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Old 04-07-2005, 18:55 PM   #11 (permalink)
rickusn
Military Professional
 
Join Date: 08-09-03
Posts: 1,317
They were bult for blue-water ASW. That mission basically no longer exists.

There are more than enough VLS cells in the fleet for land-attack Tomahawk so no over-riding reason there.

Relatively expensive to man, maintain and operate than the OHP frigates for low-intensity missions.

Have no area AAW capability.

Ergo the decision was made to keep the OHPs in service and decommissioning the Spruances.

Saving also one or two major overhauls and continued spiral modernizations.

The class had many varying configurations and capabiliies from ship to ship .

Among those:

Some had two helos, some one.
Some had RAM, some didnt.
Some had ELINT equpment, some didnt.
Some had updated EW euipment, some didnt.

CAT B isnt particularly cheap and transfer to other nations problematic due to their operating expense and manning requirements.

Plus shoot em up is relatively cheaper than scrapping.
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