Spruance class
 The Kinkaid off the California coast, 2002 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | destroyer |
| units | 31 |
| Namesake | Admiral Raymond A. Spruance |
| period of service |
1975 to 2005 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
9100 tn.l. |
| length |
171.6 meters |
| width |
16.8 meters |
| Draft |
9.8 meters |
| crew |
30 officers, 350 sailors |
| drive |
2 propellers driven by four gas turbines ( COGAG ); 80,000 wave horsepower |
| speed |
33 knots |
| Range |
6000 nautical miles at 20 knots |
| Armament |
2 guns, 2 Harpoon starters, |
The Spruance-class was a class of destroyers in the United States Navy that was built from 1972. A total of 31 units were completed and were in service until 2005. Their main task was the escort of aircraft carriers and especially the defense against enemy submarines. They were the first large units in the Navy to take advantage of gas turbine propulsion ( COGAG ).
history
Planning & construction
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At the end of the 1960s, the US Navy had a need for destroyers that could be used in the aircraft carrier combat groups primarily for anti-submarine hunting and also for air defense. This was necessary because the destroyers from WWII, which had been modernized in the FRAM program (mainly Allen-M.-Sumner-class and Gearing-class ), were to be decommissioned in the 1970s.
The draft was heavily attacked in the US Congress , largely because it appeared underarmed for its size. Nevertheless, Congress approved the construction of 30 units for the time being, financed from the budget years 1970 to 1975, at a price of around $ 145 million (dollar exchange rate 1980) each. The order was completely awarded to the Ingalls Shipbuilding shipyard in Pascagoula , Mississippi , as a so-called Total Package Procurement . This means that the order was awarded to a shipyard in large numbers, which was primarily intended to reduce costs. Ingalls was also responsible for the entire further planning after the construction and the procurement and equipping with the weapon systems.
The ships were named after American naval personalities, the type ship and thus also the class after Raymond A. Spruance , an admiral who commanded an aircraft carrier task force during the Pacific War . The destroyers were given the code DD (for destroyers ), although due to the armament DDG ( guided missile destroyer ) would have been correct.
At the beginning of construction, the new, so-called large- section construction method led to technical problems at the shipyard, which delayed the scheduling by approx. Two years, so that the last of the originally planned 30 units was put into service in 1980 with a delay of around two years has been. In 1979 a 31st unit was approved, which, according to initial plans, should receive a modified hangar structure in order to be able to accommodate more helicopters. However, since too few helicopters were available anyway, the USS Hayler (DD-997) was put into service in 1983 as the only "straggler" in its original design.
Modifications
The Spruance class was equipped with more modern weapon systems in the mid-1980s, which allowed the ships to attack land targets.
The ships of the Kidd class are generally seen as a class of their own . Technically, however, they belong to the Spruance class, have only one armament that is more designed for air defense. They were built for Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , but could not be delivered by Ruhollah Khomeini before the 1979 revolution and so were put into service with the US Navy.
The USS Arthur W. Radford (DD-968) was used from 1997 as a test ship for a new mast structure; A prototype of the Advanced Enclosed Mast / Sensor was installed on it.
period of service
The first ships of the Spruance class were put into service in 1975, and 30 more units followed by 1983. Thus, the Spruances replaced the ships of the Forrest Sherman class , which went out of service in the 1980s and together with the 10 units of the Farragut class and the 23 units of the Charles F. Adams class formed the destroyer fleet of the Navy.
The original lifetime of the Spruances was supposed to be 30 years, so the class would have stayed in service until 2013. Instead, the first seven units that had not been in service for 20 years at the time were decommissioned in 1998. These seven units had already been largely overlooked when the weapons systems were modernized and only equipped with an interim solution. The remaining 24 units were decommissioned between October 2000 and September 2005, as the Arleigh Burke class ships replaced those of the Spruance class .
Ultimately, the early retirement can be seen as a pure measure to reduce costs, the operating costs were around $ 35 million per year in 1996. Almost all of the ships were either sold to be dismantled or sunk as a target ship. Only the ex-USS Paul F. Foster is still in use as a test ship today.
technology
hull
The hull of the Spruance class was 172 meters long and 16.8 meters wide. The draft was 8.8 meters. The fuselage displaced more than 8,000 tons when fully loaded and just under 6,000 tons when empty. The tall, large superstructures made the ships susceptible to wind, especially at low speeds (berthing, supply on the high seas). The large vertical surfaces of these superstructures reflected incident radar radiation very strongly, making the ships of this class easy to locate. This lack of stealth is often cited as one of the reasons the US Navy separated from these ships relatively early on.
In the front deckhouse were the command rooms, i.e. the bridge and, directly below, the CIC ( Command Information Center ), the command center in which the commander monitored the tactical situation. Aft was the captain's cabin, further behind the reconnaissance and radio rooms. A hangar for two helicopters was located in the aft deckhouse. Below deck, exactly amidships, were the engine rooms, in front of and behind the quarters for the crews. About the astern engine room, under the helipad were measuring . The magazines for weapon systems were also located below deck.
