U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History [Hardcover]

This book encompasses the design history of US destroyers. It provies unique details of the deisgn and construction, and eventual combat operations of destroyers. It goes from the very first to today's highly advanced destroyers. It is not for the novice, but makes a valuable addition to a maratime history library

The original edition of this book came out in mid-1980s. There has been a tremendous amount of change in American destroyer design since this book was first published. Indeed, while this book is five stars it should be noted that with the new additions of the coming DDX (stealthy destroyer) and the Sea Fighter (a catamaran) that there is no way in which Dr. Friedman can keep up with the changes that are presently taking place in destroyer design and development while keeping his book current. Dr. Friedman would need a frequently updated web site to keep up with destroyer design changes. That is beyond the scope of this book.

This book is extremely technical. Indeed, about the only thing that Dr. Friedman does not give an observer is the steam pressures of the power plants or the frequencies of the radar systems. Dr. Friedman will give the firing rates for weapons systems, the loads for a torpedo battery, and all of the light weapons that are given to a typical destroyer in a period.

This book follows a fairly logical break down of the ships assigned to the US Navy. The first part of this book on destroyers covers the developments of the Torpedo Boat Destroyers to the Flush deckers, the old "four piper" destroyers. The early era of destroyer development goes from the Bainbridge of 1906 to the end of WWII. A full chapter is given to the flush deck destroyers of World War One. Congress does not allow any new destroyers to be made during the 1920s; there are hundreds of destroyers in storage. The book seemlessly transitions into the pre-World War Two destroyers. The second part of this book covers destroyers from about 1930 until 1950, the start of the cold war era. A good part of the book is used to explain the development of the new generation of destroyers, the attempted destroyer's leaders, the very successful Fletcher class, and the extremely good destroyer escorts. Note, a full chapter is given to the Fletcher class and a full chapter is given to the very successful destroyer escorts of WWII. There is a chapter on WWII destroyer warfare. It should be noted that the extremely good gunnery of Taffy 3 is noted in the Battle of the Philippines; it is one reason why the destroyer succeeded the cruiser as the main capital surface ship of the US Navy, after the aircraft carrier. The third part of this book is the Cold War era destroyers. This covers everything from the conversions of the Gearings and Fletcher class under the FRAM I and II upgrades, to the conversion of the DE to picket ships, and the coming of the Guided Missile Destroyer. Note, Dr. Friedman includes the Ticonderoga CG class as a destroyer, not a cruiser. The 1970 to 1990 era of ship development include the nuclear powered destroyers to the mostly wrongly treated class of warship, the Perry Frigate.

The most surprising thing about this book is the updated sections starting in chapters 15, 16, and 17. Dr. Friedman has surprising detail on the coming of the Arleigh Burke class of destroyer. The Arleigh Burke class of destroyer may well be the last destroyer ever made in the USA, but Dr. Friedman can't write that at this point. Why will the Burke be the last destroyer? The mission of the destroyer is changing to more littoral than pure blue water. The British government has abandoned the destroyer designation for the closer descriptions of Frigates and Corvettes. But those two subjects are covered in Dr. Friedman's other book, British Destroyers, an illustrated design history. Dr. Friedman can only report on the design names of the US Navy, not change the designations themselves.

The amount of information on the Arleigh Burke class of destroyer is staggering. Indeed, a plan of the US Navy was to use the basic hull of the Burke as a replacement for everything from the Perry frigates to the sea controlling Ticonderoga cruisers. Considering that the Burke can trace its hull to the original Spruance hull says that the original design was quite impressive. The prototype of the Spruance was made in the late 1960s and the Burke destroyers will be sailing well until 2040 or later.

Dr. Friedman devotes quite a bit of space to the aborted arsenal ship. It is needed because a typical reader will not understand that the VLS missile launcher and various guidance systems are the true heart of a large modern warship.

The SWATH Ship Concept, SWATH is an acronym meaning Small-Waterplane-Area Twin-Hull, is a new generation naval ship that could well replace the destroyer in littoral fighting. Presently, the US Navy has two SWATH type ships, both purchased since the publishing of this book. The first is a commercial off-the-shelf purchasing of an existing high speed catamaran. The second, the USS Sea Fighter, is about a 260 foot long catamaran than can travel at over 70 km per hour, can carry many modular weapons systems, and may well be the future of surface warfare.

Where Dr. Friedman's book really shines is in the proposed development of the Perry class frigates. Note, Dr Friedman writes that the early Arleigh Burkes had to depend upon the helicopter support of the Perry frigates. When the Perry class frigates are sold/given to other nations these very good ships are rebuilt into junior versions of a Spruance destroyers. Indeed, many of the older Perry's are retrofitted with the VLS and better cannon systems and are a much better bargain for their navies.

Dr. Friedman's books of Cruisers, Battleships, Carriers, and Submarines are an indispensable part of any naval historian's library. Dr. Friedman does a great job of giving the full development of the US Destroyer. The only fault of this book is the technology is changing so fast that the information can become obsolete as it is written on the page.

This books is a five star book and is worthy of a special place in any Naval historian library.

One of the more surprising aspects of this work is that it was produced by a UK publishing company and not by one from the USA. I say that because one might expect to find the definitive work on US Destroyers published in the USA but not so in this case.

As, a shipwreck historian, my work involves researching prominent shipwrecks - well it would, wouldn't it? I do not profess, therefore, to be expert on all matters naval. Nevertheless, there are times when my research takes me into just about every area of shipping ever devised by man and that includes US Destroyers.

Consequently, I am currently looking into the details of a small number of famous US Destroyers such as the Aaron Ward for example. Whilst my earlier research into these vessels was already well advanced, I found much within the pages of this book which added to and expanded on what I had learned thus far.

With an excellent selection of illustrations, line drawings and photographs, this books explains those small differences which marked one warship of the same class from another and also demonstrated how an earlier photograph of the same ship differentiated from a later picture.

Altogether, this is a work of supreme research and production and, just as the full title suggests, provides a complete history of the design of US Destroyers

NM

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