| Career (Germany) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Lütjens |
| Namesake: | Admiral Günther Lütjens |
| Builder: | Bath Iron Works |
| Yard number: | DDG-28 |
| Laid down: | 1 March 1966 |
| Launched: | 11 August 1967 |
| Commissioned: | 23 February 1969 |
| Decommissioned: | 18 December 2003 |
| Homeport: | Kiel |
| Identification: | D185 |
| Fate: | to be sold for scrapping[1] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Lütjens-class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 4720 t |
| Length: | 133.2 m |
| Beam: | 14.3 m |
| Draft: | 6.1 m |
| Propulsion: | 2 × steam turbines providing 70,000 shp (52 MW); 2 shafts 4 x 1,275 psi (8,790 kPa) boilers |
| Speed: | 33 knots (61 km/h) |
| Range: | 4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h) |
| Complement: | 337 |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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| Electronic warfare and decoys: |
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| Armament: |
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Lütjens was a guided missile destroyer of the Bundesmarine (West German Navy) and later the Deutsche Marine (Navy of reunited Germany). She was the lead ship of the Lütjens class, a modification of the Charles F. Adams class. The ship was named for Admiral Günther Lütjens, who commanded the battlegroup Bismarck and Prinz Eugen during Operation Rheinübung (Exercise Rhine). Lütjens was killed when Bismarck was surrounded by overwhelming British naval force on 27 May 1941 in the North Atlantic.
The ship was laid down at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine on 1 March 1966 with the hull classification symbol DDG-28. She was launched on 11 August 1967 and commissioned on 23 February 1969. On 14 September 2001, three days after the terrorist attacks on 11 September, the crew of the destroyer Lütjens manned the rails as they approached the destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill and displayed an American flag and a banner reading "We Stand By You".
After over 30 years of service and a travelled distance of 800,000 nautical miles (1,500,000 km) Lütjens was decommissioned on 18 December 2003. She was the last steam-powered vessel and the last ship classified as a destroyer of the German Navy.
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