German destroyer Lütjens (D185)

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: 22 March 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 (437 ft)
Beam:14.3 m (47 ft)
Draft:6.1 m (20 ft)
Propulsion:2 × steam turbines providing 70,000 shp (52 MW); 2 shafts
4 × 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:		AN/SPS-40 2D air surveillance and early-warning radar, long-range

AN/SPS-67 sea surveillance radar, med-range
AN/SPS-52 3D air surveillance radar, long-range
2 × AN/SPG-51C Mk 74 fire-control radar
AN/SPQ-9 short range fire-control radar for surface and low flying targets
SPG-60 tracking and fire control radar (also radar illumination for the missiles)
Raytheon RP 1225 navigation radar
Atlas Elektronik DSQS-21B active/passive sonar

  • EADS FL1800 ESM suite
Electronic warfare
and decoys:		2 × SRBOC 6 cell chaff and flare launcher

1 × SLQ-25 Nixie torpedo decoy

1 × EADS FL1800 ESM/ECM suite
Armament:2 × 127 mm/54 Mk 42 mod 10 guns

2 × Rheinmetall Rh202 20 mm autocannons
1 × Modified Mark 13 launcher
SM-1MR surface-to-air missile (usually 32)
Harpoon anti-ship missile (usually 8)
2 × Mk 49 launcher, 21 RAM surface-to-air missiles each
6 × 324 mm torpedo tubes, DM4A1 and Mark 46 torpedoes

1 × ASROC launcher, 8 cell

Lütjens was a guided missile destroyer of the Bundesmarine (West German navy) and subsequently the German Navy (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 22 March 1969. On 14 September 2001, three days after the terrorist attacks on 11 September, the crew of the destroyer Lütjens manned the rails, and as they approached the destroyers USS Winston S. Churchill and USS Gonzalez, they 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.

The Lütjens rendering honours to USS Winston S. Churchill after the September 11 attacks

References

  1. ↑ http://www.vebeg.de/images/lospics/29/14229.001.pdf Zerstörer ex "LÜTJENS" Klasse 103 B (teildemilitarisiert)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to D185 Lütjens (ship, 1969).