USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) is the third Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer in the United States Navy and the first ship of the class homeported on the west coast.

The ship was subjected to a series of close range explosions in order for the Navy to obtain critical information concerning the survivability of the DDG-51 class in a shock environment.

[5] On 7 October 2001, John Paul Jones launched the first Tomahawk missiles into Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

[8] On 10 June 2011, she anchored off the coast of Malibu, California, at the beginning of a three-day celebration called Navy Days designed to thank the sailors and their families for their service to the country.

[15] On 3 February 2017, John Paul Jones completed a ballistic missile intercept in a test off the west coast of Hawaii.

[18] In written fiction, John Paul Jones appeared in 2034: A Novel of the Next World War by Elliot Ackerman and James G. Stavridis, where the ship is ambushed and nearly sunk by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy in the South China Sea.