Official U.S. Navy website - Commander Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Greyhounds of the Sea. The destroyer evolved from the need of navies to counter a new ship which made a devastating debut in the Chilean Civil War of 1891 and in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894. This was the swift, small torpedo boat that could dash in close to the larger ships, loose their torpedoes and dash away. The world's navies recognized the need for a counter weapon and so the torpedo boat destroyer — later just "destroyer" — was born. From the first U.S. destroyer commissioned in 1902 to the famous ships of World War II to the Spruance-class to the Arleigh Burke-class, the U.S. Navy's destroyers have been evolving.

USS SHOUP (DDG 86) is the 36th ship in the Arleigh Burke class of Aegis guided missile destroyers, and the eighth Flight IIA Aegis destroyer. She is the sixteenth Aegis destroyer constructed by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems' Ingalls Operations. Her keel was laid on 13 December 1999 in Pascagoula, MS. She was launched on 22 November 2000, and delivered to the Navy on 19 February 2002. She was commissioned at Port Terminal 37 in Seattle, WA on 22 June 2002.

SHOUP was built to conduct simultaneous warfare operations in multi-threat environments to include air, surface, and subsurface targets.