Since the last known volume of the 'Amanda Garrett' series has at last been released.
USS Cunningham (DDG-79)
Cunningham Class Destroyer
Length: 580ft (176.8m)
Weight: 8000 tons
Armament: 2 x 1 76mm OTO Melara (Fore and Aft), ?x Advanced Phalanx (1x4 25mm & 2x quad RAM), 10 x TT (10 x Mk. 50 Torpedoes (5 tubes a side, no reloads.)), 1x VLS (Divided into three arrays.) (36x Harpoon 2, 12x Standard HARM, 12x Sea SLAM, 12x Strategic Cruise Missiles, 36x VL ASROC, 4x Aquahawks (ASW Tomahawk), 148x LORAIN, 28x4 ESSM (total 112), 1x Zenith anti-satellite round (Takes up four cells in the VLS);
Aircraft carried: 4x BRAVE 2000 drones & 2x SAH-66 Sea Commanche (Initially only one is carried, a second is transferred from the USS Boone (FFG-28) before deployment south.)
Electronics: AN/SPY-2A Augmented AEGIS, ECM system called 'Wetball' which makes use of the microscopic iron spheres in the ships paint to distort radar signals.
Engines: Rafted gas turbines driving 2x 45,000hp electric motors in podded propulsors (30knots(+) (Official Speed.), 42 knots (Fastest speed reached in novel.)
Hullform: Stealth design with clipper bow and well deck. Radar signature that of a "...small cabin cruiser..." when operating under maximum stealth.
Note: Pennant clashes with that of the Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer, USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79). The author repeatedly refers to the ship in this novel and the next as being a 'Cunningham Class Destroyer' thus indicating that it is the lead ship in a series of vessels. Going by remarks in the authors afterward to 'Target Lock' (2002) it would appear that this was a freelanced extrapolation of the planned successor to the Arleigh Burkes, unless someone is more familar with what was being discussed in that regards during the late 1980s/early 1990s knows otherwise.
|