USS Cole Built for Every Challenge—But One
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 13, 2000 -- A bigger ship wouldn’t have had a chance against the USS Cole.
But it was a tiny, explosives-laden boat — which appeared to be on a routine mooring operation — that proved thetoughest match for the 505-foot Arleigh-Burke-class guided missiledestroyer and her crew of 350 highly trained Naval men and women.
The massive but speedy $1 billion USS Cole, powered by four jetengines similar to those used in airliners, is one of the Navy’smost advanced warships, built around the high-tech Aegis combatsystem, which employs the latest anti-aircraft and anti-submarinetechnology.
It carries batteries of anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles, acannon that can launch five-inch shells more than 10 miles and twoGatling guns that each can fire 50 20mm shells per second.
Admiral Vernon Clark, chief of naval operations, said the ship’shull varies in thickness but is covered with half-inch steel at thewaterline that is capable of withstanding 51,000 pounds per squareinch where the powerful explosion ripped it open.
Tiny Image on Enemy Screens
The destroyer’s “vital spaces” are protected by 70 tons ofarmor, according to Jane’s Fighting Ships. Most of its exteriorwalls are slanted so they are less easily detected by enemy radar.With that and added anti-radar protection, it casts a tiny image onenemy radar screens.
The primary mission of the USS Cole is to defend some the Navy’sbiggest ships in aircraft carrier battle groups against multipleair, surface and submarine attacks.
It was blown open in the Yemen port of Aden early Thursday byone of the smallest crafts on the water. U.S. authorities wereinvestigating, but an early eyewitness account from an Army majorwho works at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen described the attackingvessel as a small rubber boat.
Shield of the Gods?
The destroyer, based at Norfolk, Va., is assigned to the USSGeorge Washington battle group now operating in the Persian Gulfregion. The ship commanded by Cmdr. Kirk S. Lippold left Norfolk inJune for a six-month deployment. It has a top speed of more than 33mph.
Named for the mythical shield of Zeus, the Aegis system is asuite of computer-linked radar and weaponry.
Unlike the standard radar with a rotating wand, Aegis’s SPY-1Dphased-array radar sends out a blizzard of impulses to create adigitized image of an operational area on large blue screens. Itscomputers can identify incoming enemy missiles or aircraft as faras 200 miles away.
Commissioned in 1996, the Cole was named after Sgt. Darrell S. Cole ofFlat River, Mo., a U.S. Marine hero killed at Iwo Jima the day30,000 landed, Feb. 19, 1945. Its motto: “Determined Warrior.”
Following an ancient shipbuilding tradition, the ultramodernCole reportedly carries coins embedded in its mast by Colerelatives: 67 cents for its hull number, including 1920 and 1945quarters for the years its namesake was born and died.
Tradition says the coins will ensure payment of the crew for thevoyage home in the event of mishap.