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USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53)

Construction of USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) began on 8 August 1990, at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. The ship was christened and launched on 26 October 1991.

USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) launches a RIM-174 Standard ERAM (Standard Missile-6, SM-6) during a live-fire test of the ship's Aegis weapons system in the Pacific Ocean in June 2014. USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) was selected as the Shock Trial platform for the DDG-51 class. The ship was subjected to a series of close range explosions in order for the Navy to obtain critical information concerning the survivability of the DDG-51 class in a shock environment. On 7 October 2001, USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) launched the first Tomahawk missiles into Afghanistan as part of Operation Endurnig Freedom.

In June 2010, she began a ten-month yard period during which her machinery control system and many HM&E systems were upgraded. This was a first in class effort, similar to the CG-47 mid life upgrade undertaken on the USS Ticonderoga hull. On 1 November 2015, USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) participated in Campaign Fierce Sentry Flight Test Operational-02 Event 2 (FTO-02 E2), a complex $230 million U.S. military missile defense system test event conducted at Wake Island and the surrounding ocean areas. During the test, USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) shot down a simulated anti-ship cruise missile but failed to intercept a medium-rangeballistic missle that was launched from a C-17 transport plane.

On 18 January 2016, USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) sank the decommissioned guided-missle frigate USS Reuben James in a test of a new anti-surface warfare variant of the Raytheon Standard Missile 6 (SM-6), becoming the first ship to sink a ship with the new variant of the missile. USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) fired the missile on the U.S. Pacific Missile Range near Hawaii. On 3 February 2017, USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) completed a ballistic missile intercept in a test off the west coast of Hawaii. The test marks the first time that a ballistic missile has been targeted using the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA interceptor.