U.S. Navy Destroyer Named in Honor of Senator Sam Nunn

Posted May 6, 2019

Former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, namesake of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, has been honored by Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer who named a future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer after him.

“Senator Nunn’s impact on the Navy and Marine Corps team cannot be overstated,” Spencer said. “His leadership in the Senate, specifically as the long-serving chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, helped streamline the military chain of command and strengthen our Navy and Marine Corps team. I am pleased that Senator Nunn’s legacy of service to our nation will continue in the future USS Sam Nunn.”

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis response to sea control and power projection. USS Sam Nunn (DDG 133) will be capable of fighting air, surface and subsurface battles simultaneously, with offensive and defensive weapons systems designed to support maritime warfare, including integrated air and missile defense and vertical launch capabilities.

USS Sam Nunn (DDG 133) will be constructed by Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The ship will be 509 feet long, have a beam of 59 feet and be capable of traveling in excess of 30 knots.

From Perry, Georgia, Nunn served in the U.S. Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Reserve, and represented the state of Georgia in the U.S. Senate from 1972 to 1997. During his tenure as a senator, Nunn served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He helped draft the Department of Defense Reorganization Act and the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which provided assistance to Russia and the former Soviet republics for securing and destroying their excess nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

In 1996, Georgia Tech’s School of International Affairs was named for Senator Nunn who joined the College as a distinguished faculty member in Public Policy and International Affairs.

The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.