Gearing class destroyer

USS Gearing (DD-710)
Class overview
Name:	Gearing class destroyer
Builders:	Bath Iron Works Bethlehem Steel, Fore River Shipyard
Operators:	United States Navy Republic of China Navy (Taiwan)  Hellenic Navy  Republic of Korea Navy  Spanish Navy  Turkish Navy  Pakistan Navy Argentine Navy Brazilian Navy  Mexican Navy  Ecuadorian Navy  Islamic Republic of Iran Navy
Preceded by:	Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer
Succeeded by:	Mitscher-class destroyer
Planned:	152
Completed:	98
Cancelled:	7
Retired:	98
Preserved:	2
General characteristics as originally built
Type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	2,616 tons standard; 3,460 tons full load
Length:	390.5 ft (119.0 m)
Beam:	40.9 ft (12.5 m)
Draft:	14.3 ft (4.4 m)
Propulsion:	2 shaft; General Electric steam turbines; 4 boilers; 60,000 shp
Speed:	36.8 knots (68.2 km/h)
Range:	4,500 nmi at 20 knots (8,300 km at 37 km/h)
Armament:	6 × 5 in /38 cal guns (3×2) guided by a Mark 37 Gun Fire Control System with a Mk25 fire control radar linked by a Mark 1A Fire Control Computer stabilized by a Mk6 8,500 rpm gyro. 12 × 40 mm Bofors gun (2×2, 2×4) 16 × 20 mm Oerlikon cannon 10 × 21 inch torpedo tubes

The Gearing class was a group of 98 destroyers built for the US Navy during and shortly after World War II. The Gearing design was a minor modification of the immediately preceding Allen M. Sumner class. The hull was lengthened 14 ft (4.3 m) amidships, creating more storage space for fuel, thus giving the ships a larger range than the Sumners.

The first Gearings were not ready for service until mid-1945, so they saw relatively little wartime service. They continued serving, with a series of upgrades, until the 1970s. At that time many were sold to other nations, where they served many more years.

Two Gearing-class ships still exist, as museum ships: USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (DD-850) in Fall River, MA, and USS Orleck (DD-886) in Lake Charles, LA.

FRAM I upgrade

In the late 1950s forty-four of the Gearing-class destroyers underwent extensive modernization overhauls, known as FRAM I, which were designed to convert them from an AA destroyer to an anti-submarine warfare platform.

The FRAM MK I program was designed primarily for the Gearing-class destroyers. This upgrade included rebuilding the ship's superstructure, engines, electronic systems, radar, sonar, and weapons. The second twin 5" gun mount was removed. Upgraded systems include SQS-23 sonar, SPS-10 surface search radar, 2 × triple Mk 32 torpedo launchers, 8-cell ASROC box launcher, and QH-50C DASH ASW drone helicopter, with its own landing pad and hangar.^[1]

The Gyrodyne QH-50C DASH was an unmanned anti-submarine helicopter, controlled remotely from the ship. The drone could carry 2 × MK.44 homing ASW torpedoes. During this era the ASROC system had an effective range of only 5 nautical miles (9 km), but the DASH drone allowed the ship to deploy ASW attack to sonar contacts as far as 22 nautical miles (41 km) away.^[2]

An upgraded version of DASH, QH-50D, remained in use by the US Army until May, 2006.^[3]

FRAM II upgrade

The FRAM MK II program was designed primarily for the Sumner-class destroyers, but were used to upgrade the Gearing class as well. This upgrade program includes life-extension refurbishment, a new radar system, Mk. 32 torpedo, DASH ASW drone, and most importantly, a new variable depth sonar (VDS).

Yang class

After the Gearing-class ships were retired from USN service, many were sold abroad, including over a dozen to the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) in Taiwan. These ships, along with Fletcher-class and Allen M. Sumner-class destroyers also acquired then, were upgraded under the Wu Chin I, II, and III programs and known throughout the ROCN as the Yang-class (Chinese: 陽字號) destroyers as they were assigned names that all end with the word "Yang". The last batch of 7 WC-III program vessels, all of them Gearing class, were retired in early 2000s.^[4]

Under the most advanced Wu Chin III upgrade program, all World War Two vintage weapons were removed and replaced with 4 × Hsiung Feng II SSM, 10 × SM-1^{[disambiguation needed ]} (box launchers), 1 × 8-cell ASROC, 1 × 76 mm gun, 2 × 40 mm/70 AA, 1 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS and 2 × triple 12.75" torpedo tubes. The DASH ASW drones were not acquired, but hangar facilities aboard those ships that had them were later used to accommodate ASW version of Hughes MD500 helicopters.

After the Yang-class destroyers were decommissioned, the SM-1 launch boxes were moved to Chi Yang-class frigates to improve their anti-air capability.

References

1. ^ http://www.gyrodynehelicopters.com/fram.htm
2. ^ http://www.gyrodynehelicopters.com/qh-50c1.htm
3. ^ http://www.gyrodynehelicopters.com/gyrodyne_today.htm
4. ^ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/taiwan/chao-yang.htm

External links

• Gearing-class destroyers at Destroyer History Foundation
• http://www.gyrodynehelicopters.com/gearing_class.htm