USS Stark
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| |
| Career | 
|
|---|---|
| Laid down: | 24 August 1979 |
| Launched: | 30 May 1980 |
| Commissioned: | 23 October 1982 |
| Decommissioned: | 7 May 1999 |
| Struck: | 7 May 1999 |
| Fate: | scrapping awarded to Metro Machine Corp. of Philadelphia PA on 7 October 2005 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 3638 tons |
| Length: | 445 ft (136 m) |
| Beam: | 45 ft (13.7 m) |
| Draught: | 14 ft 9 in (4.5 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbines; 41,000 shp (30,600 kW); 1 shaft, cp propeller, 325 hp (242 kW) retractable propeller pods |
| Speed: | 29 knots (54 km/h) |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | 206 |
| Armament: | 1 OTO Melara 76 mm/62 (single) Mk 75, 1 Vulcan Phalanx CIWS, 4 x .50 cal (12.7 mm) MGs, 4 McDonnell Douglas Harpoon missiles, 36 GDC Pomona Standard SM-1MR missiles, 1 Mk 13 Mod 4 launcher for both, 6 x 324 mm US Mk 32 (2 triple) tubes for Mark 46 torpedoes |
USS Stark (FFG-31), twenty-third ship of the Oliver Hazard Perry class of guided-missile frigates, was named for Admiral Harold Rainsford Stark (1880–1972). In 1987, it became the victim of the only successful guided missile attack on a U.S. Navy warship.
Ordered from Todd Pacific Shipyards, San Pedro, California on 23 January 1978 as part of the FY78 program, Stark was laid down on 24 August 1979, launched on 30 May 1980, and commissioned on 23 October 1982. Decommissioned on 7 May 1999, Stark is currently awaiting disposal at Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, PA.
Missile attack
Stark was deployed to the Middle East Force in 1984 and 1987. The ship was struck on May 17, 1987, by two Exocet antiship missiles fired from an Iraqi Mirage F1 fighter during the Iran-Iraq War. The fighter had taken off from Shaibah at 20:00 and had flown south into the Persian Gulf. Shortly after being routinely challenged by the frigate around 22:10, the fighter fired two Exocet missiles. The frigate did not detect the missiles, and both struck without warning. The first penetrated the port-side hull; it failed to detonate, but spewed flaming rocket fuel in its path. The second entered at almost the same point, and left a 3-by-4-meter gash—then exploded in crew quarters. Thirty-seven sailors were killed and twenty-one were injured.
Afire and listing, the frigate was brought under control by its crew during the night. The ship made its way to Bahrain where, after temporary repairs by the tender USS Acadia (AD-42) to make her seaworthy, she returned to her home port of Mayport, Florida, under her own power. The ship was eventually repaired at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi for $142 million.
This has been called the U.S. Navy's deadliest peacetime disaster before the gun turret explosion onboard the battleship Iowa.
Because the U.S. and Iraq were not at war at the time, the attack was likely not authorized. According to Iraqi officials, the pilot who attacked the Stark was not punished. Though American officials believed he had been executed, journalist Robert Fisk, in his book The Great War For Civilisation, quotes an ex-Iraqi Air Force commander who says the pilot is still alive.
1990s
Stark was part of the Standing Naval Forces Atlantic Fleet in 1990 before returning to the Middle East Force in 1991. She was attached to UNITAS in 1993 and took part in Operation Support Democracy and Operation Able Vigil in 1994. In 1995 she again returned to the Middle East Force before serving in the Atlantic again in 1997 and in 1998.
Stark was decommissioned on May 7, 1999.
External links
- Photos of the damaged Stark
- Host page for PDF version of report: Formal Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Attack of the USS Stark in 1987
- US Navy's Damage Control Museum page on the USS Stark
- navsource.org: USS Stark (FFG-31)
- Information on Operation Earnest Will
- MaritimeQuest USS Stark FFG-31 pages
Further reading
- Levinson, Jeffrey L. and Randy L. Edwards (1997). Missile Inbound. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-517-9.
