USS WINSTON S. CHURCHILL

USS Winston S. Churchill DDG 81 is the only U.S. Navy vessel in active service named after a foreign dignitary. The ship is named in honor of Sir Winston Spencer Leonard Churchill (1874-1965), best known for his courageous leadership as the British Prime Minister during World War II.

This ship is the fourth US warship named after an Englishman and the 31st ARLEIGH BURKE class guided missile destroyer. As a courtesy to the ship's namesake country, a member of the Royal Navy is assigned to the ship's crew at all times.

Commissioned March 10, 2001
 
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The first Arleigh Burke Class Aegis destroyer was commissioned in 1991. Contracts for the destroyers have been split between the Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (formerly Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding), based in Pascagoula, Mississippi and the General Dynamics subsidiary, Bath Iron Works, based in Maine. The first 21 ships (DDG51-DDG71) are categorised as Flight I and the next seven (DDG72-DDG78) as Flight II.
The revised Flight IIA ships entered production in late 1997. 25 have been commissioned: USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79) – August 2000; Roosevelt (DDG 80) – November 2000; Winston S Churchill (DDG 81) – March 2001; Lassen (DDG 82) – April 2001; Howard (DDG 83) – October 2001; Bulkeley (DDG 84) – December 2001; Shoup (DDG 86) – June 2002; McCampbell (DDG 85) – August 2002; Preble (DDG 88) – November 2002; Mason (DDG 87) – April 2003; USS Mustin (DDG 89) – July 2003; Chafee (DDG 90) – October 2003; Pinkney (DDG 91) – May 2004; Momsen (DDG 92) – August 2004; Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) – September 2004; James E Williams (DDG 95) – December 2004; Nitze (DDG 94) – March 2005; Halsey (DDG 97) – July 2005; USS Bainbridge (DDG 96) – November 2005; Forrest Sherman (DDG 98) – January 2006, USS Farragut (DDG 99) – June 2006; Gridley (DDG 101) – January 2007: Sampson (DDG 102) – March 2007, Kidd (DDG 100) – June 2007 and Sterett (DDG 104) – June 2008.
Source: http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/burke/
 
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