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On Mon, 9/15/14, Cheng Tseng <xxxxxx@kennett.net> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Destroyer tonnage...
 To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
 Date: Monday, September 15, 2014, 3:36 PM

 > > If we talk function rather
 than class name, I'd also call a Spruance a
 > > Light Cruiser - it carries Harpoon missiles.
 > >
 >
 > Funny you should say that.  According to a story I
 was told by one of the
 > instructors at pre-comm school the Spruance was
 originally supposed to be a
 > cruiser and sport 8" guns. Congress didn't want to buy
 cruisers but wanted
 > to buy destroyers.  Ingals Ship Building took the
 blueprints, erased all
 > referencing Cruiser and wrote in Destroyer. Jacked the
 price up by a
 > million US dollars a piece and Congress bought them.

 I seriously doubt that story, especially since a major
 criticism of the SPRUANCEs was their relative lack of
 weapons compared to their size.

 Only one DD was ever fitted with an experimental 8" gun,
 which was not continued because of the lack of space for a
 sufficient number of rounds.

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According to the Defense Industry Daily newsletter the USN is once again working on a new 8" gun & has been for some time.

I remember when the 'Spruance' first came out, it was criticized by many for being just an ASW platform w/ limited AAW.

According to the US Naval Institute, though, it had plenty of unused space for future expansion.

A much more well-armed version was purchased by the Shah of Iran & but he went down before any of them were completed so the four of them went to the USN, nicknamed the 'Ayatollah' class.

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