Description: These fast warships provide multi-mission offensive and defensive capabilities, and can operate independently or as part of carrier battle groups, surface action groups, amphibious ready groups, and underway replenishment groups.

Features: Destroyers and guided missile destroyers operate in support of carrier battle groups, surface action groups, amphibious groups and replenishment groups. Destroyers primarily perform anti-submarine warfare duty while guided missile destroyers are multi-mission [Anti-Air Warfare (AAW), Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), and Anti-Surface Warfare (ASUW)] surface combatants. The addition of the Mk-41 Vertical Launch System or Tomahawk Armored Box Launchers (ABLs) to many Spruance-class destroyers has greatly expanded the role of the destroyer in strike warfare.

Background: Technological advances have improved the capability of modern destroyers culminating in the Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) class. Named for the Navy's most famous destroyer squadron combat commander and three-time Chief of Naval Operations, the Arleigh Burke was commissioned July 4, 1991, and was the most powerful surface combatant ever put to sea. Like the larger Ticonderoga class cruisers, DDG 51's combat systems center around the Aegis combat system and the SPY-lD, multi-function phased array radar. The combination of Aegis, the Vertical Launching System, an advanced anti-submarine warfare system, advanced anti-aircraft missiles and Tomahawk, the Burke class continues the revolution at sea.

The DDG 51 class incorporates all-steel construction. In 1975, the cruiser USS Belknap (CG 26) collided with USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67). Belknap suffered severe damage and casualties because of her aluminum superstructure. On the basis of that event, the decision was made that all future surface combatants would return to a steel superstructure. And, like most modern U.S. surface combatants, DDG 51 utilizes gas turbine propulsion. These ships replaced the older Charles F. Adams and Farragut-class guided missile destroyers.

The Spruance-class destroyers, the first large U.S. Navy warships to employ gas turbine engines as their main propulsion system, are undergoing extensive modernizing. The upgrade program includes addition of vertical launchers for advanced missiles on 24 ships of this class, in addition to an advanced ASW system and upgrading of its helicopter capability. Spruance-class destroyers are expected to remain a major part of the Navy's surface combatant force into the 21st century.


General Characteristics, Arleigh Burke class

Builders: Bath Iron Works, Ingalls Shipbuilding
Power Plant: Four General Electric LM 2500-30 gas turbines; two shafts, 100,000 total shaft horsepower.
SPY-1 Radar and Combat System Integrator: Lockheed Martin
Length:

Flights I and II (DDG 51-78): 505 feet (153.92 meters)

Flight IIA (DDG 79-98): 509½ feet (155.29 meters)
Beam: 59 feet (18 meters)
Displacement:

Hulls 51 through 71: 8,315 tons (8,448.04 metric tons) full load

Hulls 72 through 78: 8,400 tons (8,534.4 metric tons) full load

Hulls 79 and on: 9,200 tons (9,347.2 metric tons) full load
Speed: in excess of 30 knots
Aircraft: None. LAMPS III electronics installed on landing deck for coordinated DDG 51/helo ASW operations
Ships:
USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51), Norfolk, Va.
USS Barry (DDG 52), Norfolk, Va.
USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53), San Diego, Calif.
USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54), Yokosuka, Japan
USS Stout (DDG 55), Norfolk, Va.
USS John S. McCain (DDG 56), Yokosuka, Japan
USS Mitscher (DDG 57), Norfolk, Va.
USS Laboon (DDG 58), Norfolk, Va.
USS Russell (DDG 59), Pearl Harbor, HI
USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60), Pearl Harbor, HI
USS Ramage (DDG 61), Norfolk, Va.
USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62), San Diego, Calif.
USS Stethem (DDG 63), San Diego, Calif.
USS Carney (DDG 64), Mayport, Fla.
USS Benfold (DDG 65), San Diego, Calif.
USS Gonzalez (DDG 66), Norfolk, Va.
USS Cole (DDG 67), Norfolk, Va.
USS The Sullivans (DDG 68), Mayport, Fla.
USS Milius (DDG 69), San Diego, Calif.
USS Hopper (DDG 70), Pearl Harbor, HI
USS Ross (DDG 71), Norfolk, Va.
USS Mahan (DDG 72), Norfolk, Va.
USS Decatur (DDG 73), San Diego, Calif.
USS McFaul (DDG 74), Norfolk, Va.
USS Donald Cook (DDG 75), Norfolk, Va.
USS Higgins (DDG 76), San Diego, Calif.
USS O'Kane (DDG 77), Pearl Harbor Hawaii
USS Porter (DDG 78), Norfolk, Va.
USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79), Norfolk, Va.
USS Roosevelt (DDG 80), Mayport, Fla.
USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81), Norfolk, Va.
USS Lassen (DDG 82), San Diego, Calif.
USS Howard (DDG 83), San Diego, Calif.
USS Bulkeley (DDG 84), Norfolk, Va.
USS McCampbell (DDG 85), San Diego, Calif.
USS Shoup (DDG 86), Everett, Wa.
USS Mason (DDG 87), Norfolk, Va.
USS Preble (DDG 88), San Diego, Calif.
USS Mustin (DDG 89), San Diego, Calif.
USS Chafee (DDG 90), Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
USS Pinckney (DDG 91), San Diego, Calif.
USS Momsen (DDG 92), San Diego, Calif.
USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93), San Diego, Calif.
USS Nitze (DDG 94), Norfolk, Va.
USS James E. Williams (DDG 95), Norfolk, Va.
Bainbridge (DDG 96)
Halsey (DDG 97)
Forrest Sherman (DDG 98)
Farragut (DDG 99)
Kidd (DDG 100)
Gridley (DDG 101)
Sampson (DDG 102)
Truxtun (DDG 103)
Sterett (DDG 104)
Dewey (DDG 105)
Crew: 23 officers, 300 enlisted
Armament: Standard missile; Harpoon; Vertical Launch ASROC (VLA) missiles; Tomahawk^®; six Mk-46 torpedoes (from two triple tube mounts); one 5"/54 caliber Mk-45 (lightweight gun); two 20mm Phalanx CIWS
Date Deployed: July 4, 1991 (USS Arleigh Burke)

General Characteristics, Spruance class

Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding
Power plant: Four General Electric LM 2500 gas turbines, two shafts, 80,000 shaft horsepower
Length: 563 feet (171.6 meters)
Beam: 55 feet (16.8 meters)
Displacement: 8,040 tons (8,168.64 metric tons) full load
Speed: in excess of 30 knots
Aircraft: Two SH-60 Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters
Ships:
USS O'Brien (DD 975), Yokosuka, Japan
USS Cushing (DD 985), Yokosuka, Japan
USS O'Bannon (DD 987), Mayport, Fla.
Crew: 30 officers, 352 enlisted
Armament: 8 Harpoon (from 2 quad launchers), Tomahawk^®, VLS or ABL; Vertical Launch ASROC (VLA) missiles; six Mk-46 torpedoes (from 2 triple tube mounts); two 5"/54 caliber Mk-45 (lightweight gun); two 20mm Phalanx CIWS
Kidd class only: Standard missiles; NATO Sea Sparrow point defense AAW missiles
Date Deployed:
Sept. 20, 1975 (USS Spruance)