Bronstein-class Frigate
The Bronstein-class frigates were United States Navy warships, originally laid down as ocean escorts (formerly called destroyer escorts), but were all redesignated as frigates on June 30th 1975 in the United States Navy 1975 ship reclassification and their hull designation changed from DE to FF.
The lead ship of the class was Bronstein, laid down May 16th 1961 and commissioned June 15th 1963, at the Avondale Shipyards in Westwego, Louisiana.
This class comprised the second generation of post-World War II destroyer escorts. These ships can be considered developmental vessels as many new systems were installed to test for future use, such as a new hull design, larger bow-mounted AN/SQS-26AX sonar system, and ASW weaponry. This class was a new design from the keel up, incorporating the FRAM improvements, and was specifically designed to operate the DASH drone helicopter. The sonar was later upgraded to the AN/SQS-26AX(R).
The top weight of the new ASW equipment and the large bow-mounted sonar made the Bronstein frigates too slow to operate with the ASW task forces for which they had been designed. Thus the US Navy decided against any further procurement of ships of this class. The later Garcia-class frigates were given a larger power plant and greater speed.
Unit Run[edit | edit source]
- USS Bronstein (FF-1038) - sold to Mexico, renamed ARM Nicolas Bravo (F201)
- USS McCloy (FF-1039) - sold to Mexico, renamed ARM Hermenegildo Galeana (F202)
