Career
Laid down:	24 August 1979
Launched:	30 May 1980
Commissioned:	23 October 1982
Decommissioned:	7 May 1999
Fate:	Berthed at Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility , Philadelphia, PA
Struck:	7 May 1999
General Characteristics
Displacement:	3638 tons
Length:	445 ft (136 m)
Beam:	45 ft (13.7 m)
Draught:	14 ft 9 in (4.5 m)
Propulsion:	2 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbines; 41,000 shp (30,600 kW); 1 shaft, cp propeller, 325 hp (242 kW) retractable propeller pods
Speed:	29 knots (54 km/h)
Range:
Complement:	206
Armament:	1 OTO Melara 76mm/62 (single) Mk 75, 1 Vulcan Phalanx CWIS, 4 x .50 cal (12.7 mm) MGs, 4 McDonnell Douglas Harpoon missiles36 GDC Pomona Standard SM-1MR missiles, 1 Mk 13 Mod 4 launcher for both, 6 x 324mm US Mk 32 (2 triple) tubes for 46 torpedoes

USS Stark (FFG-31), twenty-third ship of the Oliver Hazard Perry class of guided-missile frigates, was named for Admiral Harold Rainsford Stark (1880–1972).

Ordered from Todd Shipyards , San Pedro, California on 23 January 1978 as part of the FY78 program, Stark was laid down on 24 August 1979, launched on 30 May 1980, and commissioned on 23 October 1982. Decommissioned on 7 May 1999 and stricken the same day, Stark is currently awaiting disposal at Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, PA.

Stark (FFG-31) was the first ship of that name in the US Navy.

Stark was deployed to the Middle East Force in 1984 and 1987. She is remembered for the incident of May 17, 1987 when she was struck by two Exocet missiles from an Iraqi Mirage fighter during the Iran-Iraq War. The fighter had taken off from Shaibah at 20:00 and had flown south into the Persian Gulf. Shortly after being routinely challenged by the frigate at around 22:10 the fighter fired two Exocet ASM missiles. The frigate did not detect the missile attack and both missiles struck without warning. The first hit the port-side hull and left a three metre by four metre gash when it exploded in crew quarters; the second missile hit the superstructure of the frigate. Thirty-seven crew were killed and twenty-one were injured. Prior to the gun turret explosion onboard Iowa, it had been proclaimed as the worst US Naval peacetime disaster. The frigate was afire but this was brought under control by its crew during the night and the ship returned to Bahrain under her own power. $142 million was spent repairing the vessel.

Stark was part of the Standing Naval Forces Atlantic Fleet in 1990 before returning to the Middle East Force in 1991. She was attached to UNITAS in 1993 and took part in Operation Support Democracy and Operation Able Vigil in 1994. In 1995 she again returned to the Middle East Force before serving in the Atlantic again in 1997 and in 1998.

Further reading

• Missile Inbound, Levinson, Jeffrey L. and Randy L. Edwards, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press , 1997.