USS Fife

USS Fife underway on 25 June 2002
History
United States
NameFife
NamesakeJames Fife, Jr.
Ordered15 January 1975
BuilderIngalls Shipbuilding
Laid down6 March 1978
Launched1 May 1979
Acquired5 May 1980
Commissioned31 May 1980
Decommissioned28 February 2003
Stricken6 April 2004
Identification
Motto
  • Successum Merere Conemur
  • 'Endeavor to Deserve Success'
FateSunk as target, 23 August 2005
Badge
General characteristics
Class & typeSpruance-class destroyer
Displacement8,040 long tons (8,170 t) full load
Length
Beam55 ft (17 m)
Draft29 ft (8.8 m)
Installed power3 × 501-K17 generator sets (2,000 kW (2,700 hp) each)
Propulsion4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 80,000 shp (60 MW)
Speed32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Range6,000 nmi (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement19 officers, 315 enlisted
Sensors &
processing systems
Electronic warfare
& decoys
Armament
Aircraft carried2 × Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters
Aviation facilitiesFlight deck and enclosed hangar for up to two medium-lift helicopters
armament extra1 × 21 cell RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

USS Fife (DD-991), a Spruance-class destroyer, was a ship of the United States Navy named for Admiral James Fife, Jr. (1897–1975), a distinguished Submarine Force commander during World War II.

Fife was laid down on 6 March 1978 by Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi; launched on 1 May 1979; and commissioned on 31 May 1980.

USS Fife was the 29th of the 30 Spruance-class destroyers. Between 27 June and 11 July 2002, Fife was the U.S. Task Group flagship for the Pacific Phase of the annual UNITAS exercise conducted with naval forces from five nations off the coast of Chile. The ship's five-month deployment to the Eastern Pacific Ocean for Counter-Drug Operations and the UNITAS exercise was the final deployment for the destroyer.

Last homeported in Everett, Wash., under the command of CDR Frank Ponds, Fife was decommissioned 28 February 2003, and stricken from the Navy List 6 April 2004. Fife was sunk as a target during a live-fire exercise on 23 August 2005 by USS Russell (DDG-59).