USS Cushing (DD-985)
 The Cushing off Ko Phuket , August 2004 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | 15th January 1974 |
| Keel laying | 2nd February 1977 |
| Launch | June 17, 1978 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | September 21, 1979 |
| Decommissioning | September 21, 2005 |
| Whereabouts | Sunk in 2008 as a target ship |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
8040 tons |
| length |
172 meters |
| width |
16.8 meters |
| Draft |
8.8 meters |
| crew |
19 officers, 315 sailors |
| drive |
2 propellers, driven by 4 gas turbines; 80,000 hp |
| speed |
32.5 knots |
| Armament |
2 × Mark 45 lightweight guns , 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS , 1 × RUR-5 ASROC (removed after conversion), 1 × RIM-7 Sea Sparrow , 2 × AGM-84 Harpoon , 2 × torpedo tubes with Mark-46- Lightweight torpedoes , after conversion 2 × Armored Box Launcher |
The USS Cushing (DD-985) was a the Spruance-class destroyer belonging destroyer of the US Navy , which was found in September 1979 in service. The ship remained in service for 26 years until September 2005 and was the last decommissioned unit of the Spruance class. On July 14, 2008, the Cushing was sunk as a target ship.
history
The Cushing was commissioned on January 15, 1974 as the 23rd ship of the Spruance class and laid down on February 2, 1977 in the shipyard of Ingalls Shipbuilding . The launch took place on June 17, 1978. On September 21, 1979, the ship could be put into service in San Diego , after it had to leave its shipyard because of Hurricane Frederic and with part of its future crew and employees of the shipyard in the Gulf of Mexico anchored.
The Cushing belonged to the United States Pacific Fleet and became the flagship of Destroyer Squadron 31 for anti-submarine combat. During the 1990s, the ship served as a test object for stabilizers of the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center , which actually represented an improvement in sea behavior and therefore found their way into the subsequent Arleigh Burke class .
As part of a restructuring, Cushing moved to Destroyer Squadron 5 in 1995 . In 1996 the prototype of a new mine control detection system was installed on board. In the same year, exercises with the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) took place. In 1997 exercises followed in the Persian Gulf .
In March 1998, Yokosuka became the new home port of the ship that had previously been stationed in Pearl Harbor since 1991 . Four exercises followed in the western Pacific and one in the South Atlantic. In the same year, the Cushing took part in exercise CARAT 98 , during which naval forces from several countries in Southeast Asia were present.
In March 1999, the ship completed exercises with the United States Seventh Fleet . In the same year it was part of the multinational sea maneuver Tandem Thrust 99 , in which the decommissioned light cruiser USS Oklahoma City (CL-91) was sunk.
The Cushing spent the last years of service with further training assignments. As the last unit of the Spruance class, the ship was decommissioned on September 21, 2005 exactly 26 years after commissioning and transferred to the reserve fleet . A planned sale to Turkey did not materialize. Instead, the Cushing was sunk on July 14, 2008 as part of a RIMPAC maneuver together with other retired Spruance-class units and the USS Horne (CG-30) as a target ship.
Web links
- Entry on Cushing on navsource.org (English)
- Entry on Cushing on navysite.de (English)