USS Oscar Austin

300px USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79)
History
United States
Name:	Oscar Austin
Namesake:	Oscar Palmer Austin
Ordered:	20 July 1994
Builder:	Bath Iron Works
Laid down:	9 October 1997
Launched:	7 November 1998
Commissioned:	19 August 2000
Motto:	Honor and Sacrifice
Status:	in active service, as of 2024
Badge:	120px
General characteristics
Class & type:	Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
Displacement:	9,200 long tons (9,300 t)
Length:	509 ft 6 in (155.30 m)
Beam:	66 ft (20 m)
Draught:	31 ft (9.4 m)
Propulsion:	4 × General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 100,000 shp (75 MW)
Speed:	>30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph)
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 in/54 (127 mm/54), 2 × 25 mm, 4 × 12.7 mm guns, 2 × Phalanx CIWS 2 × Mk 46 triple torpedo tubes
Aircraft carried:	2 × SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters

USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the United States Navy. The ship is currently part of Destroyer Squadron 26.

Oscar Austin is named for Private First Class Oscar P. Austin, USMC, a recipient of the Medal of Honor. His mother, Mildred Austin, was the matron of honor at the commissioning.

Career

A ScanEagle is recovered at sea aboard the destroyer USS Oscar Austin

Oscar Austin's maiden deployment in late 2002 resulted in her participation in the opening strikes of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Oscar Austin deployed in September 2005, once again in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The ship returned from a successful deployment in March 2006.

As of 2007, Oscar Austin was operating in Destroyer Squadron 26.

As of 2008 Oscar Austin is the first combatant ship to deploy with a Scan Eagle UAV developed and flown by Insitu Inc.

Flight IIA ships

File:USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79) Rear.jpg

USS Oscar Austin.

Oscar Austin is the first ship of the Flight IIA subclass of the Arleigh Burke class. Compared to previous Burkes, Flight IIAs are 4 feet 6 inches (1.37 m) longer, displace about 900 tons more, carry six more Vertical Launching System cells, and have a hangar that can house two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters. To prevent the additional superstructure aft from fouling radar returns, the rear-facing SPY-1D panels are one deck higher. Oscar Austin is one of two Flight IIA ships using the older 5-inch/54 caliber naval rifle (the other is Roosevelt) which cannot use certain advanced munitions that require the longer 5 in/62 caliber gun mounted by USS Winston S. Churchill and later Burkes.

File:OSA Tomahawk.jpg

Oscar Austin firing a Tomahawk from her aft VLS launcher in March 2003.

They have their Harpoon anti-ship missiles removed to reduce costs.

In fiction and literature

USS Oscar Austin is also featured in the 2011 naval thriller, Thunder in the Morning Calm, by Don Brown.

References

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.