MAYPORT, Fla. (NNS) -- After nearly 30 years of honorable service to the
fleet, USS Spruance (DD 963) will be decommissioned during a ceremony at
Naval Station Mayport, March 23, at 10 a.m.

Thats a shame, but I guess it's about time.

My first Navy Ship the David R Ray was a Spruance class destroyer.

Joe

For a fighting ship that the whole crew relies on yes, but it has
noting to do with steel Bob, BB, Red Clod. I has more to do with weapon
systems and the changing mission of the USN.

Its called Modernization:

A Matter of Resources

In spring 2003, the Navy's force of surface combatants comprised 17
Spruance-class destroyers, 27 Ticonderoga-class cruisers, 33 Oliver
Hazard Perry-class frigates, and 38 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

With the demise of the Soviet fleet, Navy leaders have shifted their
attention to influencing events on land and operating in crowded
coastal regions. The Navy expects the next generation of ships to
reduce the risks that U.S. naval forces might face in that operating
environment (such as mines, quiet diesel-electric submarines, and
small, fast attack boats armed with antiship missiles) and to increase
the ability of those forces to attack targets on land.

The Navy's transformation plan would retire all Spruance-class
destroyers and the five oldest Ticonderoga-class cruisers by late
2006-well before the end of their expected service lives. It would also
upgrade the combat systems and reliability of the remaining
Ticonderogas and Perry-class frigates. The Navy's main focus, however,
is on buying 16 new, large multimission DD(X) destroyers, starting in
2005; 56 small, "focused mission" littoral combat ships (LCSs), also
starting in 2005; and an undetermined number of CG(X)s, the future
cruiser replacement, beginning around 2014. The envisioned inventory of
160 surface combatants would eventually consist of 88 cruisers and
destroyers capable of providing long-range air defense, as well as the
DD(X)s and LCSs.

This 160-ship plan would require greater resources than the surface
combatant force has received in recent years or would receive under the
president's budget request for fiscal year 2004. Under that plan, the
Navy would spend $3.2 billion in 2004-or about 28 percent of its
shipbuilding budget-to buy surface combatants. To implement the
160-ship plan, the Navy would need to spend an average of $5.9 billion
a year (in 2003 dollars) on procurement between 2003 and 2025, and that
amount does not include annual operating costs for surface combatants.

At the same time, other components of the Navy will also need greater
resources. Meeting the Navy's expansion goal of 375 ships would require
an average budget for ship construction of almost $20 billion in 2003
dollars a year between 2011 and 2020-or about $4 billion more than the
average required for the period from 2003 to 2010 and more than twice
what the Navy spent between 1990 and 2002. (The shortfall in the
ship-building budget since 1990 relative to the goal of building a
375-ship Navy is about $67 billion.)

In short, the Navy is proposing a major expansion of the surface
combatant force that will require considerable resources at the same
time that other ship programs will need more funding if current force
levels are to be maintained.

Joe

Vito wrote:
MAYPORT, Fla. (NNS) -- After nearly 30 years of honorable service to the
fleet, USS Spruance (DD 963) will be decommissioned during a ceremony at
Naval Station Mayport, March 23, at 10 a.m.


Dang, they're retiring those ships after only 30 years? Heck there were
plenty of WW2 era ships around when I was in, and the Spruances were
barely unwrapped yet! These new kids should learn how to take care of
their toys so they'll last longer!!

DSK

DSK wrote:
These new kids should learn how to take care of
their toys so they'll last longer!!

Doug remember the size of the computer in CIC? It was the size of a
refrigerator and about as 1/8 as powerful as todays average laptop.

It has more to do with the changing role of the Navy and the
advancement of weapons and electronics.

Joe


DSK

There were no computers in CIC on Knox Class Frigates.

Jay Santos

"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...

DSK wrote:
These new kids should learn how to take care of
their toys so they'll last longer!!

Doug remember the size of the computer in CIC? It was the size of a
refrigerator and about as 1/8 as powerful as todays average laptop.

It has more to do with the changing role of the Navy and the
advancement of weapons and electronics.

Joe


DSK

Red Cloud=A9 wrote:
On 23 Mar 2005 13:14:45 -0800, "Joe" wrote:

For a fighting ship that the whole crew relies on yes,


Agreed!

rusty

Boobsie, Stick to something you know about...like baby powder, breat
feeding ect..

Joe
MSV RedCloud
A boat to envy!

"Joe" wrote
Doug remember the size of the computer in CIC? It was the size of a
refrigerator and about as 1/8 as powerful as todays average laptop.


I didn't spend much time in CIC but I remember several computers in
there. The one I remember best was the signal analyzer for the SLQ-32
electronic warfare & countermeasures system, it was about the size of 2
fridges. I don't know how much memory or what kind of processor it had
but it used those old 8" floppy disks.

It has more to do with the changing role of the Navy and the
advancement of weapons and electronics.


Not really, it has more to do with the fact that the Navy has found
manpower to be more expensive than hardware... especially well trained
manpower. Used to be it was no big deal for a rating to put in 20+ hours
per week on maintenance in addition to any repair work, training &
watches. Nowadays they barely can get people to stand watches, and hire
civilians to do all the work. It's partly because of the "profit motive"
of today's gov't too.

The Ticonderoga class cruisers are awesome platforms for all the tasks
the Navy says they "need" new ships for.

Jay Santos wrote:
There were no computers in CIC on Knox Class Frigates.

Bull feathers. What do you think the NTDS and LINK-4 were hooked up to?
I may have been an engineer but I spent enough time in CIC to know better.

Actually there were several TRS-80s in CIC and Fox, and a Mac in
DC-Central back when I was riding around on one of these (mid 1980s),
used for various official functions. Then there were the unofficial
machines... the Chief's mess had an Atari for playing video games, the
ET shop had a PC-Jr, I had a C-64 in the cal lab.

Regards
Doug King, ex-BT1(SW)

"DSK" wrote in message
. ..

Jay Santos wrote:
There were no computers in CIC on Knox Class Frigates.

Bull feathers. What do you think the NTDS and LINK-4 were hooked up to?
I may have been an engineer but I spent enough time in CIC to know better.

The SLQ-32 came out in 1979. There was no such thing as NTDS, LINK-4 or
SLQ-32 in the mid 70's. That was before spray rails too. 8 inch floppies
were invented in 1971(?), I doubt you would see them on an FF in 1975. No
computers except a YUK on the helo and an analog gun computer, 18 equations,
18 unknowns. There was a computer for the SQS-26 in the sonar room. I was in
10 years before you were.



Actually there were several TRS-80s in CIC and Fox, and a Mac in
DC-Central back when I was riding around on one of these (mid 1980s),
used for various official functions. Then there were the unofficial
machines... the Chief's mess had an Atari for playing video games, the
ET shop had a PC-Jr, I had a C-64 in the cal lab.

Regards
Doug King, ex-BT1(SW)

Jay Santos wrote:
..... I was in
10 years before you were.


That would explain it.

DSK