Perth class destroyer

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HMAS Perth

HMAS Perth at sea 1980

HMAS Perth and HMAS Brisbane in 1995

The Perth class is the name given to the modified Charles F. Adams class destroyers of the Royal Australian Navy. The three Perth class vessels were the first guided missile-armed destroyers in the Royal Australian Navy. Based on the Charles F. Adams class of guided missile destroyer of the US Navy, the class came about from a requirement for the RAN to purchase guided missile armed vessels; traditionally the RAN up to then had purchased designs based on those of the Royal Navy. However, the County class destroyer entering service in the RN provoked doubts, especially regarding its Sea Slug missile system. As a consequence, the RAN looked elsewhere for a design that met their specifically Australian requirements, and led to the government ordering two modified Charles F. Adams class destroyers from Defoe Shipbuilding Company of Bay City, Michigan in January 1962, with a third ordered in June 1963:

The main modification from the American ships being built at the same time was the addition of two broad deckhouses between the funnels for the Ikara ASW missile system, and having a single arm missile launcher rather than a twin arm launcher. The ships were the first of a series of American designs to enter service in the RAN.

Once commissioned, all three units served in the Vietnam War as part of the US Seventh Fleet, providing both area air defence for the US aircraft carriers and naval gunfire support for troops inland. For their service in Vietnam, both Perth and Hobart were awarded unit decorations by the United States. Brisbane also served as part of the RAN commitment to the Gulf War in 1991. In 1993, the Charles F. Adams class destroyer USS Goldsborough, which had been recently decommissioned by the US Navy, was purchased by the RAN as a spares hulk for the three Perth class units. All three units were decommissioned between 1999 and 2001. Following their withdrawal, all three were sunk as dive wrecks off the coast of Australia.

1 Specifications
2 Ships
3 Replacement
4 External links

[edit] Specifications

Displacement: 4,720 tons
Dimensions: length 133.2 metres, beam 14.3 metres, draught 6.1 metres
Armament:
- 2 x 127 mm (5") mark 42 mod 10 automatic rapid fire guns
- 1 x Mk 13 single arm launcher for SM-1 missile (initially Tartar)
- 2 x Ikara ASW missile systems (removed 1989-1991)
- 2 x Mk 15 Vulcan Phalanx (first fitted in 1990, rotated between ships)
- 2 x triple 324 mm torpedo tubes
Propulsion: 2 x GE steam turbines; 2 shafts; 70,000 shaft horse power (52 MW)
Speed: 30+ knots

[edit] Ships

Name	Pennant	Builder	Launched	Commissioned	Home port	Status
HMAS Perth	D 38	Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan	September 28, 1963	July 17, 1965	Fleet Base East	Sunk as dive wreck
HMAS Hobart	D 39	Defoe Shipbuilding, Bay City, Michigan	January 9, 1964	December 18, 1965	Fleet Base East	Sunk as dive wreck
ex-USS Goldsborough (DDG-20)¹	(40)²	Puget Sound Bridge and Dry Dock Company, Seattle	15 December 1961	26 December 1993	Fleet Base East	Used as Spares Hulk, then scrapped
HMAS Brisbane	D 41	Defoe Shipbuilding, Bay City, Michigan	May 5, 1966	December 16, 1967	Fleet Base East	Sunk as dive wreck

Note 1: The ex-USS Goldsborough was purchased by the RAN as a source of spares for its three units. The ship was never officially part of the RAN fleet.
Note 2: The Goldsborough never received an official pennant number. The RAN crew assigned with identifying usable equipment painted the number "40" on the ship's bow, to fill in the missing number^[1]

[edit] Replacement

There was no direct replacement of the Perth class following their withdrawal from service, with the area air defence role instead taken by the Adelaide class guided missile frigate, armed with the SM-1 missile. Four of the six Adelaide class, are being upgraded as a makeshift gap-filler (while the two oldest Adelaides are decommissioned), with the addition of an eight cell Mk 41 VLS armed with ESSM, and the replacement of SM-1 with SM-2. However, the Sea 4000 Project will see the construction of three brand new air defence destroyers equipped with the Aegis combat system, projected to enter service from 2013. Two of these units will be named Hobart and Brisbane.