''Garcia''-class frigates were
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
warships
A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as ...
. These
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...
s were originally
ocean escort
Ocean escort was a type of United States Navy warship. They were an evolution of the World War II destroyer escort types. The ocean escorts were intended as convoy escorts and were designed for mobilization production in wartime or low-cost mass ...
s bearing the
hull classification DE until 1975. The ships were
commissioned between 1964 and 1968 and decommissioned between 1988 and 1990.
Description
Frigates fulfill a Protection of Shipping (POS) mission as
anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...
(ASW) combatants for
amphibious expeditionary forces, underway replenishment groups and merchant
convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...
s.
The ''Garcia'' class was a larger version of the . The ''Garcias'' were accompanied by the similar
''Brooke'' class, which replaced the aft gun with a
Mark 22 missile launcher.
The ''Bronstein'' ocean escort was a response to the development of high speed nuclear
submarine
A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
s in the late 1950s, but their speed was insufficient to keep pace with
anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...
(ASW) groups and their gun (naval
artillery
Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...
) power was poor for general patrol tasks. The ''Garcia'' class rectified these issues by becoming the first ships of their type in the US Navy to use pressure fired boilers, which allowed them to generate much more power than the ''Bronsteins'' without an increase in size or weight of machinery. The gun armament was increased in the ''Garcia'' class to two
Mk.30 5 inch/38 caliber guns. The ASW weapon system consisted of the SQS-26BX
sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...
, Mk.112
ASROC
The RUR-5 ASROC (for "Anti-Submarine Rocket") is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. Developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it was deployed in the 1960s, updated in the 1990s, and eventually installed ...
rocket
A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...
launcher,
QH-50 DASH
The Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH (''Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter'') is a small drone helicopter built by Gyrodyne Company of America for use as a long-range anti-submarine weapon on ships that would otherwise be too small to operate a full-sized he ...
armed drones, and
Mk.32 torpedo tubes and was further reinforced with the addition of a pair of Mk.25 torpedo tubes for firing the much longer ranged
Mark 37 torpedo
The Mark 37 torpedo is a torpedo with electrical propulsion, developed for the US Navy after World War II. It entered service with the US Navy in the early 1950s, with over 3,300 produced. It was phased out of service with the US Navy during the ...
.
There were two distinct breeds of ships bearing the DE hull classification, the
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
destroyer escort
Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships.
Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...
s (some of which were converted to DERs) and the postwar DE/DEG classes, which were known as
ocean escort
Ocean escort was a type of United States Navy warship. They were an evolution of the World War II destroyer escort types. The ocean escorts were intended as convoy escorts and were designed for mobilization production in wartime or low-cost mass ...
s despite carrying the same type symbol as the World War II destroyer escorts. All DEs, DEGs, and DERs were reclassified as FFs, FFGs, or FFRs on 30 June 1975 by the
United States Navy 1975 ship reclassification
The United States Navy reclassified many of its surface vessels in 1975, changing terminology and hull classification symbols for cruisers, frigates, and ocean escorts.
Classification prior to 1975
From the 1950s to 1975, the US Navy had three ...
.
After decommissioning, , , , and were transferred to the Brazilian Navy, as ''Pernambuco'' (D 30), ''Paraíba'' (D 28), ''Paraná'' (D 29), and ''Pará'' (D 27), respectively. ''Pará'' (D 27) remained in reserve till 2015, but appears to have been scrapped since.
was a ''Garcia''-class frigate modified for research use, commissioned as AGDE-1 in 1965, redesignated AGFF-1 in 1975, and redesignated FF-1098 in 1979.
Ships
Gallery
File:USS Davidson (FF-1045) underway on 1 July 1986 (6421920).jpg, ''Davidson'' with vertical bridge structure
File:USS Koelsch (FF-1049) underway.jpg, ''Koelsch'' with angled lower bridge structure for automatic ASROC loading. All units ''Voge'' and later were similarly equipped
File:USS Sample (FF-1048) underway at sea on 1 July 1986 (6421927).jpg, ''Sample'' with two gun mounts
File:USS Glover (FF-1098) underway at sea on 1 June 1982 (6349647).jpg, ''Glover'' with only one gun mount
File:USS Bradley (DE-1041) firing Sea Sparrow testing BPDMS.jpg, ''Bradley'' with RIM-7 Sea Sparrow
The RIM-7 Sea Sparrow is a U.S. ship-borne short-range Surface-to-air missile, anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapon system, primarily intended for defense against anti-ship missiles. The system was developed in the early 1960s from the AIM-7 Spa ...
BPDMS installed. Installed and removed c.1967-1968.
File:USS Bradley (DE-1041) stern view with torpedo tubes c1965.jpg, Stern view of ''Bradley'', note torpedo tubes installed in the transom, later removed.
See also
*
List of frigates of the United States Navy
*
List of frigates by country and by frigate class
Notes
External links
''Garcia''-class frigatesa
Destroyer History Foundation*
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
The ''Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships'' (''DANFS'') is the official reference work for the basic facts about ships used by the United States Navy.
When the writing project was developed the parameters for this series were designed to ...
from
Naval Historical Center
The Naval History and Heritage Command, formerly the Naval Historical Center, is an Echelon II command responsible for the preservation, analysis, and dissemination of U.S. naval history and heritage located at the historic Washington Navy Yard ...
- information about person whom ship was named after plus early ship history
Garciapicture
picture
Frigate
from Naval Vessel Register
The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...
- all these ships have been decommissioned - see link for status
The Garcia class
from Destroyers OnLine - pictures, history, crews
* more information and history about DEs
former crewmember's site with pictures (archive
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...
link, was dead
Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sho ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia Class Frigate
Garcia
Garcia
Frigate classes