USS Fletcher (DD-992), the thirtieth Spruance-class destroyer, was part of the first major class of United States Navy surface ships to be powered by gas turbines.

Designed and built by Ingalls Shipyards of Litton Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Fletcher was a member of the first major class of surface ships in the United States Navy to be powered by gas turbine engines.

Starting in 1982, Fletcher made regular deployments to the western and southern Pacific, with some of those extending into the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf areas.

Integration of the ship's digital gun fire control system in the NTDS provided quick reaction in the mission areas of shore bombardment, anti-surface, and anti-aircraft warfare.

Berthing compartments were spacious and the ship was equipped with amenities not usually found aboard other destroyers, including a crew's gymnasium and an improvised library of sorts with several hundred fiction novels.

Although Fletcher was as large as a World War II cruiser, a high degree of automation permitted a crew of 24 officers and 296 enlisted to operate the ship.

On 20 July 1983, The New York Times reported that the Fletcher, along with seven other vessels in the carrier Ranger battle group, left San Diego on Friday 15 July 1983, and were headed for the western Pacific when they were rerouted and ordered to steam for Central America to conduct training and flight operations in areas off the coasts of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras as part of major military exercises planned for that summer.

Following the transit of the Straits of Malacca, Fletcher spent virtually the entire period in the Indian Ocean on station in the North Arabian Sea, as previously planned port calls were cancelled due to the changing nature of political and operational matters in the Mid-East.

On 2 August 2002, USS Fletcher departed Pearl Harbor to begin Sea Swap, an experimental program that calls for a Spruance-class destroyer to deploy and remain on station for more than 400 days.

The original Fletcher team sailed the ship to the Persian Gulf and spent the next four months conducting Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIO) in support of United Nations sanctions on Iraq.

The Australian submarine HMAS Waller test fired a modified live Mk48 Mod7 ADCAP torpedo specifically designed for shallow water operations.