Self Defense Test Ship (EDD-964) - Ex-Paul F. Foster (Port Hueneme, California)

 military, ship, destroyer (ship), United States Navy

USS Paul F. Foster is the second member of the Spruance Class of Destroyers, laid down at Ingalls Shipbuilding Pascagoula in February 1973 and commissioned into US Navy service in February 1976.

Following shakedown, the Foster became the first of her class to join the US Pacific Fleet and began operations with Destroyer Squadron Nine out of Naval Station Long Beach. Making numerous Pacific and Arctic deployments over the next decade in support of Cold War operations, the Foster was overhauled in 1987-88 and given a Mk41 Vertical Launch System which enabled her to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles as well as modifications to her anti-submarine warfare suite.

Putting her new equipment to use in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the Foster was the first ship to fire Tomahawk missiles against Iraqi targets and began what would turn into more than a decade of regular deployments to the Persian Gulf in support of UN operations. Following her 13th and final deployment in 2002, the Foster returned to her homeport of Everett, WA where she was formally decommissioned from active service in March 2003.

Selected to replace the ageing USS Decatur (DDG-31) as the US Navy's Self Defense Test Ship, the Foster was placed in a reduced commission and activated for service with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division in 2004. Stripped of her offensive weaponry and given numerous alterations to her onboard systems to allow for totally remote operation of the entire ship, the Foster now serves as a complex live test platform for evaluating new combat or weapon systems.

Typically towing a laden target barge 150ft Astern which serves as the actual target for live fire exercises, the Foster will remotely utilize the installed combat or weapons systems to respond to various threats in defense of the ship without risk of injury or loss of life to Navy personnel. Two of her most recent assignments have been the evaluation of the RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) system and presently the Maritime Laser Defense Demonstrator system.

With the reefing of her sistership USS Arthur W. Radford as a dive site off the New Jersey/Delaware/Maryland Coast in 2011, the Paul F. Foster has become the sole survivor of the once 31-ship strong Spruance Class.

www.navsea.navy.mil/nswc/porthueneme/whatWeDo/testEval/...
www.navsource.org/archives/05/964.htm