Brooke-class frigate

The Brooke class was a United States Navy frigate class based on the design of the Garcia class, but with the addition of the Tartar Guided Missile System. The first unit was commissioned in 1966 and the final sixth unit was decommissioned in 1989.

== Description == Brooke-class ships were nearly identical to the Garcia class, except the second 5-inch/38 caliber gun was replaced with a Mk.22 single arm missile launcher and the requisite Mk.74 Guided Missile Fire Control System to control it. Air search capabilities were provided by the AN/SPS-52 three dimension air search radar, which displaced the two dimension AN/SPS-40 carried on the Garcia class. FFG-1 through FFG-3 had a Westinghouse geared steam turbine while FFG-4 through FFG-6 employed a General Electric turbine. All ships had two Foster Wheeler boilers. FFG-4 through FFG-6 had an angled base of the bridge structure behind the ASROC launcher for automatic reloading, displacing the loading crane carried on previous ships. The Brooke class originally carried the DASH drone, but were later equipped with LAMPS SH-2 Seasprite after the hangar was enlarged. Oliver Hazard Perry class systems were evaluated on Talbot including the 76 mm Mk.75 gun, the AN/SQS-56 sonar and other systems. Initially classified as guided missile destroyer escorts (DEG), the class were redesignated as guided missile frigates (FFG) under the United States Navy 1975 ship reclassification. FFG-1 through FFG-3 were authorized in FY1962 while FFG-4 through FFG-6 were authorized in FY1963. Plans called for ten more ships to be authorized in FY1964 and possibly three more in later years, but those plans were dropped because of the $11 million higher cost of the DEG over a DE.

Ships in class

Gallery

== See also == List of frigate classes by country Equivalent frigates of the same era

Alpino class Peder Skram class Condell class Van Speijk class Nilgiri class

Notes

External links

Brooke-class guided missile frigates at Destroyer