Missing image USS_Nicholson;0598203.jpg USS Nicholson (DD-982)
Career
Awarded:	15 January 1974
Laid down:	20 February 1976
Launched:	11 November 1977
Commissioned:	12 May 1979
Decommissioned:	18 December 2002
Struck:	6 April 2004
Fate:	Sunk as a target, 30 July 2004
General Characteristics
Displacement:	9,184 tons full load
Length:	529 ft waterline; 563 ft overall (161, 172 m)
Beam:	55 ft (16.8 m)
Draft:	29 ft (8.8 m)
Propulsion:	4 × General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines; 80,000 shp (60 MW); 2 × shafts.
Speed:	32.5 knots (60 km/h)
Range:	6,000 nm (11,000 km) at 20 knots; 3,300 nm at 30 knots (56 km/h)
Complement:	19 officers, 315 enlisted
Armament:	2 × 5 inch (127 mm) 54 calibre Mark 45 dual purpose guns; 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS Mark 15 guns; 1 × 8 cell NATO Sea Sparrow Mark 29 missile launcher; 2 × quadruple Harpoon missile canisters.
Aircraft:	2 × SH-60B Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters.
Motto:

USS Nicholson (DD-982), a Spruance-class destroyer, was the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for a family which was prominent in early American naval history, including James Nicholson, the senior Continental Navy Captain, and Samuel Nicholson, the first captain of USS Constitution.

Nicholson was laid down on 20 February 1976 by the Ingalls Shipbuilding, in Pascagoula, Miss.; launched on 11 November 1977; and commissioned on 12 May 1979.

Nicholson was decommissioned 18 December 2002; stricken 6 April 2004; and sunk as a target 30 July 2004.

See USS Nicholson for other ships of the same name.

External links

• nvr.navy.mil: USS Nicholson (http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/DD982.htm)
• navsource.org: USS Nicholson (http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/982.htm)
• navysite.de: USS Nicholson (http://www.navysite.de/dd/dd982.htm)

Spruance-class destroyer

Spruance | Paul F. Foster | Kinkaid | Hewitt | Elliot | Arthur W. Radford | Peterson | Caron | David R. Ray | Oldendorf | John Young | Comte de Grasse | O'Brien | Merrill | Briscoe | Stump | Conolly | Moosbrugger | John Hancock | Nicholson | John Rodgers | Leftwich | Cushing | Harry W. Hill | O'Bannon | Thorn | Deyo | Ingersoll | Fife | Fletcher | Hayler

Kidd (Modified Spruance)-class destroyer Kidd | Callaghan | Scott | Chandler

List of destroyers of the United States Navy List of destroyer classes of the United States Navy