USS Fletcher (DD-992)

9100 standard tons

171.6 meters

16.8 meters

9.8 meters

30 officers, 350 sailors

Two propellers, each driven over 4 gas turbines; 80,000 shaft horsepower

33 knots

2 guns, 2 Harpoon starter, 1 Luftabwehraketen starter, 1 ASROC launcher, later replaced by 61 -cell VLS

The USS Fletcher ( DD -992 ) was a destroyer in the United States Navy and was a member of the Spruance class. It was named after Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher.

History

DD -992 was commissioned in 1975 and placed in April 1978 at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Kiel. In June 1979, the destroyer was launched, the commissioning was carried out in 1980. The Fletcher was then stationed in the Pacific.

For the first time moved the Fletcher 1982 in the Pacific Ocean, 1983, the destroyer was used in a battle group with the USS New Jersey (BB- 62). In the following years the Fletcher moved several times in the Pacific and partly across the Indian Ocean in the Persian Gulf. The mid-1990s she was extensively modernized, especially the weapons systems were brought up to date. In both 1998 and 2000 the ship took part in the maneuvers RIMPAC 2000 also in the exercise Arabian Shark in the Persian Gulf. In 2002, the destroyer went to the USS Abraham Lincoln ( CVN -72) page as part of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Gulf.

On 1 October 2004, Fletcher was decommissioned. Contemplated sales to Chile and later Pakistan were never realized. Instead, Fletcher was selected as a target for RIMPAC 2008. In July, the destroyer was towed in the waters off Hawaii, where on July 16 of the Australian submarine HMAS Waller (SSG 75) torpedoed. For the first time came the CBASS version of the Mark 48 heavyweight torpedoes for use.