Name USS Nitze Ordered 6 March 1998 Laid down 20 September 2002 | Namesake Paul Nitze Builder Bath Iron Works Launched 3 April 2004 | |
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USS Nitze (DDG-94) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. She is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Paul Nitze, who served as Secretary of the Navy under president Lyndon B. Johnson and as chief arms control adviser in the administration of president Ronald Reagan.
Contents
Overview
The contract to build her was awarded to Bath Iron Works Corporation in Bath, Maine, on March 6, 1998, and her keel was laid down on September 20, 2002. She was launched on April 3, 2004, sponsored by Elisabeth Porter, Nitze's wife. Nitze, who was 97 years old at the time, was present at the christening, thus adding the destroyer to the rapidly growing list of U.S. military vessels named after living Americans (Nitze died 6½ months later). Nitze was commissioned on March 5, 2005, with Cmdr. Michael A. Hegarty in command. Nitze, homeported in Norfolk, Virginia, went on her maiden deployment in January 2007 as part of the USS Bataan Expeditionary Strike Group, returning home on July 3, 2007.
On September 12, 2008, Nitze departed Norfolk for a seven-month deployment with Carrier Strike Group Two, led by USS Theodore Roosevelt, returning on April 18, 2009.
In October 2009, Nitze was open to the public for tours in downtown Norfolk as part of the Navy Fleet Week celebration. She was moored at the Nauticus Museum and Half Moone Cruise terminal.
During July 1–5, 2011, Nitze was docked in Eastport, Maine, for 4 July celebrations.
From March 12 to November 4, 2012, Nitze completed her third deployment to the Fifth Fleet Area of Responsibility with the USS Enterprise Battlegroup (CCSG 12).
Nitze was deployed a fourth time, from November 29, 2013, to July 15, 2014, spending most of their time off the Horn of Africa conducting maritime security operations.
As of October 2015, Nitze is under the command of Cmdr. Paul Kaylor; Cmdr. Michael Cloud serves as Executive Officer.
Incidents
On August 24, 2016, USS Nitze was conducting a routine transit near the Strait of Hormuz, accompanied by USS Mason, when the ship was approached by four small patrol craft of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The US Navy called the maneuver a "high speed intercept". After multiple attempts to contact the vessels, and then to warn them away, Nitze changed course to avoid closer contact. Two of the Iranian craft closed to 300 yards (270 m) before finally slowing and moving off.
On 13 October 2016, following two missile attacks on USS Mason from Houthi-held territory in war-torn Yemen, Nitze attacked three radar sites which had been involved in the earlier attacks with Tomahawk cruise missiles; the Pentagon assessed that all three sites were destroyed.