U.S. Navy destroyer
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.
Construction
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
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]
On June 12th, 2024, USS Truxtun along with the USS Donald Cook, USS Delbert D. Black, Coast Guard Cutter, the Stone, and a Boeing P-8 maritime patrol aircraft were deployed to track a Russian naval flotilla sailing less than 30 miles off the coast of Key Largo, Florida. The flotilla was expected to arrive the same day in Havana, Cuba for naval and air exercises.
[13]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
Truxtun
was seen in the feature film
Captain Phillips
, standing in for
USS
Bainbridge
.
[14]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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Flight I ships
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Flight II ships
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Flight IIA ships
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variant
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5"/62 variant
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Flight III ships
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