40 years ago this month: January 1984. A port view of the brand-new (commissioned 16 February 1980) Spruance-class destroyer USS Thorn (DD 988) entering a port during the multinational naval Exercise UNITAS XXV.
Photo by PHC Terry Mitchell, DN-ST-90-01494/330-CFD-DN-ST-90-01494
And another on the same cruise:
A view of the Mark 45 5-inch/54-caliber gun on the stern of the destroyer USS Thorn (DD 988) as the ship approaches the Bridge of the Americas on the Pacific Ocean side of Panama. The THORN is participating in Exercise UNITAS XXV, 9/1/1984. (PHCS Kirby Harrison, USN. 330-CFD-DN-ST-88-02592 OPA-NARA II-2015/12/24).
The “Sprucans” were vitally needed in the late 1970s/early 1980s to replace the cramped and worn-out FRAM’d WWII-era destroyers that were still lingering. Big ships when compared to the ones they were replacing, they were derided at the time as “Love Boats” since they were the size of WWII light cruisers (8,000 tons), yet only carried a pair of 5-inch guns (albeit the then-new MK 45 rapid-fire jobs that provided more firepower than twice as many of the old Sumner’s 5-inch/58s), twin triple ASW tubes, a Mark 16 8-cell ASROC launcher, and an 8-cell NATO Sea Sparrow SAM launcher (also capable of being used against surface ships), a fit that Thorn carries above.
All ships also gained an 8-pack of Harpoon SSM and a pair of 20mm CIWS for swatting away incoming missiles.
Other additions (10 of 31 class members fitted) included a 21-cell RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile launcher mounted on the starboard fantail to further protect these ships from more modern anti-ship missiles, a 61-cell Mk41 VLS system (24 of 31 fitted) like on the Ticonderoga class cruisers (which were based on the Spruance hull) in place of the ASROC to carry VLA and TLAMs or quadruple ABL Mark 43 Tomahawk missile launchers like on the recommissioned Iowa class battleships– in the end making them fairly well-armed.
This changed over time and by the late 1980s, they were pretty capable ships
Thorn in her final form:
Here she is 19 years after the above image, fitted with a Mk.23 target acquisition system, SQR-19 TACTAS, SLQ-32(v)3 ECM, SLQ-25 Nixie torpedo decoy, SSQ-108 ELINT system, a 21-cell RAM launcher aft, Harpoon cans amidship, and a 61-cell ASW/land attack VLS forward. Official caption: Atlantic Ocean (Sept. 22, 2003), the Spruance-class destroyer USS Thorn (DD 988) escorts USS Enterprise (CVN 65) during the Comprehensive Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX). The Enterprise Strike Group is underway participating in COMPTUEX in preparation for a Mediterranean Deployment.” U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate Airman Joshua C. Kinter 030922-N-7748K-004
Sadly, while Thorn and her fellow Sprucans held the line til the end of the Cold War, the Clinton administration — in full cooperation with Big Navy who wanted more shiny new DDGs but couldn’t justify them with old cruisers and DDs around taking up space on the Navy List– snuffed out the class early, disposing of them in SINKEXs or via scrapping after most reached 20 years, but that is another story.
Thorn would be decommissioned on 25 August 2004– less than a year after the above image with Enterprise— and was sunk two years later as a target.