After the initial introduction of guided missile systems on converted gun cruisers, it became clear that a new type of warship was needed as the existing designs were either too small or unnecessarily large. These new ships were assigned the hull designation DLG and dubbed “frigates” after the famous sailing ships such as USS Constitution. That the USN applied this name to powerful guided missile ships while the European navies used it to refer to cheap submarine hunters reflects a historic difference - in the nineteenth century, the frigates were the most powerful vessels in the small American navy, while in Europe the frigates were seen as minor combatants that lived in the shadow of the ships of the line.
However, the American use of this term did not survive long, and, in 1975, the USN dropped the DLG designation as part of a wider simplification of its hull numbers. The frigates were redesignated as either cruisers (CG) or destroyers (DDG). Simultaneously, the ocean escorts (DE) were dubbed frigates (FF) to bring American terminology in line with the European practice (interestingly, Japan is only just now abandoning the DE designation with her new 30FF project). Still, to have a proper historical perspective, the large American missile escorts must be considered a class of their own, as the term “cruiser” brings a rather different set of connotations.
The first class of guided missile frigates were the ten ships of the
Farragut-class. Although originally intended to be armed solely with ASROC, they were redesigned for Terrier after construction had begun on the first three. Upon commissioning, their missile armament consisted of an eight round ASROC box launcher forward and a Mk 10 twin arm Terrier launcher aft with a magazine for forty missiles. The ships entered service in 1959, beginning, not with
Farragut (DLG-6), but with
Dewey (DLG-14). To make things even more confusing, these ships are often referred to as the
Coontz-class, as
Coontz (DLG-9) was the first to be ordered as a missile ship instead of being converted while under construction.
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| Farragut (DLG-6) in 1960: 40x Terrier, 8x ASROC |
Over their service lives, the ships of the
Farragut-class received a number of minor updates to their missile armament. Common to all USN ships, their Terrier missiles were replaced first with SM-1ER around 1970, and then with the vastly more capable SM-2ER in the early 1980’s. In the late 1970’s, they received a pair of Harpoon canister launchers, giving them an over the horizon antiship capability. As part of her 1969 refit,
Farragut was also retrofitted with an ASROC magazine (I have been unable to uncover its capacity, but it was likely eight rounds), but this upgrade was not applied to her sister ships because of stability issues. Despite being somewhat small for the armament they mounted and suffering from unreliable engines, the ships of the
Farragut-class served for an average of thirty two years, with the last one decommissioning in 1993.
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| Coontz (DDG-40) in 1980: 40x SM-1ER, 8x ASROC, 8x Harpoon |
The next guided missile frigates were the nine ships of the
Leahy-class, which joined the fleet beginning in 1962. Whereas the
Farragut-class had the same flush deck hull that had marked American destroyers since the
Fletcher-class of WWII, the
Leahy-class used a new long forecastle hull. Further, they introduced the large block superstructures that became a characteristic of American Cold War ships. The armament of the
Leahy-class was likewise revolutionary, as they were pure missile ships with fore and aft Mk 10 Terrier launchers (each fed from a forty missile magazine) and a bow ASROC launcher. This armament gave the
Leahy-class the firepower of a cruiser on half the displacement.
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| Leahy (DLG-16) in 1962: 80x Terrier, 8x ASROC |
As with the other frigates, the
Leahy-class received Harpoon canister launchers and was upgraded to SM-1 and then to SM-2. Being newer and slightly larger than the
Farragut-class, the
Leahy-class lasted somewhat longer, leaving the fleet between 1993 and 1995, after an average of thirty two years in service. The
Leahy-class also served as the basis for the one-off nuclear powered frigate -
Bainbridge (DLGN-25). Commissioned in 1962, this ship possessed the same weapons as the
Leahy-class and served to test the feasibility of nuclear power on smaller ships.
Bainbridge decommissioned in 1996, after thirty four years in service, and had the honor of being the last Terrier ship in the fleet.
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| Leahy (CG-16) in 1983: 80x SM-2ER, 8x ASROC, 8x Harpoon |
After the
Leahy-class came the nine ship
Belknap-class. These ships, which entered service beginning in 1964, had the aft Mk 10 launcher replaced by a helicopter pad and 5” Mk 42 gun. The addition of the gun was driven by the realization that while Terrier
could be employed against naval targets, the all-missile ships had no means of attacking targets ashore. The ASROC launcher was also omitted in favor of modifying the Terrier launcher to be dual-purpose. While Terrier and ASROC were both stored in a single sixty-missile magazine, the larger fins of the latter meant that a maximum of twenty ASROC could be carried. Still, this was far more than the eight missiles of the preceding classes and it is likely that fewer were actually carried in practice.
