To my surprise, this 2013 article claims 10 got RAM. I has not realized it was that many, and would have guessed only about 5:
https://laststandonzombieisland.com/2013/11/10/the-abandoned-destroyer-class-curse-of-the-spruances/
The last Spruance to decommission was the USS Cushing, in 2005. At that time, the Mod 2 (later 3) version of the 25mm gun was only just fielding:
https://www.navy.mil/Resources/Fact-Files/Display-FactFiles/Article/2167836/mk-38-25-mm-machine-gun-system/
So, it never made permanent installation aboard the Spruances.
The older Mod 0/1, manual 25mm, was deployed from rotating pools "in theater" and then dismounted again when the ship left the theater. So, it was not "standard equipment" for the class to begin with:
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_25mm_mk38.php
I looked at the Spruance model by SSModel.
I had built USS Fletcher as she was in 2002/03 and found the following items not depicted on the SSModel - and I had thought that these would be typical for a late Spruance:
a) no RAM
b) Phalanx above the bridge without the new "base" (as the rear one has on the SSModel kit; similar base to the one of the Phalanx on the Arleigh Burke class; for some reason never added to the Ticonderoga class)
c) no extension of the hangar on the starboard side
d) no 25 mm Bushmaster
Responses