USS Ramage is an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy, bearing the hull number DDG-61. She was the tenth of her class built, named after Vice Admiral Lawson P. Ramage, USN, a Medal of Honor awardee in the second world war. She was commissioned in 1996 and is homeported in Norfolk, Virginia as part of the Navy's Atlantic Fleet. Her motto is Par Excellence.
All in all, Ramage is very much a typical example of the Arleigh Burke class, fitted with extensive offensive and defensive armament and a comprehensive command and control suite including no less than four separate satellite communication systems. Ramage's primary mission is area air defense, to protect an aircraft carrier or amphibious assault ship from enemy aircraft and anti-ship missiles. She is also equipped for ballistic missile defense using the SM-3 missile system, land attack using the BGM-109 Tomahawk, anti-surface warfare using the RGM-84 Harpoon and the RIM-66 Standard and anti-submarine warfare using vertical launched ASROC and torpedoes. She also carries a Mark 45 127mm/L54 gun which can be used for anti-air, anti-ship or land attack work.
At present she is one of the Navy's most frequently deployed warships, for a variety of reasons both too sensitive and too stupid to go into here. This is a cause of great consternation to her officers and crew. I should know, as the ship's LAN Administrator and a noncommissioned officer of her crew.