The guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett fires its Mark 38 25mm machine gun during a live-fire exercise. The MK-38 is a 25-mm machine gun installed for ship self-defense to counter High Speed Maneuvering Surface Targets (HSMST). Also known as the “Bushmaster,” this weapon is a navalized version of the “Chain Gun®,” an externally-powered weapon developed by Hughes for the US Army as the Mark 242. Sterett is part of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group and is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and Pacific through the Western Indian Ocean and three critical chokepoints to the free flow of global commerce.
The weapon can be fired in both the single-shot mode and in automatic mode.The Mark 38 Machine Gun System (MGS) denotes the Mark 242 when mounted on the Mark 88 Single Mounting. The Mark 38 MGS was employed aboard various combatant and auxiliary ships in the Mid-East Force escort operations and during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The weapons are maintained in a rotatable pool, available for temporary installation on various deploying ships and permanent installation on certain amphibious and auxiliary ships, patrol craft and Coast Guard cutters. In the event of a major malfunction, the gun can be removed from the mount and another one installed in its place in five minutes by two people.
USS Sterett (DDG-104) is a Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy. USS Sterett is the fourth ship of the U.S. Navy to be named after Andrew Sterett, a U.S. naval officer who fought in the Quasi-War and the Barbary Wars. The contract to build USS Sterett was awarded to Bath Iron Works Corporation in Bath, Maine on 13 September 2002. On 17 November 2005, her keel was laid down, and she was christened on 19 May 2007. The ship’s sponsor was Michelle Sterett Bernson, a familial descendant of Andrew Sterett, who himself had no children. USS Sterett served as one of the filming locations for the TNT’s television series The Last Ship and its fictional setting, USS Nathan James (DDG-151).
