USS Hopper (DDG-70)

8315 tons

154 m

20 meters

9.5 meters

26 officers, 315 teams

Two propellers, each driven over 4 gas turbines; 100,000 shaft horsepower

31 knots

90 VLS cells, 2 triple torpedo launchers, 1 artillery 127 mm

The USS Hopper ( DDG -70 ) is a destroyer in the United States Navy and is one of the Arleigh Burke - class.

History

The Hopper was laid in 1995 at Bath Iron Works in Kiel and ran in early 1996 from the stack. It was named after Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. This is the ship after the USS Higbee only the second (after Lenah Higbee ), which is named after a woman from the U.S. armed forces.

Their first international exercise made ​​the hoppers in summer 1998 ( RIMPAC 98), after which they moved the first time in the Pacific. By 2002, the destroyer went three trips, including in support of Operation Southern Watch. From June to December 2004, the ship was escorted into the Expeditionary Strike Group to the amphibious assault ship USS Belleau Wood ( LHA -3 ) of the Tarawa class. In 2005, the ship at the Fleet Week part before San Francisco.

2006 drove the Hopper in the Pacific and participated in the exercise CARAT part, a multinational maneuvers with the navies of Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines. In November 2007, the destroyer of the battle group joined by the USS Tarawa ( LHA -1) to begin a six-month voyage to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. On this trip, the Hopper sailed in close formation with USS Port Royal (CG -73) and USS Ingraham (FFG -61), the Strait of Hormuz. During the passage, the three ships were driven in international waters of five speedboats of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who broke into the formation, transmitted radio messages threatening and white boxes of unknown content before exposing Ingraham in the water. The incident lasted 30 minutes and was described by the U.S. side as " unnecessarily provocative ".

On 1 November 2008, the destroyer took part in a test of the National Missile Defense. The Hopper fired a Standard Missile 3 on a short-range ballistic missile from, but missed this. Your sister ship USS Paul Hamilton (DDG -60) met their goal, when the related test. In July 2009, met with a further test, the Hopper a ballistic missile and destroyed it about 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean. In September, the ship moved into the waters of the Middle East. In summer 2010, the destroyer took part in the multinational exercise RIMPAC. In April 2011, Hopper shot in a test in the Pacific from a medium range ballistic missile. This was the first time that the Aegis combat system, coupled with data from other radar stations, against such a missile was used successfully. Following the destroyer moved for seven months in the Western Pacific and the Persian Gulf.