The design of the hull is considered successful, so that it was also used in the guided missile cruisers of the Ticonderoga class .
drive
The Spruance-class were the first large ships in the US Navy to be equipped with gas turbines . The COGAG propulsion system consisted of four General Electric LM 2500 gas turbines that acted on two propellers with a diameter of 15 ft (approx. 4.5 meters). These had a speed of 168 min −1 at a speed of 30 knots . The gas turbine drive was chosen because it is relatively easy to maintain and replace, and the system also requires fewer staff than the previously used ( Parsons ) steam turbines with the associated boilers . In addition, the noise emissions are lower, which makes it difficult for submarines to detect the ships. With only one running turbine, the ships could already reach 19 knots, with two up to 27 knots. All four systems were only needed for top speed.
Three smaller gas turbines together generated six megawatts for the electrical systems on board.
Armament
At the time of commissioning, the ships were considered to be underarmed for their size. At the time they were equipped with two Mark 45 12.7 cm guns with a length of 54 caliber. This weapon can be used at ranges of up to 13 nautical miles (24 km) against surface targets and, to a limited extent, against air targets. It has a rate of fire of 16 to 20 rounds per minute, 600 projectiles are available per gun. Amidships were two starters for four AGM-84 Harpoon each for use against enemy ships, and aft under the landing deck was a starter Mark 29 for a total of 24 RIM-7 Sea Sparrow against air targets. For anti-submarine defense, there were three torpedo tubes on each side amidships, which could fire the Mark 46 lightweight torpedo, of which 18 torpedoes were on board. In addition, a Mark 112 starter for ASROC was installed directly in front of the deckhouse for use against submarines . In addition to the eight rocket torpedoes in the starter, there were 16 more in the magazine.
The ASROC starter was replaced on the 24 units that received a comprehensive modernization from the mid-1980s by the Mk 41 Vertical Launching System , which contained 45 BGM-109 Tomahawk against land targets and 16 ASROC. Instead, two Armored Box Launcher with four Tomahawk each were placed next to the old ASROC starter on the other seven Spruance . In addition, a close-range defense system of the Phalanx type was installed on each of the two deckhouses , which could be used at short range against approaching missiles. After 2000, some of the still active units received a single starter for RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile on the Fantail.
electronics
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The aerial target radar on board the vessels was a SPS-40 of Lockheed , which was installed on the rear mast and has a range of around 200 miles. On the front mast was the SPS-55 , which was used as a sea target radar. The SPQ-9A radar from Norden Systems , the antenna of which was located in a spherical radome , served together with the SPG-60 for the fire control of the weapons.
The sonar system on board was the SQS-53 , which can be used both actively and passively and was located directly in the bow. In addition, a towing sonar of the type SQR-19 was retrofitted on all units . The data from the sonar systems were then merged in the SQQ-89 anti- submarine system. A torpedo decoys of the type AN / SLQ-25 Nixie could also be towed , which imitates the sounds of the ship and is thus supposed to direct torpedoes at itself.
The systems for electronic warfare consisted of the AN / SLQ-32 . The antennas can be used for telecommunications and electronic reconnaissance and as jammers . The SLQ-32 package also includes the Mk 36 SRBOC , which shoots chaffs and flares into the air that are intended to deflect approaching missiles away from the ship with both radar and infrared seekers.
Aircraft
Two helicopters could be carried on board. These took off and landed on the deck behind the superstructure, in which there was space for two helicopters. At the beginning there were two Kaman SH-2 Seasprites , from 1979 onwards experiments began with the more versatile Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk , which was used exclusively from the mid-1980s.
Mission profile
The ships of the Spruance class were mainly built as escorts for the aircraft carrier combat groups , so they were tailored to this task. So they should be used primarily against submarines, which is why they were classified as destroyers . However, the class did not fit into the traditional concept of the destroyer, as the ships could also be used actively against air targets and, through the Harpoon , against other surface ships. Ultimately, the classification as a destroyer is based on the task assigned to it and not on the skills and size, which qualified the class as a cruiser , especially since the ships were also able to attack land targets.
During their service time, two Spruance were usually integrated into each combat group around an aircraft carrier . As part of this, some ships used the Tomahawk cruise missiles against targets in Iraq , both in the Second and Third Gulf Wars . Other missions of Spruance-class ships included missions off Lebanon in the mid-1980s, enforcement of UN sanctions against Iraq by boarding freighters in the Persian Gulf, and participation in the combat groups that changed the situation after the 1995 and 1996 Monitored missile tests of the PRC in Formosa Street.
Accidents
Several ships ran aground, including in 1989 the USS Spruance (DD-963) , which was driven aground in strong winds off the Bahamas and had to be repaired for 1.4 million dollars. There were also collisions, for example the USS Kinkaid (DD-965) collided with a freighter in the Strait of Malacca in 1989 , causing a fire to break out on both ships, causing $ 15 million damage to Kinkaid and one sailor that Cost life. In 1999 the USS Arthur W. Radford (DD-968) collided with a RoRo container ship off the American east coast . The damage, a hole on the starboard side and damage to a gun and the VLS, had to be repaired for over 32 million dollars.
literature
- Michael C. Potter: Electronic Greyhounds: The Spruance-Class Destroyers , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD 1995; ISBN 1-55750-682-5 .
Web links
- Spruance class on globalsecurity.org (English)
- Spruance class on navysite.de (English)
