USS Yorktown (CG-48)

USS Yorktown (CG-48)

USS Yorktown underway on 1 September 1985, in the Caribbean.
History
United States
Name:	Yorktown
Operator:	United States Navy
Ordered:	28 April 1980
Builder:	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down:	19 October 1981
Launched:	17 January 1983
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Mary Mathews
Commissioned:	4 July 1984
Decommissioned:	10 December 2004
Struck:	10 December 2004
Motto:	"Victory is our tradition"
Status:	Stricken, to be disposed of. In reserve at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ticonderoga-class cruiser
Displacement:	Approx. 9,600 long tons (9,800 t) full load
Length:	567 feet (173 m)
Beam:	55 feet (16.8 meters)
Draft:	34 feet (10.2 meters)
Propulsion:	4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbine engines, 80,000 shaft horsepower (60,000 kW) 2 × controllable-reversible pitch propellers 2 × rudders
Speed:	32.5 knots (60 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Complement:	33 officers, 27 Chief Petty Officers, and approx. 340 enlisted
Sensors and processing systems:	AN/SPY-1A/B multi-function radar AN/SPS-49 air search radar AN/SPG-62 fire control radar AN/SPS-73 surface search radar AN/SPQ-9 gun fire control radar AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite AN/SQQ-89(V)1/3 - A(V)15 Sonar suite, consisting of: AN/SQS-53B/C/D active sonar AN/SQR-19 TACTAS, AN/SQR-19B ITASS, & MFTA passive sonar AN/SQQ-28 light airborne multi-purpose system
Armament:	2 × Mk 26 missile launchers 68 × RIM-66 SM-2, and 20 × RUR-5 ASROC 8 × RGM-84 Harpoon missiles 2 × Mark 45 5 in / 54 cal lightweight gun 2–4 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) gun 2 × Phalanx CIWS 2 × Mk 32 12.75 in (324 mm) triple torpedo tubes
Aircraft carried:	2 × Sikorsky SH-60B or MH-60R Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters.

USS Yorktown (DDG-48/CG-48) was a Ticonderoga-class cruiser in the United States Navy from 1984 to 2004, named for the American Revolutionary War Battle of Yorktown.

Yorktown was launched 17 January 1983 and was sponsored by Mrs. Mary Matthews, widow of Nick Matthews a prominent citizen of Yorktown, Virginia.Yorktown was commissioned on 4 July 1984 at Yorktown, Virginia, and was designed to take advantage of the American Aegis technology. Among its various weapon systems were surface to air missiles (SAMs), anti-ship/anti-submarine missiles, torpedo launchers, and a mounted cannon. Yorktown's first deployment was from August 1985 to April 1986 and, among other things, involved the Achille Lauro hijacker intercept, two Black Sea excursions (in 1986 and 1988), and a trio of operations off the Libyan coast including Operation El Dorado Canyon and Operation Attain Document and Prairie Fire.

Yorktown received the Atlantic Fleet's "Top Gun" award for outstanding naval gunfire support in 1987. During the second deployment from September 1987 to March 1988, Yorktown participated in numerous U.S. and NATO exercises, as well as multi-national exercises with Morocco, France, West Germany, Tunisia, and Turkey. It was on this Mediterranean deployment that Yorktown gained worldwide publicity from operations conducted in the Black Sea as part of Freedom of Navigation program. On 12 February 1988, while the Yorktown was exercising the "right of innocent passage" through Soviet territorial waters the Soviet Burevestnik-class frigate Bezzavetnyy (Russian: Беззаветный) intentionally collided with Yorktown with the intention of pushing it out of Soviet territorial waters. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs at the time, Richard L. Armitage, acknowledged that the transit was not operationally necessary, but asserted that it was still a valid innocent passage under international law.