USS Winston S. Churchill

USS Winston S. Churchill
USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG–81)
History
United States
Name: USS Winston S. Churchill
Namesake: Winston S. Churchill, former British prime minister
Ordered: 6 January 1995
Builder: Bath Iron Works
Cost: $1 billion[1]
Laid down: 7 May 1998
Launched: 17 April 1999
Commissioned: 10 March 2001
Motto: "In war: Resolution; In peace: Good Will"
Status: in active service, as of 2016
Badge: DDG-81 USS Winston Churchill Coat Of Arms
General characteristics
Class and type: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
Displacement: 9,200 tons (9,350 t)
Length: 509.5 ft (155.3 m)
Beam: 66 ft (20 m)
Draft: 31 ft (9.4 m)
Propulsion: 4 × General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 100,000 shp (75 MW)
Speed: exceeds 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement: 32 officers, 348 enlisted
Electronic warfare
& decoys:		 AN/SLQ-32(V)3
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 2 × SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters

USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy. She is the 31st destroyer of an originally planned 62-ship class. Churchill is named after British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Her home port is in Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. She is a component of Carrier Strike Group Twelve.

Design

The ship is the first of the Flight IIA variants fitted with the 62-caliber Mark 45 Mod 4 naval gun system. The guns' longer barrels allows more complete combustion of the propellant, reducing barrel flare and improving projectile velocity and firepower against ship and shore targets; additionally, the Mk 45 mod 4 uses a modified gun-house, designed to reduce its radar signature. Churchill is armed with Tomahawk, Standard and ASROC (VLA) missiles.[1]

The vessel additionally contains two hangars, not present in earlier destroyers; these can house Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System (LAMPS) Sikorsky SH-60B or MH-60R Seahawk helicopters. These LAMPS can be fitted with air-to-surface missiles for surface ship attacks, and torpedoes for submarine attacks.

The ship is also fitted with the AN/SPY-1D phased array radar - this represents a significant advancement in the detection capabilities of the Aegis weapon system and provides enhanced resistance to electronic countermeasures. The radar can guide more than one hundred missiles at once to targets as far as 600 nautical miles (1,100 km; 690 mi).

Naming

Sir Winston Spencer-Churchill

On 29 November 1995, on a visit to the United Kingdom, President Bill Clinton announced to both Houses of Parliament that the new ship would be named after former British Prime Minister and Honorary Citizen of the United States, Sir Winston Churchill. It would make it the first warship of the United States Navy to be named after a non-American citizen since 1975, and the first destroyer and only the fourth American warship named after a British citizen.

Other American warships named after Britons were Alfred, an armed merchantman named after King Alfred the Great; Raleigh, a continental frigate, named after Sir Walter Raleigh (though three later USS Raleighs—and two Confederate warships—would be named after the North Carolina city, which did not exist at the time) and Effingham, named after The 3rd Earl of Effingham who resigned his commission rather than fight the Americans during the American Revolutionary War. The former frigate Harold E. Holt was also named after a person from a country in the Commonwealth of Nations, the ill-fated Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt, however, this is the first ship to be named after a modern British hero, and British Prime Minister.

Service history

The contract to build Churchill was awarded to the Bath Iron Works Corporation on 6 January 1995, and the keel was laid down on 7 May 1998. Churchill was launched on 17 April 1999, delivered 13 October 2000, and commissioned 10 March 2001. The launch and christening of the ship was co-sponsored by Lady Soames, the daughter of Winston Churchill, and Mrs. Janet Cohen, wife of the Secretary of Defense. Her first commanding officer was Commander (now Rear Admiral) Michael T. Franken.[2]

