What the heck is this???

Check out this site: http://navysite.de/dd/dd968.htm

This should help answer the questions. I learned something new also.

Thank's for the link!!
Surely answers all my assumptions!

When this ship comes sailing into port she looks like she is giving everyone the bird. That was the first impression we got when we installed the thing. It is a wierd looking structure and really stands out when in port with all of the other conventionally equipped ships. That hole in the side after the collision with the Saudi tanker was even worse looking in person. We took off the entire bow section and replaced it. Scratch built to the max!

Very interesting, like Dragonfire said, you learn something new everyday. That would have been my first guess, too. That is was an enclosed mast system to stealth testing for the future ship designs. Glad to see I made the right guess.

Stealth from radar maybe, but any blind man could see that thing many miles on the horizon.

It does look like its flipping everyone off.

Was that the new form of U.S. "Power projection" from the late 80's to mid 90's?

The AEMSS (Advanced Enclosed Mast And Sensor System) was designed to reduce the RCS (Radar Cross Section) of the ship. Because of the sharp right angles of the radar and communications antennae and the entire mast structure itself, this was an attempt to reduce the ship's electronic signature. Why they only did the main mast and not the forward mast as well is beyond me. But as it has already been pointed out, when you can see her over the horizon "flipping the bird", stealth kinda gets thrown out the window. Although I can't get into the details of the hows and whys, that was the purpose. Obviously not followed through...

It might be functional, but it sure doesn't make for sleek lines. . .

Haven't you guys heared of Cdr.Amanda Garret of the USS Cunningham?
The idea for a stealth ship is NOT to be skylined! The idea is to move from one patch of bad weather to another...quickley.
Dai