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US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter DDG 78 starts deployment to Black Sea.
According to information released by the U.S. Navy on June 17, 2020, The U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) began its northbound international strait transit en route to the Black Sea June 17, 2020, to conduct maritime security operations and enhance regional maritime stability, combined readiness, and naval capability with our NATO allies and partners in the region.
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The Arleigh Burke-class, guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) operates in the Mediterranean Sea, conducting presence operations and other national tasking in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa. (Picture source U.S. Navy)
This is the third time a U.S. Navy ship has conducted operations in the Black Sea in 2020 and the second time for Porter, which visited the Black Sea in April. While in the Black Sea, and with the support of partners and allies, Porter will remain safely at sea, focusing on operational requirements and executing national tasking during the COVID-19 response.
The ship’s operations in the Black Sea will strengthen interoperability with NATO allies and partners and demonstrate the collective resolve to Black Sea security.
Porter recently completed operations in the Barents Sea alongside USS Donald Cook (DDG 75), USS Roosevelt (DDG 80), the fast combat support ship USNS Supply (T-AOE 6), and the Royal Navy frigate HMS Kent (F 78) to assert freedom of navigation and demonstrate seamless integration among allies.
Porter, forward-deployed to Naval Station Rota, Spain, is conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe. The U.S. Navy routinely operates in the Black Sea consistent with international law, including the Montreux Convention.
U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.
USS Porter (DDG-78) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the United States Navy. This ship is the 28th destroyer of her class. Porter was the 12th ship of this class to be built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was laid down on 2 December 1996, launched and christened on 12 November 1997, and commissioned 20 March 1999, in Port Canaveral, Florida. The Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyers (DDGs) is a United States Navy class of destroyer built around the Aegis Combat System and the SPY-1D multifunction passive electronically scanned array radar.
The USS Porter is powered by 4 General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, two shafts, 100,000 total shaft horsepower (75 MW). It can reach a maximum speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph). Armament of the USS Porter includes one 29 cell,one 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launching systems with 90 × RIM-156 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-ASROC missiles, two Mk 141 Harpoon Missile Launcher SSM, one Mark 45 5/54 in (127/54 mm)cannon, two 25 mm chain gun, four .50 caliber (12.7 mm) guns, two 20 mm Phalanx CIWS and two Mk 32 triple torpedo tubes.