Spruance class destroyer

Spruance-class destroyer

USS Fife (DD-991) in June 2002, shown with VLS cells.
Class overview
Name:	Spruance class
Builders:	Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi
Operators:	United States Navy
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:	6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) 3,300 nautical miles (6,100 km; 3,800 mi) at 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement:	19 officers, 315 enlisted
Sensors and processing systems:	AN/SPS-40 air search radar AN/SPG-60 fire control radar AN/SPS-55 surface search radar AN/SPQ-9 gun fire control radar Mk 23 TAS automatic detection and tracking radar AN/SPS-65 Missile fire control radar AN/SQS-53 bow mounted Active sonar AN/SQR-19 TACTAS towed array Passive sonar Naval Tactical Data System
Electronic warfare & decoys:	AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare System AN/SLQ-25 Nixie Torpedo Countermeasures Mark 36 SRBOC Decoy Launching System AN/SLQ-49 Inflatable Decoys AN/WLR 1 in DD-971 & DD-975.
Armament:	2 × 5-inch (127mm) 54 calibre Mark 45 dual purpose guns 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS Mark 15 guns 1 × 8 cell ASROC launcher 1 × 8 cell NATO Sea Sparrow Mark 29 missile launcher 2× quadruple Harpoon missile canisters 2 × Mark 32 triple 12.75 in (324 mm) torpedo tubes (Mk 46 torpedoes) 2 × quadruple ABL Mark 43 Tomahawk missile launchers (some ships of the class) 1 × 21 cell Rolling Airframe Missile launcher in some ships. A 61-cell Mark 41 VLS launcher for Tomahawk/ASROC missiles was fitted to 24 ships in place of the 8-cell ASROC launcher.
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).