Guided missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79)

Guided missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) 2

Guided missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) 3

Classification

Ship class:

Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

Type:

Guided missile destroyer

Basic information

Namesake:

Oscar Palmer Austin

Operator:

United States Navy

Country of build:

United States

Builder:

Bath Iron Works (BIW)

Ordered:

20 July 1994

Laid down:

9 October 1997

Launched:

7 November 1998

Commissioned (service):

19 August 2000

Status:

Active

MMSI number:

334788000

Ship measurements

Displacement:

9,500 t

Length:

155.29 m

Beam:

20 m

Draft:

9.4 m

Machine

Propulsion system:

CODLAG (CODELAG)

Propulsion:

3 * Allison AG9140 Generators (2,500 kW (3,400 hp) each, 440 V)
4 * General Electric LM2500 gas turbines each generating 26,250 bhp (19,570 kW)
2 * shafts, each driving a five-bladed reversible controllable-pitch propeller
Total output: 105,000 bhp (78,000 kW)

Speed:

30 knots

Range:

4,400 nautical miles at 20 knots (8,100 km at 37 km/h)

Personnel

Complement:

323

Combat assets

Boats & landing craft:

2 * RHIB

Electronics:

AN/SPY-1D 3D radar
AN/SPS-67(V)2 surface-search radar
AN/SPS-73(V)12 surface-search radar
AN/SPG-62 fire-control radar
AN/SQS-53C sonar array
AN/SQR-19 tactical towed array sonar
AN/SQQ-28 LAMPS III shipboard system
AN/SLQ-32(V)2 Electronic Warfare System
AN/SLQ-25 Nixie Torpedo Countermeasures
MK 36 MOD 12 Decoy Launching System
MK 53 Nulka Decoy Launching System
AN/SLQ-39 CHAFF Buoys

Armament:

2 * 20 mm Phalanx CIWS
1 * 5-inch (127 mm)/54 Mk. 45 Mod 1/2 (lightweight gun)
2 * 25 mm Mk 38 Autocannons
96-cell Mk. 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS)
BGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missile
RIM-66M Surface-to-Air Missile with an ASuW mode
RIM-156 Surface-to-Air Missile
RIM-161 Anti-Ballistic Missile
RIM-162 ESSM quadpacked configuration
RUM-139 Vertical Launch ASROC
RIM-174A Standard ERAM
2 * Mark 32 triple torpedo tubes:
Mark 46 torpedo
Mark 50 torpedo
Mark 54 Lightweight Torpedo

Aircraft:

2 * SH/MH-60R Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters
Aviation facilities:
Flight deck and enclosed hangars for two MH-60R LAMPS III helicopters

USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) is an Arleigh Burke-class (Flight IIA) Aegis guided missile destroyer in the United States Navy. Oscar Austin is named for Medal of Honor and Purple Heart recipient Private First Class Oscar P. Austin. This ship is the 29th destroyer of her class. USS Oscar Austin was the 17th ship of this class to be built by Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, and construction began on 9 October 1997. She was launched and christened on 7 November 1998. On 19 August 2000 she was commissioned at Bath, Maine. As of July 2021 the ship is part of Destroyer Squadron 2 based out of Naval Station Norfolk.

USS Oscar Austin is the first ship of the Flight IIA subclass of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. 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. She is one of two Flight IIA ships using the older 5-inch/54 caliber naval gun, the other being USS Roosevelt (DDG-80), which cannot use certain advanced munitions that require the longer 5 in/62 caliber gun mounted on succeeding ships of the class like the USS Winston S. Churchill.