Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization

The Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization , abbreviated as FRAM , was a conversion program of the United States Navy , primarily to upgrade destroyers that had been designed in World War II .

In 1957, the Navy estimated that the Soviet Union had around 300 fighter submarines in service. However, since the US Navy was busy upgrading its cruisers and aircraft carrier fleets, there was hardly any shipyard capacity to build ships for submarine hunts , i.e. frigates or destroyers . That is why the Chief of Naval Operations , Admiral Arleigh Burke , devised the Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization Program . The first ships went to the shipyards in 1959, the last in 1964.

destroyer

During FRAM-I , 79 gearing-class destroyers were completely redesigned. For this, the superstructures with electronics and weapon systems as well as the drive system were removed and rebuilt. Above all, the ships received the new ASROC system and the Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter ( DASH ), a remote-controlled small helicopter with torpedo armament. The ships that received FRAM-I were to be kept in service for eight years longer. The cost of this was $ 7.7 million per unit.

FRAM-II went through 33 Allen-M.-Sumner-class destroyers , 16 gearings and three Fletcher-class destroyers . Here the armament of the ships was modernized (new torpedo tubes, but no ASROC launcher) and the electronics, some received DASH . The ships that received FRAM-II were to be kept in service for five years longer while the cost was $ 4.5 million per ship.

Other types of ships

Other ship classes were converted as part of FRAM:

• four (at that time) frigates (English Destroyer Leader / DL) of the Mitscher class
• 13 Dealey-class escort ships
• eight Essex-class anti- submarine aircraft carriers
• nine submarines Balao-class submarine and the Tench class that after Guppy II had been rebuilt
• two Sailfish-class submarines
• the six Tang-class submarines
• the submarine darter
• the three boxer-class helicopter carriers
• two Mount McKinley-class amphibious flagships
• 19 Ashland-class amphibious dockers
• 13 Chariot Landing Ships (LST) of the LST-511 class
• six troop transports (APA) of types C3-S-A2 and VC2-S-AP5
• approx. five fast landing transporters (APD) of the Rudderow class and the Buckley class
• five Dixie-class destroyer tenders
• eight Arcadia-class destroyer tenders
• six Fulton-class submarine tenders

literature

• Stefan Terzibaschitsch : The FRAM modernization program of the US Navy (Defense Science Reports 17). JF Lehmanns, Munich 1975. ISBN 3469005494 (new edition as own edition, Leonberg 1999)

Web links

• FRAM on gyrodynehelicopters.com (engl.)