
Another feature of Navy upgrades is that you'll find they insist on backfitting new systems onto oldest ships coming in for maintenace, and literally working their way forward to the newer ships in chronological order as they each come into the yard. Thus, SPQ-9B began appearing on about DDG-79, and then worked up through DDG-80, 81, etc. However, it was successful enough that a decision was made to "jump," and now it also is being installed from DDG-119 forward as well. That's a bit unusual, but it seems to be a "good system." So, you'll see the system get added with time to the ships before DDG-119, but also find it on all new builds.
After WWII, we had a huge surplus of hulls, many in mothballs. It was then easy to "grab" a hull and stick some new system on it and test it out, while new construction was uninvolved. We no longer have that luxury, nor yard capability, etc. New tech frequently has to be tried out on production and in service vessels. This is how the Navy handles that; backfitting older ships first. With the carrier catapult, arrestor, elevator, propulsion, etc. systems, those weren't "backfittable." The new EMALS, etc. needed the new power system and hull design. So, that had to be done, altogether. (Chorus: "That had to be done"...) (See the movie "Airplane!"...) Otherwise, spreading out technology risk as much as possible is sound policy, and the Navy has done that as much as it can for a long time.
Here's another example. Notice how this new gun was first fitted to DDG-89. If you then choose to follow it, you should see this pattern emerge:
https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Media/News/Article-View/Article/4398950/nswcdd-delivers-next-generation-mk-38-defense-system/
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I was honestly a bit disappointed that the first Flight III (at least Jack H. Lucas , Ted Stevens , Louis H. Wilson Jr. , Jeremiah Denton ) do not have the AN/SLQ-32(V)7 and the cheeks.
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