Garcia-class frigate

Garcia-class frigates were United States Navy warships. These frigates were originally ocean escorts 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 (ASW) combatants for amphibious expeditionary forces, underway replenishment groups and merchant convoys.

The Garcia class was a larger version of the Bronstein class. 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 submarines in the late 1950s, but their speed was insufficient to keep pace with anti-submarine warfare (ASW) groups and their gun (naval artillery) 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, Mk.112 ASROC rocket launcher, QH-50 DASH 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.

There were two distinct breeds of ships bearing the DE hull classification, the World War II destroyer escorts (some of which were converted to DERs) and the postwar DE/DEG classes, which were known as ocean escorts 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.

After decommissioning, Bradley, Davidson, Sample, and Albert David 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. Glover 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

Davidson with vertical bridge structure
Koelsch with angled lower bridge structure for automatic ASROC loading. All units Voge and later were similarly equipped
Sample with two gun mounts
Glover with only one gun mount
Bradley with RIM-7 Sea Sparrow BPDMS installed. Installed and removed c.1967-1968.
Stern view of Bradley, note torpedo tubes installed in the transom, later removed.