| Career (US) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Cole |
| Namesake: | Sgt Darrell S. Cole, USMC |
| Ordered: | 16 January 1991 |
| Builder: | Ingalls Shipbuilding |
| Laid down: | 28 February 1994 |
| Launched: | 10 February 1995 |
| Commissioned: | 8 June 1996 |
| Status: | in active service, as of 2012[update] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Arleigh Burke class destroyer |
| Displacement: | Light: approx. 6,800 long tons (6,900 t) Full: approx. 8,900 long tons (9,000 t) |
| Length: | 505 ft (154 m) |
| Beam: | 66 ft (20 m) |
| Draft: | 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: | 33 Officers 38 Chief Petty Officers 210 Enlisted Personnel |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
• AN/SPY-1D 3D Radar • AN/SPS-67(V)2 Surface Search Radar • AN/SPS-73(V)12 Surface Search Radar • AN/SQS-53C Sonar Array • AN/SQR-19 Tactical Towed Array Sonar • AN/SQQ-28 LAMPS III Shipboard System |
| Electronic warfare and decoys: |
• AN/SLQ-32(V)2 Electronic Warfare System • AN/SLQ-25 Nixie Torpedo Countermeasures • MK 36 MOD 12 Decoy Launching System • AN/SLQ-39 CHAFF Buoys |
| Armament: |
1 × 29 cell, 1 × 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems with 90 × RIM-156 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-Asroc missiles |
| Aircraft carried: | 1 SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter can be embarked |
| Motto: | Gloria Merces Virtutis "Glory is the Reward of Valor" |
| Badge: | |
The second USS Cole (DDG-67) is an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer homeported in NS Norfolk, Virginia. The Cole is named in honor of Marine Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a machine-gunner killed in action on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, during World War II. The ship was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding and was delivered to the Navy on 11 March 1996.
On 12 October 2000, the Cole was the target of a suicide attack carried out by Al-Qaeda in the Yemeni port of Aden; seventeen sailors were killed and thirty-nine were injured, and the ship was damaged.[1] On 29 November 2003 Cole deployed for her first overseas deployment after the bombing and subsequently returned to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia on 27 May 2004 without incident.
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Cole is one of 62 authorized Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, and one of 21 members of the Flight I-class that utilized the 5"/54 caliber gun mounts found on the earliest of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. In addition to her guns, Cole carries nearly 100 missiles of various types aboard two separate Mk 41 VLS magazines. Her superstructure features the AN/SPY-1 radar indicative of the Aegis combat system, which allows the destroyer to track over 100 targets simultaneously.[2] She also has two Phalanx CIWS gun mounts, located immediately fore and aft of the superstructure (as shown in the image[3] of her on the MV Blue Marlin), which are intended to protect Cole against enemy missiles that manage to evade the ship's anti-missile missiles. Cole was launched on 10 February 1995 and commissioned on 8 June 1996.[4]
On 12 October 2000, while at anchor in Aden, the Cole was attacked by Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, who sailed a small boat near the destroyer and detonated explosive charges.[1] The blast created a hole in the port side of the ship about 40 feet (12 m) in diameter, killing 17 crewmembers and injuring 39.[5] The ship was under the command of Commander Kirk Lippold.
Cole was returned to the United States aboard the Norwegian heavy-lift vessel MV Blue Marlin owned by Offshore Heavy Transport of Oslo, Norway. The ship was off-loaded 13 December 2000 from Blue Marlin in a pre-dredged deep-water facility at the Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyard of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Ingalls Operations. After 14 months of repair, Cole departed on 19 April 2002, and returned to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia.
The U.S. government offered a reward of up to US$5 million for information leading to the arrest of people who committed or aided in the attack on Cole. Al-Qaeda was suspected of targeting Cole because of the failure of a 3 January 2000 attack on USS The Sullivans, one of the 2000 millennium attack plots. On 4 November 2002, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, a suspected al-Qaida operative, who is believed to have planned the Cole attack, was killed by the CIA using an AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched from an MQ-1 Predator drone.
On 29 November 2003 Cole deployed for her first overseas deployment after the bombing and subsequently returned to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia on 27 May 2004 without incident. In 2005 Cole participated in BALTOPS 05 with the Baltic Nations. Cole returned to the US in early July and was able to attend Fourth of July Celebrations in Philadelphia.
The Cole deployed to the Middle East on 8 June 2006 for the first time since the bombing. While passing the port city of Aden the crew manned the rails to honor the crewmembers killed in the bombing. She returned to her homeport of Norfolk on 6 December 2006 without incident.
On 21 August 2006, the Associated Press reported that the Cole's commanding officer at the time of the bombing, Commander Kirk Lippold, was denied promotion to the rank of Captain.[6]
On 28 February 2008, the Cole was sent to take station off Lebanon's coast, the first of an anticipated three-ship flotilla.[7]
On November 12, 2009, the Missile Defense Agency announced that the Cole would be upgraded during fiscal 2013 to RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) capability in order to function as part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.[8]
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