International Shipbreaking Limited, LLC, part of BMRA member EMR, will break a further two US naval ships. The USS Hawes (FFG 53) will be recycled after 25 years of service and the USS Barry (DD 933), which was launched on 1 October 1955.

The USS Hawes took part in many operations in her 25-year career, most notably after she was reassigned to Destroyer Squadron 22 in 1998. In 2000, the USS Hawes assisted the USS Cole (DDG-67) when two al-Qaeda terrorists attacked her while she docked for refuelling in the Port of Aden. The terrorists, moored alongside Cole in an inflatable speedboat, detonated an explosive which killed 17 sailors and wounded over 30 more. Hawes along with the USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) offered immediate damage control which helped to save Cole. Shortly after, Hawes took part in ‘Operation Determined Response’, in which along with USS Tarawa (LHA-1), USS Anchorage (LSD-36), USS Duluth (LPD-6), USNS Catawba (T-ATF-168) and British frigates HMS Cumberland (F85) and HMS Marlborough (F233), offered further assistance to help repair Cole. In the final years of her service, Hawes carried out counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic, supporting in the seizure of 200 barrels of cocaine in 2009. 

The USS Barry has taken part in many operations in service to her country including the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and the Vietnam War in 1965 and 1966. After she was commissioned in July 1956, she first operated as part of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, returning in 1958 during the Lebanon Crisis. In 1959, she was fitted with a large SQS-23 sonar which led to her spending the next three years carrying out sonar tests and anti-submarine warfare demonstrations in the Atlantic and Northern European seas. In 1968, the newly recommissioned USS Barry set sail for the Mediterranean Sea where she spent most of the 1970s, most notably being present during the 1973 Middle Eastern War and the 1974 Cyprus Crisis. She was decommissioned in November 1982 after 26 years’ service. Since being decommissioned, USS Barry (DD 933) spent 32 years on display in our nation’s capital docked along the Potomac River at the Washington Navy yard. After departing for her final journey from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where she has been moored since 2016, the destroyer arrived at the Port of Brownsville on October 15, 2020.

Chris Green, Senior Manager at International Shipbreaking Ltd LLC, said: "Prior to accepting a ship recycling project, we conduct an assessment to determine what hazardous and regulated materials are on-board, and what recyclable metals are present. From this assessment a plan is formed for abatement and disposal of all waste materials and recycling the ship in a safe and environmentally sound manner.

“Here at International Shipbreaking, we are proud the US Navy continues to trust in us as a responsible green ship recycler.”

The Brownsville site is one of three shipbreaking facilities on the Gulf of Mexico with two more located in Louisiana and New Orleans. Each have specialist technologies, which enable them to safely, respectfully and responsibly strip and recycle these vast structures with minimal environmental impact.