USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81)
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| Missing image Churchill010913-N-6967M-506.jpg USS Winston S. Churchill | |
| Career | 
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|---|---|
| Ordered: | 6 January 1995 |
| Laid down: | 7 May 1998 |
| Launched: | 17 April 1999 |
| Commissioned: | 10 March 2001 |
| Decommissioned: | |
| Status: | Template:Active in service |
| Struck: | — |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 9,200 tons (8350 t) |
| Length: | 511 ft (155.7 m) |
| Beam: | 66 ft (20.1 m) |
| Draught: | 33 ft (10.1 m) |
| Propulsion: | 4 × General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 100,000 shp (75 MW) |
| Speed: | 30+ knots (56+ km/h) |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | 32 officers, 348 enlisted |
| Armament: | 1 × 32 cell, 1 × 64 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems; 96 × RIM-67 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk, or RUM-139 VL-Asroc missiles; 1 × 5 in, 2 × 25 mm, 4 × 12.7 mm guns, 2 × Phalanx CIWS; 2 × Mk 46 triple torpedo tubes |
| Aircraft: | 2 × SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters |
| Motto: | "In war: Resolution; In peace: Good Will" |
USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy homeported in NS Norfolk, Virginia.
Winston S. Churchill sets the final physical pattern for all subsequent Flight IIA ships by mounting the Mk. 45 mod 4 5"/62 caliber gun, a major improvement over the previous Mk. 45 mod 3 5 in (127 mm) 54 caliber gun—the longer barrel allows more complete combustion of the propellant, reducing barrel flare and improving projectile velocity and firepower against shore targets.
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 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 Sir Winston Churchill and Mrs. Janet Cohen, wife of the Secretary of Defense.
Churchill is the only active U.S. Navy warship named after a foreign national (though Churchill was granted honorary American citizenship), and is the first destroyer and only the fourth U.S. warship named after an Englishman. (The others were Alfred, an armed merchantman named after King Alfred the Great; Raleigh, a continental frigate, named after Sir Walter Raleigh and Effingham, named after Thomas Howard the 3rd Earl of Effingham who resigned his commission rather than fight the Americans during the American Revolutionary War.)
Churchill is the only U.S. Navy vessel to have a Royal Navy Officer assigned to the ship's company. The U.S. Navy has a permanent U.S. Navy Officer on the Royal Navy ship, HMS Marlborough.
On 14 September 2001, (three days after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack), the Deutsche Marine destroyer Lutjens passed close aboard 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."
External links
- navy.mil: USS Winston S. Churchill (http://www.churchill.navy.mil/)
References
This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register.
| Arleigh Burke-class destroyer |
| Flight I ships: Arleigh Burke | Barry | John Paul Jones | Curtis Wilbur | Stout | John S. McCain | Mitscher | Laboon | Russell | Paul Hamilton | Ramage | Fitzgerald | Stethem | Carney | Benfold | Gonzalez | Cole | The Sullivans | Milius | Hopper | Ross |
| Flight II ships: Mahan | Decatur | McFaul | Donald Cook | Higgins | O'Kane | Porter |
| Flight IIA ships: 5"/54 variant: Oscar Austin | Roosevelt | 5"/62 variant: Winston S. Churchill | Lassen | Howard | Bulkeley | McCampbell | Shoup | Mason | Preble | Mustin | Chafee | Pinckney | Momsen | Chung-Hoon | Nitze | James E. Williams | Bainbridge | Halsey | Forrest Sherman | Farragut | Kidd | Gridley | Sampson | Truxtun | Sterett | Dewey |
| List of destroyers of the United States Navy List of destroyer classes of the United States Navy |