The U.S. Navy is "taking a hard look" at reactivating decommissioned frigates to help it reach its goal of 355 ships. The Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigates were retired in the 2000s in a cost-cutting move, but they could be returned to duty for another decade or more of service.

The Perry- class frigate was designed in the 1970s as an escort for U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. Although they weighed only 4,100 tons, the Perry frigates were excellent mixed-mission vessels. Their main weapon system was a Mark 13 guided missile launcher, capable of firing SM-1MR surface to air missiles and Harpoon anti-ship missiles and fed from a 40-round internal magazine. (Ironically this gave the frigates more potential anti-ship firepower than a modern U.S. Navy cruiser.) The frigates also wielded a single Italian-made 3-inch rapid-fire gun, six anti-submarine torpedo tubes, a Phalanx close-in weapon system for last-ditch defense, and carried a single SH-2 Seasprite or SH-60 helicopter.

Perry class frigate 76-millimeter gun in action. U.S. Navy photo.

Perrys were designed for anti-submarine warfare, and their hull-mounted and towed sonar arrays—coupled with anti-submarine torpedoes and a helicopter—made them capable sub chasers. But the Navy also designed them as "low-end" vessels capable of handling less demanding tasks that didn't require a destroyer or cruiser. Anti-piracy and convoy protection missions were right up their alley. At the end of the Cold War the U.S. Navy had 51 Perrys-class frigates, and another 20 were built for U.S. allies Taiwan, Australia, and Spain.

The Perry frigates were retired throughout the 2000s and 2010s as the Navy sought to shed less-capable ships while retaining more capable vessels such as the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. While the Navy was able to keep these high-end platforms, its move led to ridiculous displays such as $1.3 billion Burke-class destroyers chasing Somali pirates in $1,000 skiffs.

The Perrys were originally supposed to be replaced by the Littoral Combat Ship, but delays in the program meant the Perrys were retired before LCS hit the fleet in any meaningful numbers. A lack of useful armament for the LCS ships and agonizingly slow progress on so-called "mission modules" for the new ships has resulted in the Perrys being replaced by fewer, lesser ships.

USS Rodney M. Davis. Note 25-millimeter gun which replaced the Mk. 13 missile launcher. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Derek A. Harkins.

Now, as reported by USNI News, the Navy is considering bring up to eight of them back. USNI quoted Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson at a Naval War College forum as saying: "We're taking a hard look at the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates. There's seven or eight of those that we could take a look at but those are some old ships and everything on these ships is old… a lot has changed since we last modernized those."

What would a Perry-class frigate returned to service look like? Modifications to the ships would have to be modest while at the same time make it worthwhile to bring them back. One option is to replace the Mk 13 missile launcher, removed from the ships in the 2000s due to the retirement of the SM-1MR surface-to-air missile, with eight Mk. 41 missile silos . This is a modification pioneered by the Australian and Turkish Navies to upgrade their own Perry frigates. Each silo can carry one SM-2 medium range surface to air missile , one SM-6 long range SAM , one SM-3 ballistic missile interceptor , a single Tomahawk missile , or an ASROC rocket-propelled anti-submarine torpedo . A single Mk. 41 can also carry four short-range Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles. All of this means that ships equipped with the Mk. 41 have tremendous flexibility built into them, allowing the Navy to tailor their weapons load to the mission.

The destroyer USS Barry launches an ASROC anti-submarine torpedo from a Mk.41 vertical launch system. U.S. Navy photo.

In one scenario, a Perry-class frigate could be paired with a Burke-class destroyer, using ship-to-ship datalinks to allow the destroyer to launch the frigate's missiles. This would increase the destroyer's overall firepower. Instead of revamping the Perry's helicopter hangar to bring it up to modern standards, a Perry could be fitted to fly the Navy's TERN vertical takeoff and landing drone currently under development. Instead of installing modern radars, sonar, and other expensive, high-end sensors, the Perry would instead function as a wingman to existing destroyers and cruisers. The Perrys would also act independently in low-end missions, such as anti-piracy missions and showing the flag in low-threat areas.

Whether that's enough to justify what would probably be a quarter-billion-dollar upgrade is another matter.

Could the Perrys come back? As long as the ships are in decent condition and it costs less than a Littoral Combat Ship it is quite possible. President Trump's first defense budget, for all of his campaign promises, did not deliver the funding to start construction of his vaunted 350-ship fleet. A Navy that has received such mixed messages has to plan conservatively. Two things are for certain: There's a hole in the Navy's force structure that needs filling, and not a lot of money to fill it.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io