The ship’s crew will handle some minor repairs with the assistance of Philippine companies. According to U.S Embassy The USS Fitzgerald is forward-deployed to the US 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.
SS FITZGERALD is the twelfth ARLEIGH BURKE class guided missile destroyer and the seventh ship in that class built by Bath Iron Works.
General Characteristics:
- Keel Laid: February 9, 1993
- Christened: January 29, 1994
- Commissioned: October 14, 1995
- Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
- Propulsion system: four General Electric LM 2500 gas turbine engines
- Propellers: two
- Blades on each Propeller: five
- Length: 505,25 feet (154 meters)
- Beam: 67 feet (20.4 meters)
- Draft: 30,5 feet (9.3 meters)
Displacement: approx. 8.300 tons full load - Speed: 30+ knots
- Aircraft: None. But LAMPS 3 electronics installed on landing deck for coordinated DDG/helicopter ASW operations.
- Armament: two Mk 41 VLS for Standard missiles, Tomahawk; Harpoon missile launchers, one Mk 45 5-inch/54 caliber lightweight gun, two Phalanx CIWS, Mk 46 torpedoes (from two triple tube mounts)
- Homeport: Yokosuka, Japan
- Crew: 23 Officers, 24 Chief Petty Officers and 291 Enlisted
In November 2011, while anchored in Manila, Philippines, Fitzgerald served as the site where U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario signed the Manila Declaration calling for multilateral talks to resolve maritime disputes and to mark the 60th anniversary of the American-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty
