Rotation in Rota

After a two-week voyage, the USS Arleigh Burke arrived in her new home port of Rota on 11 April. At the end of March, she left her previous home in Norfolk for the last time for the next few years. On her way to Europe, the destroyer took part in several submarine hunting manoeuvres with her sister ship USS Roosevelt the attack submarine USS Vermont and a P-8A.
The Arleigh Burke is now an important component of the US European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) and thus serves to protect Europe from ballistic missiles of all ranges. It is also intended to guarantee freedom of navigation in the waters around Europe and Africa. For its new task, the type ship of the ship class built since 1988 was equipped with the latest version of the Aegis integrated fire control system, the Baseline 9, whose most important component is the AN/SPY-1 phased array radar system, which enables continuous surveillance of the airspace. The ships of the Arleigh-Burke-class are around 155 metres long. The Flight I, to which the type ship belongs, displaces almost 8200 tonnes.
With the relocation, the Arleigh Burke her sister Donald Cook which has been stationed in Rota, Spain, since 2014. It will be relocated back to Norfolk. Together with the soldiers in the crews, several hundred family members are also moving to Europe or back to the United States.

Text: mb; Photo: US Navy