USS Oscar Austin
.jpg) USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
| |
| Name: | Oscar Austin |
| Namesake: | Oscar Palmer Austin |
| Ordered: | 20 July 1994 |
| Builder: | Bath Iron Works |
| Laid down: | 9 October 1997 |
| Launched: | 7 November 1998 |
| Commissioned: | 19 August 2000 |
| Motto: | Honor and Sacrifice |
| Status: | in active service, as of 2016 |
| Badge: |
 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Arleigh Burke-class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 9,200 long tons (9,300 t) |
| Length: | 509 ft 6 in (155.30 m) |
| Beam: | 66 ft (20 m) |
| Draught: | 31 ft (9.4 m) |
| Propulsion: | 4 × General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 100,000 shp (75 MW) |
| Speed: | >30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph) |
| Complement: | 380 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
|
| Aircraft carried: | 2 × SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters |
USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the United States Navy. The ship is currently part of Destroyer Squadron 26.
Oscar Austin is named for Private First Class Oscar P. Austin, USMC, a recipient of the Medal of Honor. His mother, Mildred Austin, was the matron of honor at the commissioning.
Career
Oscar Austin's maiden deployment in late 2002 resulted in her participation in the opening strikes of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Oscar Austin deployed in September 2005, once again in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The ship returned from a successful deployment in March 2006.
As of 2007, Oscar Austin was operating in Destroyer Squadron 26.
As of 2008 Oscar Austin is the first combatant ship to deploy with a Scan Eagle UAV developed and flown by Insitu Inc.
Flight IIA ships
_Rear.jpg)
Oscar Austin is the first ship of the Flight IIA subclass of the Arleigh Burke class. Compared to previous Burkes, Flight IIAs are 4 feet 6 inches (1.37 m) longer, displace about 900 tons more, carry six more Vertical Launching System cells, and have a hangar that can house two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters. To prevent the additional superstructure aft from fouling radar returns, the rear-facing SPY-1D panels are one deck higher. Oscar Austin is one of two Flight IIA ships using the older 5-inch/54 caliber naval rifle (the other is Roosevelt) which cannot use certain advanced munitions that require the longer 5 in/62 caliber gun mounted by USS Winston S. Churchill and later Burkes.
They have their Harpoon anti-ship missiles removed to reduce costs.[1]
In fiction and literature
USS Oscar Austin is also featured in the 2011 naval thriller, Thunder in the Morning Calm, by Don Brown.[2]
References
- ↑ "DDG-51 Arleigh Burke - Flight IIA". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
- ↑ Books reference to USS Oscar Austin in novel Thunder in the Morning Calm
- This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79). |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||