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Destroyer USS Comte de Grasse (DD-974)

Destroyer USS Comte de Grasse (DD-974) 0Destroyer USS Comte de Grasse (DD-974) 1Destroyer USS Comte de Grasse (DD-974) 2Destroyer USS Comte de Grasse (DD-974) 3

Classification

Ship class:
Spruance-class destroyer
Type:
Destroyer

Basic information

Operator:
United States NavyUnited States Navy
Country of build:
Builder:
Ingalls ShipbuildingIngalls Shipbuilding
Laid down:
Launched:
Commissioned (service):
Decommissioned (out):
Status:
Sunk
Fate:
Sunk as target, 7 June 2006

Ship measurements

Displacement:
8,040 t
Length:
161 m
Beam:
16.8 m
Draft:
8.8 m

Machine

Propulsion system:
COGAG
Propulsion:
  • 4 * General Electric LM2500 gas turbines
  • 2 * shafts, 80,000 shp (60 MW)
Speed:
32.5 knots
Range:
6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)

Personnel

Complement:
334

Combat assets

Electronics:
  • AN/SPS-40 air search radar
  • AN/SPG-60 fire control radar
  • AN/SPS-55 surface search radar
  • AN/SPQ-9 gun fire control radar
  • Mark 23 TAS automatic detection and tracking radar
  • AN/SPS-65 Missile fire control radar
  • AN/SQS-53 bow mounted Active sonar
  • AN/SQR-19 TACTAS towed array Passive sonar
  • Naval Tactical Data System
  • AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare System
  • AN/SLQ-25 Nixie Torpedo Countermeasures
  • Mark 36 SRBOC Decoy Launching System
  • AN/SLQ-49 Inflatable Decoys
Armament:
  • 2 * 5 in (127 mm) 54 calibre Mark 45 dual purpose guns
  • 2 * 20 mm Phalanx CIWS Mark 15 guns
  • 1 * 8 cell ASROC launcher (removed)
  • 1 * 8 cell NATO Sea Sparrow Mark 29 missile launcher
  • 2 * quadruple Harpoon missile canisters
  • 2 * Mark 32 triple 12.75 in (324 mm) torpedo tubes (Mk 46 torpedoes)
  • 2 * quadruple Armored Box Launcher (ABL) Mark 43 Tomahawk missile launchers
Aircraft:
  • 2 * Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters

USS Comte de Grasse (DD-974), named in honor of Admiral Francois-Joseph Paul, Comte de Grasse (1722–1788), stood as a Spruance-class destroyer crafted by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She commenced construction on April 4, 1975, was launched on March 26, 1976, and officially entered service on August 5, 1978. The christening ceremony occurred on May 21, 1976, with sponsor Madame Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes, the wife of then-French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

Following her commissioning in August 1978, Comte de Grasse set sail for her homeport in Norfolk, Virginia. Her initial deployment to the Caribbean involved training in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. She made a port call in Nassau, Bahamas, during this period. However, a fire in the Number 1 engine room caused damage in Norfolk on August 2, 1979, resulting in minor injuries to five sailors and significant damage to the waste heat boiler and electrical gear. Later that year, in the fall of 1979, she joined NATO Exercises in Northern Europe, visiting ports in France, Germany, and England.

In early spring 1980, Comte de Grasse visited New York City, the hometown of Captain Frank J. Lugo. She engaged in Exercise Safepass-80 in late February to early March. Subsequently, in April 1980, she embarked on her inaugural Mediterranean deployment, returning home in December, thereafter deploying there six more times.

Throughout the following years, Comte de Grasse participated in a myriad of exercises and deployments, including exercises in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Red Sea, demonstrating her prowess in gunnery, air targeting, and interception operations.

In 1998, Comte de Grasse was decommissioned and subsequently held at the Philadelphia Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility (NISMF) as a parts hulk. Finally, on June 7, 2006, she was towed about 275 nautical miles off the coast of North Carolina and sunk during naval training exercises, reaching a depth of 12,000 feet in the ocean.

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