USS O'Bannon (DD-987)

Career (US)
Namesake: Presley O'Bannon
Ordered: 15 January 1975
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down: 21 February 1977
Launched: 25 September 1978
Commissioned: 15 December 1979
Decommissioned: 19 August 2005
Struck: 19 August 2005
Fate: Sunk as a training target on 6 October 2008
General characteristics
Class and type: Spruance class destroyer
Displacement: 8,040 (long) tons full load
Length: 529 ft (161 m) waterline; 563 ft (172 m) overall
Beam: 55 ft (16.8 m)
Draft: 29 ft (8.8 m)
Propulsion: 4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 80,000 shp (60 MW)
Speed: 32.5 knots (60 km/h)
Range: 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
3,300 nautical miles (6,100 km; 3,800 mi) at 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement: 19 officers, 315 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems:
AN/SPS-40 air search radar
AN/SPG-60 fire control radar
AN/SPS-55 surface search radar
AN/SPQ-9 gun fire control radar
Mk 23 TAS automatic detection and tracking radar
AN/SPS-65 Missile fire control radar
AN/SQS-53 bow mounted Active sonar
AN/SQR-19 TACTAS towed array Passive sonar
Electronic warfare
and decoys:
AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare System
AN/SLQ-25 Nixie Torpedo Countermeasures
Mark 36 SRBOC Decoy Launching System
AN/SLQ-49 Inflatable Decoys
Armament:

2 x 5 in (127 mm) 54 calibre Mark 45 dual purpose guns
2 x 20 mm Phalanx CIWS Mark 15 guns
1 x 8 cell ASROC launcher (removed)
1 x 8 cell NATO Sea Sparrow Mark 29 missile launcher
2 x quadruple Harpoon missile canisters
2 x Mark 32 triple 12.75 in (324 mm) torpedo tubes (Mk 46 torpedoes)

1 x 61 cell Mk 41 VLS launcher for Tomahawk missiles
1 x 21 cell RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile
Aircraft carried: 2 x Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters.
Motto: Discipline, Pride, Performance

USS O'Bannon (DD-987), a Spruance-class destroyer, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon (1776–1850), an early hero of the US Marine Corps.

O'Bannon was laid down on 21 February 1977 by the Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss.; launched on 25 September 1978; and commissioned on 15 December 1979.

Contents

History

Homeport

Assigned to Homeport in Charleston South Carolina when the Congressional BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) committee decided to close down that shipyard, the USS O'BANNON (DD-987) was re-Homeported to Mayport Florida.

Deployments and Ports of Call

UNITAS XXXII: Cartagena Columbia, Rodmin Panama, Manta Equador, Lima Peru, Valpariaso Chile, Talquano Chile, Argentina, Rio de Janeurio Brazil, Puerta la Cruz Venezuela

Baltops '92: Eidenborough Scotland, Kiel Germany, Karlskrona Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Severnmorsk Russia

MEF 3-95 (started 15 July 1995) Lodges Azores (24JUL95), Palma Spain (28-30JUL95 $1US = 147 pesetas), Rota Spain, Kos Greece (3-5AUG95 $1US=2.85 Drackma), Brief stop for fuel Djibouti Egypt (12AUG95), Dubia United Arab Emirates (5-7SEP95 $5US = 18 Duhram), ASU Bahrain (18-23SEP, 10-14OCT, 21-22OCT95 $2.80US = 1 Dinar), Muscat Oman 30OCT-01NOV95 $2.60US = 1 Rial), Dubia UAE 3-8NOV95), Media Portugal.

UNITAS XL-99: Cartagena Columbia, Rodmin Panama, Manta Equador, Lima Peru, Valpariaso Chile, Vina del Mar Chile, Coquimbo Chile, Argentina, Rio de Janeurio Brazil, Puerta la Cruz Venezuela

Fate

Originally scheduled to remain in service through 2010, decommissioning of the Spruance-class destroyers was accelerated as a cost saving measure, and by June 2005 O'Bannon was the last Spruance destroyer in service in the Atlantic Fleet.

O'Bannon was decommissioned on 19 August 2005 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register the same day. In 2004 O'Bannon was to be sold to Chile, but in 2005 she was scheduled to be transferred via FMS to the Turkish Navy.[1] In the end she was sunk off the coast of Virginia at 3:23pm on 6 October 2008 in a training exercise by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier group, using missiles, guns and finally a Mk 82 bomb.[2]

Notes and references

See also

External links