Guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81)

Guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) 0Guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) 1Guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) 2Guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) 3

Classification

Basic information

Namesake:
Winston S. Churchill
Operator:
Country of build:
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:
Commissioned (service):
Status:
MMSI number:
338821000

Ship measurements

Displacement:
9,500 t
Length:
155.29 m
Beam:
20 m
Draft:
9.4 m

Machine

Propulsion system:
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)3 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)/62 Mk. 45 Mod 4 (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 Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) is an Arleigh Burke-class (Flight IIA) Aegis guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy. She is named after Sir Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. This ship is the 31st destroyer of her class. Winston S. Churchill was the 18th ship of this class to be built at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, and construction began on 7 May 1998. She was launched and christened on 17 April 1999. On 10 March 2001, she was commissioned during a ceremony at Town Point Park in Norfolk, Virginia.

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 allow 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. Winston S. Churchill is armed with Tomahawk, Standard and ASROC (VLA) missiles.

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).

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