Career
Ordered:	21 January, 1972
Laid down:	22 February 1972
Launched:	31 July 1976
Commissioned:	5 August 1978
Decommissioned:	28 July 1997
Fate:	Nuclear Recycling
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	approx. 11,300 tons full load
Length:	585 feet (178 meters)
Beam:	63 feet (19.2 meters)
Draught:	31,5 feet (9.6 meters)
Propulsion:	two D2G General Electric nuclear reactors
Speed:	30+ knots
Range:
Complement:	39 Officers, 539 Enlisted
Armament:	two Mk-26 missile launcher for Standard missiles (MR) and ASROC, two Mk-141 Harpoon missile launchers, two armored box launchers for Tomahawk ASM/LAM, Mk-46 torpedoes from two triple mounts, two 5-inch/54 caliber Mk-45 lightweight guns, two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, four machine guns
Aircraft:	None
Motto:

USS Mississippi (CGN-40) was a Virginia class nuclear powered guided missile armed cruiser laid down by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry-dock Corporation at Newport News in Virginia on 22 February 1975, launched on 31 July 1976 and commissioned on 5 August 1978. USS Mississippi was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 July 1997 and is scheduled to enter the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program on 1 October 2004.