DD-963 USS Spruance at sea

IMHO the "Spruance"'s were a great design and hugely capable, retired many years too early and with plenty of room in the hull for upgrades. One of the strangest ideas for them to be retired so early and to also then be got rid of with unseemly haste.

USS SPRUANCE was the lead ship of the SPRUANCE class of destroyers and the first ship in the Navy named after Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance. Decommissioned on March 23, 2005, the SPRUANCE was subsequently laid-up in Philadelphia, Penn. On December 8, 2006, the destroyer was sunk as a target off the Virginia Capes. USS SPRUANCE was the longest-serving ship in her class.

General Characteristics: Awarded: June 23, 1970
Keel laid: November 27, 1972
Launched: November 10, 1973
Commissioned: September 20, 1975
Decommissioned: March 23, 2005
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding, West Bank, Pascagoula, Miss.
Propulsion system: four General Electric LM 2500 gas turbine engines
Propellers: two
Blades on each Propeller: five
Length: 564,3 feet (172 meters)
Beam: 55,1 feet (16.8 meters)
Draft: 28,9 feet (8.8 meters)
Displacement: approx. 9,200 tons full load
Speed: 30+ knots
Aircraft: two SH-60B Seahawk (LAMPS 3)
Armament: two Mk 45 5-inch/54 caliber lightweight guns, one MK 41 VLS for Tomahawk, ASROC and Standard missiles, Mk 46 torpedoes (two triple tube mounts), Harpoon missile launchers, one Sea Sparrow launcher, one Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) System, two 20mm Phalanx CIWS
Crew: approx. 340


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