NAVYPEDIA

Photo

Luce 1979

Ships

No	Name	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comm	Fate
DLG6, 6.1975- DDG37	Farragut	1656	Bethlehem, Quincy	3.6.1957	15.7.1958	10.12.1960	stricken 11.1992
DLG7, 6.1975- DDG38	Luce	1657	Bethlehem, Quincy	1.10.1957	11.12.1958	20.5.1961	stricken 11.1992
DLG8, 6.1975- DDG39	MacDonough	1658	Bethlehem, Quincy	15.4.1958	9.7.1959	4.11.1961	stricken 11.1992
DLG9, 6.1975- DDG40	Coontz		Puget Sound N Yd, Bremerton	1.3.1957	6.12.1958	15.7.1960	stricken 1.1990
DLG10, 6.1975- DDG41	King		Puget Sound N Yd, Bremerton	1.3.1957	6.12.1958	17.11.1960	stricken 11.1992
DLG11, 6.1975- DDG42	Mahan		Mare Island N Yd, San Francisco	31.7.1957	7.10.1959	25.8.1960	stricken 6.1993
DLG12, 6.1975- DDG43	Dahlgren		Philadelphia N Yd	1.3.1958	16.3.1960	8.4.1961	stricken 11.1992
DLG13, 6.1975- DDG44	William V. Pratt		Philadelphia N Yd	1.3.1958	16.3.1960	4.11.1961	stricken 11.1992
DLG14, 6.1975- DDG45	Dewey	333	Bath Iron Wks	10.8.1957	30.11.1958	7.12.1959	stricken 11.1992
DLG15, 6.1975- DDG46	Preble	334	Bath Iron Wks	16.12.1957	23.5.1959	9.5.1960	stricken 11.1992

Technical data

Displacement standard, t	4167
Displacement full, t	5648
Length, m	149.4 wl 156.3 oa
Breadth, m	15.9
Draught, m	5.30
No of shafts	2
Machinery	DLG6-8: 2 sets De Laval geared steam turbines, 4 Foster Wheeler boilers DLG9-14: 2 sets Allis Chalmers geared steam turbines, 4 Babcock & Wilcox boilers DLG15: 2 sets De Laval geared steam turbines, 4 Babcock & Wilcox boilers
Power, h. p.	85000
Max speed, kts	32
Fuel, t	oil 900
Endurance, nm(kts)	5000(20)
Armament	1 x 2 Terrier SAM (40 RIM-2), 1 x 8 ASROC ASuR (8 RUR-5), 1 x 1 - 127/54 Mk 42, 2 x 2 - 76/50 Mk 33, 2 x 3 - 324 Mk 32 TT (12)
Electronic equipment	DLG6, 14, 15: SPS-53, SPS-10B, SPS-29, SPS-37, 2x SPQ-5, SPG-53A, 2x Mk 35 radars, SQS-23 sonar, WLR-1, WLR-11, ULQ-6B ECM suites DLG7-13: SPS-53, SPS-10B, SPS-29, SPS-37, 2x SPG-55A, SPG-53A, 2x Mk 35 radars, SQS-23 sonar, WLR-1, WLR-11, ULQ-6B ECM suites
Complement	360

Graphics

Project history

These were the first missile-armed fleet escorts designed and built as such, although the first three were originally to have been armed only with guns. They were designed on the recommendation of the Schindler Committee on the Long Range Shipbuilding Plan (1954), which argued for the construction of specialized Fast Task Force Escorts primarily for anti-aircraft screening, with submarine detection (for warning) but not destruction as an important secondary task. The resulting design called for four single rapid-fire 127mm/54s as well as two twin 76mm/50s; ASW weapons were limited to a single depth-charge track aft, a pair of fixed Hedgehogs (as in destroyers), and a quintuple torpedo tube intended primarily 'to embarrass enemy heavy units attempting to attack the carrier task force', as at Samar 1944.

Throughout the design, the installation of Terrier in place of the two after 127mm/54s was carried as an alternative, and in 1955 the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Carney, personally decided that half of the FY56 ships were to be built as missile frigates. His successor, Admiral Burke, decided to accelerate the introduction of missiles into the fleet by ordering all six FY56 ships as missile ships. Meanwhile development of new anti-surface ship torpedoes was abandoned, and the planned quintuple trainable tubes, which were not compatible with existing long-range anti-submarine torpedoes, were dropped from the project. At about the same time, however, the advent of Soviet nuclear submarines, which were capable of attacking even fast task forces, made ASW a more important function of fast fleet escorts. Thus these ships were redesigned, first for the rocket-assisted torpedo (RAT) and then for ASROC, which replaced one of the two forward 127mm/54s which had survived the transformation from all-gun to gun-and-missile frigates. At the same time their sonar was upgraded from the SQS-4 to the much larger SQS-23.

Modernizations

1970-1977, all: - 1 x 2 Terrier SAM, 2 x 2 - 76/50, SPS-29, SPS-37, 2x SPG-55A or 2x SPQ-5A, 2x Mk 35 radars; + 1 x 2 Standard SM-1ER SAM (40 RIM-66), SPS-48C, SPS-49, 2x SPG-55B radars, NTDS CCS

1970, Farragut: ASROC stowage raised to 16 RUR-5 at all

1973-1974, King: + 2 x 6 - 20/76 Mk 15 Phalanx, 2x Mk 90 radars (temporarily for tests)

1973-1975, Coontz: + 2 x 6 - 20/76 Vulcan (temporarily for tests)

1977-1979, Farragut, Coontz, Dahlgren; 1980-1983, Luce, Macdonough, King, Mahan, William V. Pratt, Dewey, Preble: + 2 x 4 Harpoon SSM (8 RGM-84)

1982-1985, all: - SQS-23 sonar, WLR-1, WLR-11, ULQ-6B ECM suites; + 4 x 1 - 12.7/90, SPS-48C, SPS-49 radar, SQQ-23A PAIR sonar, SLQ-32(v)2 ECM suite, 4x Mk 36 SRBOC decoy RL

1983, Mahan: - 1 x 2 Standard SM-1ER SAM (40 RIM-66), SPS-48C, SPS-49 radars; + 1 x 2 Standard SM-2ER Block II SAM (40 RIM-67), SPS-48E, SPS-49(v)5 radars, SYS-2 IADT CCS

Naval service

No significant events.