History | |
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United States | |
Name: | USS Stout |
Namesake: | Rear Admiral Herald F. Stout |
Ordered: | 13 December 1988 |
Builder: | Ingalls Shipbuilding |
Laid down: | 8 August 1991 |
Launched: | 16 October 1992 |
Commissioned: | 13 August 1994 |
Homeport: | Norfolk, Virginia |
Motto: | Courage – Valor – Integrity |
Nickname(s): | "Bold Knight" |
Status: | in active service |
Badge: | |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Arleigh Burke-class destroyer |
Displacement: |
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Length: | 505 ft (154 m) |
Beam: | 66 ft (20 m) |
Draft: | 31 ft (9.4 m) |
Propulsion: | 4 General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, two shafts, 100,000 total shaft horsepower (75 MW) |
Speed: | >30 knots (56 km/h) |
Range: |
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Complement: | |
Sensors and processing systems: |
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Electronic warfare & decoys: |
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Armament: |
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Aircraft carried: | 2 Sikorsky MH-60R helicopters can be embarked |
USS Stout (DDG-55) is the sixth Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer. Built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, she was commissioned on 13 August 1994 and she is currently home-ported in Naval Station Norfolk. She is part of Destroyer Squadron 26.
Stout was named for Rear Admiral Herald F. Stout (1903–1987), who distinguished himself as the Commanding Officer of the destroyer USS Claxton during World War II. Then a Commander, Stout aided his task force in sinking five heavily armed, enemy warships to establish a beachhead on Bougainville Island.
The ship was ordered from Ingalls Shipbuilding on 13 December 1988. The keel was laid down on 8 August 1991 and the vessel was launched on 16 October 1992. Stout was commissioned on 13 August 1994.
In April 2008, the ship comprehensively failed its Board of Inspection and Survey examination and was declared "unfit for sustained combat operations." The ship has since passed 13 of 13 rigorous unit level training inspections. Stout deployed in March 2009 on routine security operations in the Sixth Fleet operational area. On 15 July 2009, Fox News Channel reported Stout was in the Black Sea cooperating with Georgian forces in training exercises.
On 1 March 2011 while on deployment to the Mediterranean Sea in support of the crisis in Libya, Commander Nathan Borchers, Command Master Chief Susan Bruce-Ross, six other chiefs, one junior officer, and one petty officer of Stout were relieved by the Commander Sixth Fleet. The cited cause was a “pervasive pattern of unprofessional behavior” among the ship's crew including “fraternization, orders violations and disregard for naval standards of conduct and behavior which contributed to poor crew morale and a hostile command climate.” The investigation found that a "gang" of five chiefs had bullied crew members, actively impeded communication among the ship's command channels, and forced crewmembers to work around the gang in order to get work accomplished.