''Garcia''-class frigates were

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

warships A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and ...

. These

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

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 The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use a hull classification symbol (sometimes called hull code or hull number) to identify their ships by type and by ind ...

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 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 are t ...

(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 followed by the similar ''Brooke'' class, which was given guided missile armament. The ''Bronstein'' ocean escort was a response to the development of high speed nuclear

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s in the late 1950s. They were powered by

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

s instead of

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s and incorporated a first class

(ASW) weapon system: 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 navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect 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 it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

launcher, and MK 32

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

tubes. Gun (naval

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

) armament (MK 33 3 inch/50

caliber In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...

) was changed in the ''Garcia'' class to two MK 30 5 inch/38 caliber guns. There were two distinct breeds of ships bearing the DE hull classification, the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

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

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 t ...

. 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) remains in reserve as of 2015. 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 RIM-7 Sea Sparrow is a U.S. ship-borne short-range 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 Sparrow air-to-air missile as ...

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.

Notes

External links

''Garcia''-class frigates
a
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
Garcia
picture

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
Destroyer Escort Sailors Association
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 ...

link, was

dead Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia Class Frigate Garcia Garcia Frigate classes

Description

Ships

Gallery

See also

Notes

External links