Name Kidd Operator United States Navy Laid down 29 April 2004 Launched 22 January 2005 Weight 9,348 tons Builder Ingalls Shipbuilding | Owner United States Navy Ordered 6 March 1998 Construction started 29 April 2004 Length 155 m Displacement 8.346 million kg | |
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Namesake Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd | ||
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 9 of Carrier Strike Group 3 which is currently headed by the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74).
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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.
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, Vietnam, New Zealand, and the Philippines taking part in the search and rescue . 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.
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.