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We should really start referring to modern combatants as "ships of the line" again. Cruisers were traditionally the smallest warship capable of independent steaming, whereas destroyers required tenders or other support to operate away from their homeport.

Really, the only difference between a cruiser and a destroyer today is mission. Destoryers have an ASW/ASUW mission and cruisers have a fleet defense/AAW mission.

It doesn't make sense to compare Burke class destroyers to Fletchers.

By the way, I think decomissioning the Spruance class was a mistake we will come to regret.

By the way, I think decomissioning the Spruance class was a mistake we will come to regret.

I agree completely and have said so on many occassions. Excellent ASW platforms with a lot of service life left in them

Todays DDG displace as much as WWII Cruisers. The Burkes are reall multi-mission vessels with AsuW, ASW, and fleet defense roles capably executed.

I agree about the Spruance class. I don't have a high opinion of the sonar on the FFGs and how often does anyone string the tail? The DDG and CG platform have to tie up space in their VLS with Tomahawks which with no credible air threat maybe fine, but on a Spruance the 61 cells were ready to go 60 T-LAMs and 1 T-ASM. I could understand decomming the non VLS ships, but I question the wisdom of not only decommissioning the Spruance class, but they have sunk 15 or 16 already and scrapped one, (my old ship the Hewitt). The last time I checked 3 were going to be sold, loaned, given, transferred to Turkey and Pakistan, and there were 7 or 8 depending on where you look that were going to remain mothballed, with a couple of those pending for museum donations, one more to be sold for scrap and at least one more waiting to be sunk. The bottom line is, this, the Spruance class is gone from the active fleet, 19 have been or will be sunk or cut up, 3 are going to other navies, and 2 are being used for testing and work on the DDX that's 24 of of 31 that are not available for anything, parts to activate another or a return to active duty, or anything. I wouldn't be surprised it they don't decide to send a couple more to the bottom. Sad times for DD sailors.