Home > USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51)

USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51), named for Admiral Arleigh Albert Burke USN ( 1901Events January 1 World celebrates what is regarded as the start of the new century. Zero-ists' argument that new century should be celebrated in 1900 rejected worldwide). January 1 The six colonies that make up Australia are federated as under an act of t- 19961996 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty''. Events January January 5 Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone Jan), is the lead ship of the Arleigh Burke classUSS Lassen (DDG-82), an Arleigh Burke class destroyer. The Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyers are built around the Aegis combat system and the SPY-1D multi-function phased array radar. The first ship was commissioned on 4 July 1991. The Arle guided missile destroyerA guided missile destroyer is, as the name suggests, a destroyer designed to launch guided missiles. Many are also equipped to carry out anti-submarine, anti-air, and anti-surface operations. Navy, their hull classification symbol is DDG . List of guided. She was laid down by the Bath Iron WorksNAS Brunswick photo gallery Bath Iron Works (BIW is located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine. Since it was founded in 1884, BIW has built private, commercial, and military vessels. Its biggest customer has been the U. Navy, for which BIW has built (an at BathBath is a city located in Sagadahoc County, Maine. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 9,266. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County 6. It has been a shipbuilding center since colonial times, and the site of the launch of Virginia in MaineMaine is a state of the United States. It is probably named after the French province of Maine. Another possibility for the name 'Maine' is that the people living on islands along the coast of Maine used to speak of going to the mainland as 'going over to on 6 December 1988, launched on 16 September 1989 by Mrs. Arleigh Burke and commissioned on 4 July 1991.

Admiral Burke -- perhaps the Navy's most famous Destroyer Sailor -- was present at the commissioning ceremony. The naval architects who designed Arleigh Burke incorporated many lessons learned by the Royal Navy during the Falklands campaign. The Ticonderoga Cruiser class was becoming too expensive to continue building, and too difficult to upgrade. The Arleigh Burke design includes what are now better known as "stealth" technologies, which improve the ship's ability to defeat anti-ship cruise missiles. Further, her all-steel construction provides greater protection for the superstructure, while her Collective Protection System allows the ship to operate in environments contaminated by chemical, biological, or radiological hazards.

Even before Arleigh Burke was commissioned, the Commander, Operational Test and Evaluation Force, was involved in the initial phases of testing. New systems, operated by fleet sailors ashore, were examined at land-based test facilities. The combat system testing took place at the Combat System Engineering Development Site in Moorestown, New Jersey. The propulsion plant testing occurred at the Gas Turbine Ship Land-Based Engineering Site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These test results supported the acquisition decision to begin limited production of the ship class.

After commissioning and throughout 1992, Arleigh Burke conducted extensive testing at sea. As is often the case with new ship classes, Navy and commercial engineers encountered a number of discrepancies in shipboard systems that required the attention of the cognizant design and production agencies. An additional phase of testing was added to verify the effectiveness of the modifications made to these systems--modifications incorporated into later ships of the Arleigh Burke class.

Following her initial operational testing, Arleigh Burke deployed to the Adriatic Sea in 1993, serving as "Green Crown" during Operation Provide Promise . During her second deployment in 1995, Arleigh Burke sailed the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas as "Red Crown" in support of the No-Fly Zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina. During her third cruise in 1998, she sailed the Mediterranean, Adriatic, Red, and Black Seas, exercising every facet of Surface Warfare as a participant in numerous U.S. and allied exercises. During her fourth cruise in 2000-2001, Arleigh Burke saw service in the Mediterranean and Red Seas and the Arabian Gulf, enforcing United Nations sanctions against Iraq and conducting exercises with allied and coalition naval partners.

On her fifth deployment in 2003, Arleigh Burke and the other units of the USS Theodore Roosevelt led Strike Group participated in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. During this wartime cruise, Arleigh Burke conducted Tomahawk Cruise Missile strikes against regime targets in Iraq, escorted merchant ships and naval auxiliaries through geographic chokepoints, executed Leadership Interdiction operations in the North Arabian Sea, and undertook counter-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden. This cruise, which lasted from January through June 2003, saw Arleigh Burke at sea nearly 93 percent of the time.

Arleigh Burke has earned one Navy Unit Commendation, three Meritorious Unit Commendations, three Battle Efficiency Awards, the National Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Kuwait Liberation Medal, and five Sea Service Deployment Ribbons.

A member of Destroyer Squadron TWO, Arleigh Burke operates with the USS Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group under the command of the Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Group EIGHT.