USS Truxtun (DDG-103)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Truxtun.

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 on 20 August 2017
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	MMSI number: 303882000 Callsign: NTRX Hull number: DDG-103
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 nautical miles at 20 knots (8,100 km at 37 km/h)
Complement	380
Sensors and processing systems	AN/SPY-1D radar AN/SPS-67(V)2 surface-search radar AN/SPS-64(V)9 surface-search radar AN/SQS-53C sonar array AN/SQQ-28 LAMPS III shipboard system
Electronic warfare & decoys	AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suites AN/SLQ-25 Nixie Torpedo Countermeasures Mk 36 Mod 12 Decoy Launching Systems Mk 53 Nulka Decoy Launching Systems Mk 59 Decoy Launching Systems^[2]
Armament	Guns: 5-inch (127 mm)/62 Mk 45 Mod 4 (lightweight gun) 1 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS 2 × 25 mm Mk 38 Machine Gun System 4 × .50 caliber (12.7 mm) guns Missiles: 1 × 32-cell, 1 × 64-cell (96 total cells) Mk 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS): RIM-66M Surface-to-Air Missile RIM-156 Surface-to-Air Missile RIM-174A Standard ERAM RIM-161 Anti-Ballistic Missile RIM-162 ESSM (quad-packed) BGM-109 Tomahawk Cruise Missile RUM-139 Vertical Launch ASROC Torpedoes: 2 × Mark 32 triple torpedo tubes: Mark 46 Lightweight Torpedo Mark 50 Lightweight Torpedo Mark 54 Lightweight Torpedo
Aircraft carried	2 × MH-60R Seahawk helicopters

Construction

Truxtun'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

In 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]

In popular culture

Truxtun was seen in the feature film Captain Phillips, standing in for USS Bainbridge.^[13]

References

1. "USS Truxtun". Naval Vessel Register. Retrieved 22 April 2009.
2. Hart, Jackie (17 December 2023). . www.navy.mil. Archived from the original on 28 April 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
3. Fein, Geoff (23 May 2006). "USS Truxtun Damaged in Weekend Fire at Northrop Grumman Shipyard". Defense Daily.
4. Coleman, Leigh (3 June 2007). "New Truxtun joins distinguished line". Sun Herald. Biloxi, Mississippi.
5. "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.
6. . Destroyer Squadron 26. Archived from the original on 20 July 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
7. . public.navy.mil. Archived from the original on 10 March 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
8. "US Navy cancelling program to turn gas-guzzling destroyers into hybrids". defenseNews.com. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
9. LaFranchi, Howard (7 March 2014). . The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 8 March 2014.
10. 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.
11. "Carrier Eisenhower Returns From Deployment After Spending Almost 7 Months at Sea". USNI. 9 August 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
12. "Navy moves ships to Red Sea in case US needs to move Americans out of Sudan". Stars and Stripes. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
13. "Sailors share screen with Tom Hanks in 'Captain Phillips'". Navy Times. 11 October 2013. Retrieved 1 October 2015.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Truxtun (DDG-103).

• Official ship's site 28 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine
• navsource.org: USS Truxtun