A Royal Navy officer assists on the bridge

Churchill is the only U.S. Navy vessel to have a Royal Navy Officer permanently assigned to the ship's company (usually a Navigation Officer).[3] The U.S. Navy had a permanent U.S. Navy Officer on the Royal Navy ship, HMS Marlborough, until its decommission on 8 July 2005. Churchill is also the only U.S. Naval vessel to fly a foreign ensign. Being named after a Briton, the Royal Navy's White Ensign is honorarily flown on special occasions from the ship's mast, on the port side, whereas the American flag is flown from the starboard side.[4][5][6] However, during normal operations, only the US flag is flown on the center of the main mast.[7][8]

On 14 May 2001, Churchill underwent shock trials off the coast of Florida. These trials subjected the ship to several close-range underwater detonations, each consisting of 7 tons of high explosives, and were performed to collect data concerning ship survivability and damage resistance in a modern threat environment. Churchill sustained minor damage during these three tests.[9] On 14 September 2001, (three days after the 11 September 2001 attacks), the German Navy destroyer Lütjens passed close abeam Churchill and rendered honors by manning the rails, flying the Stars and Stripes at half-mast, and the display of a banner reading "We Stand By You." An e-mail sent by an ensign on board Churchill described the occasion.[10][11]

In January 2003, Churchill deployed with the USS Theodore Roosevelt battle group in support of the Iraq War's Operation Iraqi Freedom, firing several Tomahawk missiles. Churchill returned to Norfolk at the end of May 2003.

On 22 August 2005, Churchill was involved in a minor collision with the destroyer USS McFaul off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. Both ships suffered minor damage, and no injuries were reported. Both ships returned to their homeport at Naval Station Norfolk under their own power.[12]

On 22 January 2006 Churchill captured a suspected pirate vessel in the Indian Ocean as part of an ongoing effort to help maintain law and order in the region.[13]

On 26 September 2010, Churchill came across a disabled skiff in the Gulf of Aden. After attempts to repair the skiff's engines failed Churchill took the vessel under tow towards Somalia. On 27 September the skiff sank when the 85 passengers rushed to one side of the skiff during a food delivery causing the vessel to capsize.[14] Churchill was able to rescue 61 of the passengers and continued towards Somalia on 28 September.[15]

Gallery

References

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.

  1. 1 2 Kennedy, Harold (April 2001). "USS Churchill Shows Off High-Tech Gear". National Defense Magazine. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  2. ↑ "Vice Admiral Michael T. Franken, Deputy Commander for Military Operations U.S. Africa Command". US Navy. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  3. ↑ Kennedy, Harold (April 2001). "USS Churchill Shows Off High-Tech Gear". National Defense. NDIA. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 15 April 2007. She also is the only U.S. Navy ship to have a British Royal Navy officer permanently assigned as a member of the ship’s company. Lieutenant Angus Essenhigh, RN, of Portsmouth, England, is serving as ship’s navigator during his two-year tour of duty.
  4. ↑ File:USS Churchill mast.jpg
  5. ↑ File:USS Winston_S. Churchill (DDG_81) English Channel.jpg
  6. ↑ File:USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) high speed run.jpg
  7. ↑ File:Flickr - Official U.S. Navy Imagery - A VBSS team departs USS Winston S. Churchill..jpg
  8. ↑ File:010822-N-6967M-503 DDG 81 At Sea.jpg
  9. ↑ "DDG 81 Winston Churchill". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  10. ↑ United States Navy (2001). "This is an e-mail from an Ensign stationed aboard the ship during the UK deployment". Archived from the original on 29 December 2005. Retrieved 15 March 2006.
  11. ↑ File:LutjensHonors.jpg
  12. ↑ "USS MCFAUL (DDG 74) and USS WINSTON S. CHURCHILL (DDG 81) Collision". Damage Control Museum. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  13. ↑ "Suspected Pirates Captured Off Somali Coast" (Press release). Headquarters, United States Central Command. 22 January 2006. Retrieved 15 December 2006.
  14. ↑ Mười ba thuyền nhân Phi Châu chết đuối (Vietnamese)
  15. ↑ "Tragic end to US rescue bid off Somali coast". BBC News. 28 September 2010.

Further reading

External links

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