USS Chafee (DDG-90)

USS Chafee pulls into her new homeport of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Career (United States)
Name:	USS Chafee
Namesake:	John Chafee
Ordered:	6 March 1998
Builder:	Bath Iron Works
Laid down:	12 April 2001
Launched:	2 November 2002
Commissioned:	18 October 2003
Motto:	Commanding the Seas
Status:	in active service, as of 2011[update]
General characteristics
Class and type:	Arleigh Burke class destroyer
Displacement:	9,200 long tons (9,300 t)
Length:	509 ft 6 in (155.30 m)
Beam:	66 ft (20 m)
Draft:	31 ft (9.4 m)
Propulsion:	4 × General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 100,000 shp (75 MW)
Speed:	>30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement:	350 officers and enlisted
Armament:	1 × 32 cell, 1 × 64 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems, 96 × RIM-66 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk, RIM-162 ESSM or RUM-139 VL-Asroc, missiles 1 × 5″/62 in (127/62 mm), 2 × 25 mm, 4 × 12.7 mm guns 2 × Mk 46 triple torpedo tubes, 1 × Phalanx 1B CIWS Mount
Aircraft carried:	2 × SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters

USS Chafee (DDG-90) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer in United States Navy.

She is named for Senator John Lester Hubbard Chafee (1922–1999), a Marine veteran of Guadalcanal.

Chafee was laid down by the Bath Iron Works at Bath in Maine on 12 April 2001, launched on 2 November 2002 and commissioned on 18 October 2003. Chafee is an active unit of the Pacific Fleet and operates out of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii; currently, Chafee is assigned to the Nimitz carrier group.

The construction of USS Chafee and USS Momsen, from initial steelcutting to sea trials, was documented in the Discovery Channel television special "Destroyer: Forged in Steel". The destroyers were not referenced by name, but their numbers were visible on their bows.

Ship history

Chafee left her homeport of Pearl Harbor 20 May 2005 for her maiden deployment with the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) Carrier Strike Group. She returned safely to her homeport after a regularly scheduled deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism.^[1]

Chafee departed Pearl Harbor 9 April 2007, as part of the San Diego based USS Nimitz (CVN-68) Carrier Strike Group (CSG) and deployed to the U.S 5th Fleet (C5F) area of operations. On 1 June 2007, the Chafee fired its main gun at Al-Qaeda suspects in the Puntland region of Somalia. The men were wanted for the 1998 United States embassy bombings.^[2] Chafee returned home to Pearl Harbor, 22 September 2007, marking the end a successful 167-day Western Pacific and Middle East deployment.^[3]

References

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.

1. ^ "USS Chafee Sets Sail for Maiden Deployment". US Navy. 5 May 2005. http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=18423&page=2. Retrieved 2008-11-04. 
2. ^ U.S. targets terror suspects in Somalia - Terrorism - MSNBC.com
3. ^ "USS Chafee Returns From Successful Deployment". US Navy. 25 September 2007. http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=32044. Retrieved 2008-11-04. 

External links

• Official Ship's site

Chafee in the Pacific Ocean, 2005