Tuesday, April 4, 2017

How tough were the Oliver Hazard Perry class US Frigates?

This tough.  During a live fire exercise in 2016, one took this much punishment and still took 12 hours to sink!
On July 14, 2016, USS Thach took over 12 hours to sink after being used in a live-fire, SINKEX during naval exercise RIMPAC 2016. During the exercise, the ship was directly or indirectly hit with the following ordnance: a Harpoon missile from a South Korean submarine, another Harpoon missile from the Australian frigate HMAS Ballarat, a Hellfire missile from an Australian SH-60S helicopter, another Harpoon missile and a Maverick missile from US maritime patrol aircraft, another Harpoon missile from the cruiser USS Princeton, additional Hellfire missiles from an American SH-60S Navy helicopter, a 2,000-pound Mark 84 bomb from a US Navy F/A-18 Hornet, a GBU-12 Paveway laser-guided 500-pound bomb from a US Air Force B-52 bomber, and a Mark 48 torpedo from an unnamed US Navy submarine.

That, my friends, is a major pounding.  I wonder how much it would take to sink a new LCS?

More on the class from Wikipedia:

The Oliver Hazard Perry class is a class of guided missile frigates named after the American Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of the naval Battle of Lake Erie. Also known as the Perry or FFG-7 class, the warships were designed in the United States in the mid-1970s as general-purpose escort vessels inexpensive enough to be bought in large quantities to replace World War II-era destroyers and complement 1960s-era Knox-class frigates. In Admiral Elmo Zumwalt's "high low fleet plan", the FFG-7s were the low capability ships with the Spruance-classdestroyers serving as the high capability ships. Intended to protect amphibious landing forces, supply and replenishment groups, and merchant convoys from aircraft and submarines, they were also later part of battleship-centred surface action groups and aircraft carrier battle groups/strike groups.[1] Fifty-five ships were built in the United States: 51 for the United States Navy and four for the Royal Australian Navy.

Via Woodpile Report

6 comments:

  1. The FFG-7's were definitely low capability ships. Their job was first, foremost and exclusively Anti-Submarine Warfare. Their AAW capability was one standard missile rail. They were notorious in their down-time. The box launchers of subsequent classes (copied from the Russians) are much more reliable.

    Having said that if they set Condition Zulu on the ship, it's going to be very difficult to sink.

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  2. These target vessels are stripped of fuel and arms. Nothing to explode or burn when hit unlike active duty vessels.

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  3. You have a binary solution set. 0-the ship is tough, 1-the Harpoon has a little wimpy warhead.

    To really sink a stripped and sealed up warship one needs to hole it at or below the waterline as with the Samuel B. Roberts.

    I found the ship's to be of very little use and they frequently inconvenienced my plans when, for instance, their rudders kept falling off.

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    1. Their rudders kept falling off? That's not very good!

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    2. The Little Crappy Ships (LCS) are not much better, CW.

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    3. Why does LL have to comment on EVERY THING?

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