USS Port Royal (CG-73)

USS ''Port Royal'' (CG-73) was a guided missile cruiser that served in the United States Navy. She was commissioned on 9 July 1994, as the 27th and final ship of the class. ''Port Royal'' was named in honor of the two naval battles of Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, one during the American Revolutionary War, the other during the American Civil War. She was decommissioned on 29 September 2022. The ship is the second to bear the name, with the first being a steam-powered, side-wheel gunboat, from New York City, in commission from 1862 to 1866.

Construction

The second ''Port Royal'' (CG-73) was assigned hull number CG-69 on 9 May 1989, but that number was reassigned to guided missile cruiser and CG-73 to ''Port Royal'' on 8 December 1989; was laid down on 18 October 1991, at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by Ingalls Shipbuilding, Litton Industries; launched on 20 November 1992; sponsored by Susan G. Baker (wife of James A. Baker III, Chief of Staff to President George H. W. Bush and former Secretary of State); and commissioned at Savannah, Georgia, on 9 July 1994.

Characteristics

''Port Royal'' and are the original cruisers for the navy's Linebacker Program (Milestone Phase I, II and III), which provided theater ballistic missile defense capability, as test platforms to detect, track, cue, intercept, and interact with other national assets to shoot down ICBMs. The vessel's Aegis and Standard Missile Tracking systems have been upgraded with "long range surveillance and track (LRS&T)", and the ships were outfitted to carry the modified SM-2 Block IVA TMD. As of 2009, ''Port Royal'' along with ''Lake Erie'' and were the only three s to be equipped for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program. ''Port Royal'' participated as a tracking ship during operation "Stellar Athena" FTM 12 on 22 June 2007 off Hawaii. ''Port Royal''s role has been taken by .

Originally, ''Port Royal'' was to be outfitted with the experimental shipboard mounted High Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWEPS). Based on a megawatt-class deuterium/fluorine chemical laser, HELWEPS would have replaced the standard 5-inch forward gun. HELWEPS was to have been used to destroy missiles up to about away, or to burn out electro-optical sensors about away. The outfitting, scheduled to occur in Naval Base Ventura County, Port Hueneme, California in 1994 was cancelled, along with all plans to install HELWEPS on ''Ticonderoga''-class cruisers.

Four (LM2500) gas turbine engines propel ''Port Royal'' with at speeds greater than . Two five-bladed controllable reversible pitch propellers ( diameter) and two rudders assist in acceleration and deceleration.

Sensors include:
* AN/SPY-1B(V) Multi-Function Radar (Four Mounts)
* AN/SPS-49(V)8 Air Search Radar
* AN/SPS-55 Surface Search Radar
* AN/SPS-64(V)9 Navigation Radar
* AN/SPQ-9 Gun Fire Control Radar
* AN/SPG-62 Illuminators (Four Mounts)
* AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 Sonar Suite
* AN/SLQ-32A(V)3 Electronic Warfare Suite

Operations

''Port Royal'' deployed from December 1995 until June 1996, as part of the battle group Carrier Group Seven. The CVBG was participating in Operation Southern Watch, but was deployed to the South China Sea in March 1996, to act as a stabilizing force the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis. During this deployment, Captain Richards transferred command to Captain Gary Roughead on 21 January 1996. Following her first deployment, ''Port Royal'' became the first U.S. cruiser to integrate women into the crew.

''Port Royal'' deployed with the ''Nimitz'' battle group for participation in Operation Southern Watch from September 1997 until March 1998.

''Port Royal'' deployed with the ' battle group, participating in Operation Southern Watch. Leaving in January 2000, she returned to Hawaii early after sustaining damage to her port shaft and Hub during pursuit of a vessel suspected of smuggling Iraqi oil in violation of U.N. sanctions. She returned in June and then in August went into drydock for repairs and upgrades.

''Port Royal'' deployed early Pearl Harbor on 17 November 2001, to join the ''John C. Stennis'' battle group on deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

In March 2003, she was assigned to Carrier Group Seven.

''Port Royal'' deployed with Expeditionary Strike Group-One (ESG-1) in support of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) from 3 September 2003 until 11 March 2004. This was the very first deployment of an Expeditionary Strike Group.

''Port Royal'' deployed with ''Peleliu'' Expeditionary Strike Group-Three (ESG-3) in support of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) from 27 February 2006 until 5 August 2006.

On 6 January 2008, the destroyer ''Hopper'', ''Port Royal'' and the frigate were entering the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz when five Iranian boats approached them at high speed and in a threatening manner. The U.S. ships had been in the Arabian Sea searching for a sailor who had been missing from ''Hopper'' for one day. The U.S. Navy says the Iranian boats made "threatening" moves toward the U.S. vessels, coming as close as . The U.S. Navy allegedly received a radio transmission saying, "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes." As the U.S. ships prepared to fire, the Iranians abruptly turned away, the U.S. officials said. Before leaving, the Iranians dropped white boxes into the water in front of the U.S. ships. The U.S. ships did not investigate the boxes. Officials from the two nations differed on the severity of the incident. The Iranians claimed they were conducting normal maneuvers while American officials claimed that an imminent danger to American naval vessels existed.

2009 grounding

On 5 February 2009, at 21:00, ''Port Royal'' ran aground about a half-mile south of the Honolulu International Airport

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