List of destroyer classes of the United States Navy
During World War II, the United States began building larger 2100-ton destroyers with five-gun main batteries, but without stability problems.
A special class of guided missile destroyers was produced for the Shah of Iran, but due to the Iranian Revolution these ships could not be delivered and were added to the U.S. Navy.
In 1864, US Navy Lt. William B. Cushing sank the ironclad CSS Albemarle using a "spar torpedo"—an explosive device mounted on a long pole and detonated underwater.
[2] Two years later in Austria, the British engineer Robert Whitehead developed a compressed air "automotive" torpedo; capable of 6–8 knots (3.1–4.1 m/s) over a distance of 200–400 yards (180–370 m).
[3] As President, Theodore Roosevelt continued to pay close attention to naval affairs, including the expansion of the Navy's fleet of destroyers.
[3] By the time the United States entered World War I, destroyers displaced 1,000 short tons (910 t) and burned oil instead of coal.
[2] These "1000 tonners" were armed with eight to twelve torpedo tubes, four 4-inch (102 mm)/50 caliber guns; and had a complement of approximately 100 officers and men.
[3] Prior to entering World War I in 1917, the United States began producing destroyers to a new design with a continuous sheer strake, collectively referred to as "flush deckers".
[2][31] While the flush-deckers' freeboard fore and aft were designed to match preceding classes, the new ships differed in other respects.
[31] After the end of World War I, there was little need for the destroyers built, so many were laid up, and fourteen had their torpedo tubes removed and were converted to minesweepers.
[2] The London Naval Treaty, a 1930 agreement between the same parties (except France), established total destroyer tonnage limits for the navies.
[2] Since Japan was considered a probable adversary and was building destroyers through the 1920s, the General Board replaced the four-stackers with ships that could carry large quantities of fuel, ammunition, and supplies as needed to conduct operations across the vast Pacific Ocean.
Other "flush deckers" were converted as high speed transports (APD), seaplane tenders (AVD), minelayers (DM), minesweepers (DMS), and other roles (AG), while some were retained as destroyers.
The first major warship the U.S. Navy constructed after World War II was an all-weather, anti-submarine hunter-killer, designated "destroyer leader" (DL) but referred to as a "frigate".
[62] The following Charles F. Adams class added a short-range SAM launcher on an enlarged hull and were classified as DDGs.
[62] The Spruance class was designed to serve as all-weather anti-submarine escorts for aircraft carrier task forces, as their anti-air missile complement was only sufficient for point defense.
[63] The Spruance-class destroyers were the first ships in the United States Navy powered with gas turbines—four marine turboshaft (jet-type) engines driving two shafts with reversible-pitch propellers.
The 31 Spruance-class ships began service in September 1975 through the 1990s, when 24 members of the class were upgraded with vertical launching systems, and the last was decommissioned in 2005.
[64] In 1979, a revolution took place in Iran; the Shah was dethroned, but instead of cancelling the four ships, they were acquired by the U.S. Navy, where they were nicknamed the "Ayatollah" or "dead Admiral" class.
Production during this period is a cold arms race where each nation tries to make the most of the limited tonnage that the international treaties allow.
The Consolidated Steel yard in Orange, the Seattle-Tacoma plant in Seattle and Bethlehem San Pedro were essentially purpose-built to produce destroyers between the fall of 1940 and the spring of 1941.