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| Belknap (DLG-26) in 1964: 44x Terrier, 16x ASROC |
Modifications to these ships followed the same path as the other frigates. However, while their armament was more versatile than that of the
Leahy-class, they also fell victim to the post-Cold War peace dividend, and the ships of the
Belknap-class were decommissioned in 1993 to 1995, after an average of just twenty nine years in service. Also like the
Leahy-class, the
Belknap-class served as the basis for a one-off nuclear powered ship. However,
Truxtun (DLGN-35) had her armament reversed from her parent design, with the 5” gun forward and the Mk 10 launcher aft. Commissioned in 1967,
Truxtun served until 1995.
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| Belknap (CG-26) in 1982: 44x SM-2ER, 16x ASROC, 8x Harpoon |
With both
Bainbridge and
Truxtun having proven successful, a new generation of nuclear powered frigates was planned. Commissioned in 1974 and 1975, the two ships of the
California-class marked a departure from the previous frigates as they abandoned Terrier in favor of the shorter ranged, but faster firing, Tartar. These were fired from forty round Mk 13 single arm launchers fore and aft. In addition, there was an eight round ASROC launcher forward that was fed from a sixteen round magazine.
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| California (DLGN-36) in 1974: 80x SM-1MR, 24x ASROC |
The
California-class were the last ships to be commissioned as frigates, as the 1975 fleet realignment occurred just five months after the second ship joined the Navy. As with the other frigates, they received Harpoon launchers around 1980. But in 1989 and 1990, they lost their ASROC launchers (this appears to have been part of a fleet-wide retirement of the weapon). In this form they served for another decade before being decommissioned in 1999, with
South Carolina (CGN-37) holding the title of the USN’s last nuclear powered surface combatant. Their short service lives of just twenty six years were the result of budget cuts following the end of the Cold War and the high cost of operating their manpower-intensive nuclear power plants.
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| California (CGN-36) in 1990: 80x SM-2MR, 8x Harpoon |
The
California-class was followed by the four ship
Virginia-class. Although laid down as frigates, they were reclassified as cruisers before the lead ship commissioned in 1976. The most notable change was the replacement of the separate Tartar and ASROC launchers with a pair of dual purpose Mk 26 twin arm launchers. The forward mount was fed from a twenty four missile magazine while the aft mount had a forty four missile magazine. Given these numbers, and the fact that only two illuminators were fitted (both aft) instead of the four found on the double-ended
California-class and
Leahy-class, it appears that the
Virginia-class was intended to carry ASROC forward and Standard aft. However, photographic evidence shows that in practice this was not always the case.
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| Virginia (CGN-38) in 1976: 52x SM-1MR, 16x ASROC |
The final member of the
Virginia-class commissioned in 1980 with Harpoon launchers already installed, and they were soon backfit to the other members of the class. Unlike the other frigates, the ships of the
Virginia-class were unique in that during the mid-1980’s, they were upgraded to carry eight Tomahawk missiles in two armored box launchers on the fantail. In the beginning, these were likely loaded with a mix of nuclear-armed land attack (TLAM-N) and antiship weapons (TASM). However, by the time
Virginia-class retired, only the conventional land attack variants were still in service.
Despite their capability, the
Virginia-class decommissioned between 1993 and 1998 after an average service life of just nineteen years. As with the
California-class, this was the result of their high operating costs and the end of the Cold War. The reason why the
Virginia-class was retired before the
California-class was because of the timing of their mid-life refueling overhauls - the
California-class had already completed this expensive process, while the
Virginia-class was just beginning. Thus, it made more sense to simply cancel the refits and retire the ships.
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| Virginia (CGN-38) in 1984: 52x SM-2MR, 16x ASROC, 4x TLAM-N, 4x TASM, 8x Harpoon |
The
Virginia-class marked the end of the frigate lineage. With the introduction of Aegis and Tomahawk, attention shifted from medium escorts to powerful “strike cruisers” capable of independent offensive operations. With a proposed armament of one-hundred and forty-four missiles and 8” guns and displacing sixteen thousand tons, this ship was clearly the product of a very different mindset. When the strike cruiser proved too expensive, attention instead shifted to upgunned destroyers, resulting in the
Ticonderoga-class (laid down as DDG-47) and the
Arleigh Burke-class. But while these ships have the firepower of a tradition frigate, they are actually the result of the USN's
long line of missile destroyers.
