Spruance-class destroyer
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USS Fife (DD-991) in June 2002, shown with VLS cells.
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| Class overview | |
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| Name: | Spruance class |
| Builders: | Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi |
| Operators: |
 United States Navy
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| Preceded by: | Charles F. Adams class |
| Succeeded by: | Arleigh Burke class |
| Subclasses: | Kidd class |
| Built: | 1972–1983 |
| In commission: | 1975–2005 |
| Completed: | 31 |
| Active: | 1 (Paul F. Foster) as SDTS |
| Retired: | 30 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Destroyer |
| Displacement: | 8,040 (long) tons full load |
| Length: | 529 ft (161 m) waterline; 563 ft (172 m) overall |
| Beam: | 55 ft (16.8 m) |
| Draft: | 29 ft (8.8 m) |
| Propulsion: | 4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 80,000 shp (60 MW) |
| Speed: | 32.5 knots (60 km/h) |
| Range: |
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| Complement: | 19 officers, 315 enlisted |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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| Electronic warfare & decoys: |
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| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 2 x Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters. |
| Aviation facilities: | Flight deck and enclosed hangar for up to two medium-lift helicopters |
The Spruance-class destroyer was developed by the United States to replace a large number of World War II–built Allen M. Sumner and Gearing-class destroyers and was the primary destroyer built for the U.S. Navy during the 1970s.
First commissioned in 1975, the class was designed with gas-turbine propulsion, a flight deck and hangar for up to two medium-lift helicopters, all-digital weapons systems, and automated 5-inch guns. Serving for three decades, the Spruance class was designed to escort a carrier group with a primary ASW mission, though in the 1990s 24 members of the class were upgraded with the Mark 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) for the Tomahawk surface-to-surface missile. Rather than extend the life of the class, the Navy accelerated its retirement. The last ship of the class was decommissioned in 2005, with most examples broken up or destroyed as targets.
The class was originally designed for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) with point defense anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) missiles; upgrades provided anti-ship and land attack capabilities.
The ships were initially controversial, especially among members of the United States Congress who believed that their unimposing looks, with only two guns and an ASROC or Armored Box Launcher (ABL) missile launcher per ship implied that the vessels were weak compared to Soviet designs which carried large numbers of anti-ship missiles. The Spruance-class was also unfavorable compared to earlier U.S. designs which had more visible guns or launchers for the Standard medium range missiles. Despite the criticism they were successful in their intended ASW role. Despite their "DD" designation in the hull classification symbol system which was previously applied to gun destroyers, their primary armament as designed was missiles. However the Spruance class as designed carried anti-aircraft missiles only sufficient for point defense, compared to other American destroyers designated as DDG which were designed to provide anti-aircraft warfare screening to the fleet while some newer ships also added powerful surface-to-surface capabilities. A major update in the 1990s added a Vertical Launch Missile System (VLS) for the Tomahawk surface-to-surface missile which modernized the vessels to a strike destroyer standard. However, the Spruance class still lacked the anti-aircraft capabilities of guided-missile cruisers (CG and CGN) and destroyers (DDG).
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Wikipedia