Frontier India Strategic and Defence - News, Analysis, Opinion

Written on October 30, 2008 – 7:32 am | by Frontier India Strategic and Defence |

Northrop Grumman Corporation delivered its 25th Aegis guided missile destroyer to the U.S. Navy last week. Truxtun (DDG 103), built by the company’s Shipbuilding sector, recently completed U.S. Navy acceptance trials in the Gulf of Mexico — the final milestone prior to ship delivery.

U.S Navy Cmdr. Timothy Weber, a native of Decatur, Georgia, and 1990 graduate of Vanderbilt University, is the ship’s first commanding officer and will lead a crew of 276 officers and sailors. The 510-foot, 9,200-ton Truxtun has an overall beam of 66.5 feet and a navigational draft of 31 feet. Four gas-turbine propulsion plants will power the ship to speeds above 30 knots.

Six previous ships, including five destroyers, have been named in honor of Commodore Thomas Truxtun, the ship’s namesake who served as a privateer in the American Revolution and was appointed by President George Washington as Captain of USS Constellation, the first U.S. Naval war ship.