The future Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Sam Nunn (DDG 133) is named to honor Samuel Augustus Nunn Jr., a former U.S. senator from Georgia and co-founder of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Nunn is known for his work as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he drafted legislation to secure and destroy excess nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Nunn also served in the U.S. Coast Guard and in the Coast Guard Reserve prior to beginning his political career.
A native of Georgia, Nunn served in the Georgia House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. During his tenure as senator, Nunn served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. His legislative achievements include the landmark 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 all, the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program deactivated more than 7,600 nuclear warheads.
Arleigh Burke-class destroyers conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis response to sea control and power projection. The future 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.