Эсминец «Пол Ф. Фостер»: История и испытания

Spruance class destroyer

USS Paul F. Foster (DD 964), named for Vice Admiral Paul F. Foster USN (1889–1972), is a built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries at Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was commissioned on 21 February 1976 and decommissioned on 27 March 2003. She is now ex Paul F. Foster, serving as a Self Defense Test Ship for experimental U. S. Navy weapons and sensors. She is the last Spruance class destroyer still afloat.

As the initial Spruance class destroyer assigned to the Pacific Fleet, Paul F. Foster had many milestone firsts, including successfully firing a NATO Sea Sparrow missile, demonstrating the feasibility of landing H 46 helicopters, and determining the operational limits of the SH 3 helicopter. Operating out of San Diego, Paul F. Foster became the first Spruance class destroyer to deploy to the Western Pacific in March 1978. The ship deployed again in 1979 and 1982, serving in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific. She is the only ship of her class that exists as of 2023, as all of her sister ships were either scrapped or sunk as targets upon decommissioning. On 8 April 2011, Wired. com reported that ex Paul F. Foster had successfully used the Maritime Laser Demonstrator for the first time in a sea to sea target test, sinking a small inflatable motorboat at a range of one mile in rough seas. On 17 November 2011, ex Paul F. Foster demonstrated the use of shipboard alternative fuel, while underway in the Pacific Ocean on a 50–50 blend of an algae derived, hydro processed algal oil and petroleum F 76. The ship arrived Thursday morning to the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Port Hueneme in Southern California after traveling for 17 hours on a maiden trip from San Diego. On 18 July 2016, ex Paul F. Foster performed a test launch of the LRASM Anti ship missile from her Mark 41 Vertical Launching System while underway in the Pacific Ocean.