Name Farragut class Preceded by Forrest Sherman class Built 1957–1961 | Operators United States Navy Succeeded by Charles F. Adams class | |
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Builders Bethlehem Steel Quincy
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
San Francisco Naval Shipyard
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
Bath Iron Works | ||
The Farragut-class destroyer was a group of 10 guided missile destroyers built for the United States Navy (USN) during the 1950s. They were the second destroyer class to be named for Admiral David Farragut. The class is sometimes referred to as the Coontz class, since Coontz was first to be designed and built as a guided missile ship, whereas the previous three ships were designed as all-gun units and converted later.
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Design and description
The Farragut class was the first class of missile-armed carrier escorts to be built as such for the USN. The ships had an overall length of 512 feet 6 inches (156.2 m), a beam of 52 feet 4 inches (16.0 m) and a deep draft of 17 feet 9 inches (5.4 m). They displaced 5,648 long tons (5,739 t) at full load. Their crew consisted of 23 officers and 337 enlisted men.
The ships were equipped with two geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by 4 water-tube boilers. The turbines were intended to produce 85,000 shaft horsepower (63,000 kW) to reach the designed speed of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph). The Farragut class had a range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at a speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).
The Farragut-class ships were armed with a 5"/54 caliber Mark 42 gun forward and two twin mounts for 3″/50 caliber guns, one on each broadside amidships. They were fitted with an eight-round ASROC launcher between the 5-inch (127 mm) gun and the bridge. Close-range anti-submarine defense was provided by two triple 12.75-inch (324 mm) Mk 32 torpedo tubes. The primary armament of the Farraguts was the Terrier anti-aircraft missile designed to defend the carrier battle group. They were fired via the dual-arm Mark 10 launcher and the ships stowed a total of 40 missiles for the launcher.
Service
Originally commissioned as guided missile frigates (DLG), they were redesignated as guided missile destroyers (DDG) under the fleet realignment in 1975. They were also the only redesignated ships to be renumbered as well under the realignment, with the first unit changing from DLG-6 to DDG-37 and all subsequent vessels being renumbered upwards in order. During various refits all ships had their two 3" gun mounts removed and replaced by two quad Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers and their fire control and search radars upgraded to handle SM-2 ER missiles. All ships of the class were decommissioned between 1989 and 1994 and subsequently scrapped.