USS Ramage (DDG-61)

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Ramage (foreground) departs Souda Bay, Greece as Ross (DDG-71) enters port.
USS Ramage (bottom) departs Souda Bay in Greece as Ross enters port.
Career (US) USN Jack
Ordered: 21 February 1990
Laid down: 4 January 1993
Launched: 1 February 1994
Commissioned: 22 July 1995
Status: Active in service as of 2006.
Homeport: Norfolk, Virginia
General Characteristics
Displacement: Light: approx. 6,794.38 tons

Full: approx. 8,885.66 tons

Length: 505 ft (153.9 m)
Beam: 66 ft (20.1 m)
Draught: 31 ft (9.4 m)
Propulsion: 4 General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, two shafts, 100,000 total shaft horsepower (75 MW)
Speed: 30+ knots (56+ km/h)
Range: 4,400 nautical miles at 20 knots
(8,100 km at 37 km/h)
Complement: 23 officers, 300 enlisted
Armament: 1 × 32 cell, 1 × 64 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems with 90 × RIM-67 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-Asroc missiles

1 × 5/54 in (127/54 mm)
2 × 25 mm
4 × 12.7 mm guns
2 × 20mm Phalanx CIWS

2 × Mk 46 triple torpedo tubes
Aircraft carried: 1 SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter can be embarked
Motto: Par Excellence

USS Ramage (DDG-61) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy. The ship is named for Vice Admiral Lawson P. Ramage, a notable submarine commander and Medal of Honor recipient in World War II.

Ramage was laid down January 4, 1993 at the Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi, launched February 11, 1994, sponsored by Barbara Ramage (wife of the admiral), and commissioned July 22, 1995.

On July 21, 1997, Ramage was an escort of the USS Constitution when she set sail in Massachusetts Bay.


Ramage was constructed utilizing efficient modular shipbuilding techniques pioneered by Ingalls in the 1970s and enhanced in recent years through the development of Product-Oriented Shipbuilding Technology (POST).
These innovative techniques allow a large ship, such as Ramage, to be built in three separate hull and superstructure modules and later joined to form the complete ship. Heavy machinery, such as propulsion equipment, as well as piping, ductwork, and electrical cabling were installed in hundreds of subassemblies, which were joined to form dozens of assemblies. These assemblies were then joined to form the three hull modules. The ship's superstructure, or "deckhouse", was lifted atop the mid-body module early in the assembly process.
Ramage's launching was as unique as her construction. The ship was moved over land via Ingalls' wheel-on-rail transfer system and onto the shipyard's launch and recovery drydock. The drydock was ballasted down, and DDG 61 floated free on February 11, 1994. She was then moved to her outfitting dock in preparation for the traditional christening ceremony and completion of outfitting and testing.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Official Navy Ramage site. Note: quoted text has since been removed from the site.

[edit] External links


Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
Flight I ships: Arleigh Burke | Barry | John Paul Jones | Curtis Wilbur | Stout | John S. McCain | Mitscher | Laboon | Russell | Paul Hamilton | Ramage | Fitzgerald | Stethem | Carney | Benfold | Gonzalez | Cole | The Sullivans | Milius | Hopper | Ross
Flight II ships: Mahan | Decatur | McFaul | Donald Cook | Higgins | O'Kane | Porter
Flight IIA ships: 5"/54 variant: Oscar Austin | Roosevelt | 5"/62 variant: Winston S. Churchill | Lassen | Howard | Bulkeley | McCampbell | Shoup | Mason | Preble | Mustin | Chafee | Pinckney | Momsen | Chung-Hoon | Nitze | James E. Williams | Bainbridge | Halsey | Forrest Sherman | Farragut | Kidd | Gridley | Sampson | Truxtun | Sterett | Dewey | Stockdale | Gravely | Wayne E. Meyer

List of destroyers of the United States Navy
List of destroyer classes of the United States Navy
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