Guided missiles removed Perry-class frigates

Sea Power, Sep 2003

The Navy's Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigates (FFGs) are being stripped of their guided missiles, but the frigate will remain in service as a valuable "utility infielder," a Navy surface-warfare admiral said.

Rear Adm. Mark J. Edwards, deputy director of the Surface Warfare Division of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, confirmed to Sea Power on 6 August in a briefing sponsored by the Potomac Institute of Policy Studies that the Standard SM-1 surface-to-air missiles and AGM-84 Harpoon antiship cruise missiles are being removed from all Perry-class FFGs. The old SM-1 missile is no longer sustainable and is being retired from the Navy, and its Mk13 launcher also is being removed from the FFGs. Because the Harpoon missile is fired from the same launcher, it also will no longer be deployed on the FFGs.

Armament remaining on the FFGs includes a Mk75 76mm gun, antisubmarine torpedoes, the Mk15 Close-in Weapon System (CIWS), and the SH-60 helicopter armed with torpedoes and with Hellfire and Penguin antiship missiles. Edwards said that the Navy is considering installing the SeaRAM-a RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile launcher connected with the radar of the CIWS-on the FFGs.

Edwards stressed that the missile-less Perry-class ships retain "tremendous warfighting capability," have access to areas where other ships cannot go, and work well with the navies and coast guards of other nations. The ship's remaining combat systems-especially the SH-60 helicopter and the MH-60 that will replace it-will give the ships a high level of combat capability.