USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) is a modern American missile destroyer, the keel of which was laid in 1994, it was launched in August 1995, and it entered service with the US Navy in 1997. The total length of the ship is 154 meters and 20 meters wide. Full displacement is around 9,000 tons and the maximum speed is just over 30 knots. The destroyer is armed with: 2 VLS Mk. 41 - one 29-rail and one 61-rail, 2 quad Harpoon rocket launchers, a single 127mm Mark 45 cannon or two 20mm Vulcan Phalanx kits. The ship may operate with the use of in-flight helicopters, eg the Sikorsky MH-60R.
USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) is one of 65 active service destroyers belonging to the Arleigh Burke class. Units of this type were designed, were and are being built as multi-role destroyers, in which, however, special emphasis was placed on countering air targets. In the construction of these ships, the British experience from the Falklands war was used, and as a result, Kevlar armor was added to the most viable parts of ships of this class. At the same time, the Arleigh Burke-class ships have the revolutionary AEGIS network combat system, cooperating with the AN / SPY-1 radar, which provides them with unprecedented possibilities to control the airspace and counter air targets. This is the same system used on the Ticonderoga-class cruisers. One of the units of this class is the USS The Sullivans (DDG-68). The ship was built at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. The unit was constructed in accordance with the Flight I standard. Shortly after entering service, USS The Sullivans was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, and during its first operational voyage it sailed, among others, in the Caribbean Sea. In 1998, the unit underwent intensive training. In January 2000, the unit was to become the target of a terrorist attack, but the attack was not finally carried out. After the Al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001, USS The Sullivans took part in Operation Noble Eagle, and from the beginning of 2002 it operated in the Arabian Sea, taking part in the so-called war on terrorism. USS The Sullivans remains in active service.
