USS Kidd (DDG-100)

For other ships of the same name, see USS Kidd.
Career
Namesake: Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd
Ordered: 6 March 1998
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down: 29 April 2004
Launched: 22 January 2005
Commissioned: 9 June 2007
Homeport: Naval Base San Diego
Motto: On To Victory
Status: in active service, as of 2015
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
Displacement:9,200 tons
Length:509 ft 6 in (155.30 m)
Beam:  66 ft (20 m)
Draft:  31 ft (9.4 m)
Propulsion:4 × General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 100,000 shp (75 MW)
Speed:30+ knots (55+ km/h)
Complement:380 officers and enlisted
Armament:1 × 32 cell, 1 × 64 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems, 96 × RIM-66 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-Asroc, missiles
1 × 5-inch (127-mm)/62 Mk-45 Mod 4 (lightweight gun), 2 × 25 mm, 4 × 12.7 mm guns
2 × Mk 46 triple torpedo tubes
1 x 20mm Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft carried:2 × MH-60 Seahawk helicopters

USS Kidd (DDG-100) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She is the third Navy ship named after Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who was on board Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was the first American flag officer to die in World War II. The ship is part of Destroyer Squadron Twenty-one (DESRON-21) of Carrier Strike Group Three which is currently headed by the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74).

Overview

Kidd was christened by Admiral Kidd's grand daughters, Regina Kidd Wolbarsht and Mary Kidd Plumer on 22 January 2005 at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Commander Richard E. Thomas of Westwood, New Jersey, served as her first commanding officer until February 2008. Commander Charles P. Good of Huntington Beach, California, took Kidd on her maiden deployment.

While in the midst of final outfitting, the ship was holed and partially flooded at the shipyard docks during Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, requiring a return to dry dock for repairs, which included cutting out a turbine, delaying her commissioning and deployment with the navy. She was commissioned in Galveston, Texas on 9 June 2007. She is currently homeported in San Diego.

On 5 January 2012, the Kidd rescued the 13-member crew of an Iranian-flagged fishing vessel, the Al Molai, from Somali pirates who had been holding them hostage for over 40 days, capturing fifteen pirates in the process with no casualties.[1]

Search for Malaysia Airlines MH 370

On 10 March 2014 the ship joined the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 two days after it went missing over the South China Sea. The Kidd was the second Navy ship to be deployed in the search. It joined USS Pinckney, and more than 40 other ships and 32 aircraft from Malaysia, Australia, China, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan,[2] Vietnam, New Zealand, and the Philippines taking part in the search and rescue .[3] On March 14 it was announced that Kidd would be relocated to the Indian Ocean in search of the plane, since new evidence points to the possibility of the plane being there.[4]

USS Kidd in San Diego in May 2008

In popular culture

In the 2009 science fiction film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the USS Kidd fires at and destroys a Decepticon named Devastator with a railgun (mounted in place of the standard cannon) during the movie's climactic battle in Egypt. Moments earlier in the film the captain of the USS John C. Stennis queues the USS Kidd into action but the hull of the USS Preble (DDG-88) is shown instead. The footage of the combat information center and the forecastle with the railgun was shot on the USS Kidd.

References

  1. ↑ Stanglin, Douglas (6 January 2012). "U.S. Navy rescues Iranian sailors from pirates". USA Today. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  2. ↑ "Taiwan joins search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370". Taiwan Today. 2014-03-11. Retrieved 2014-05-10.
  3. ↑ "U.S. bolsters support for search of lost plane". Malaysia Sun. 2014-03-10. Retrieved 2014-05-10.
  4. ↑ Starr, Barbara; Carter, Chelsea J. (2014-03-15). "USS Kidd relocated to Indian Ocean". CNN. Retrieved 2014-05-10.

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.

External links

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