org: USS Truxtun