USS Farragut (DLG-6/DDG-37) was the lead ship of her class of guided-missile destroyers (originally destroyer leaders) built for the United States Navy during the 1950s.
Design and description
The Farragut class was the first class of missile-armed carrier escorts to be built as such for the USN.
The ships were equipped with two geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by 4 water-tube boilers. The turbines were intended to produce to reach the designed speed of . The Farragut class had a range of at a speed of .
The Farragut-class ships were armed with a 5"/54 caliber Mark 42 gun forward and two twin mounts for 3-inch/50-caliber guns, one on each broadside amidships. They were fitted with an eight-round ASROC launcher between the 5-inch (127 mm) gun and the bridge. The Farragut (DDG-37) was the only ship of her class that had an ASROC magazine mounted behind the launcher. The class was already top-heavy and the addition of the magazine reportedly made it worse, so the decision was made not to equip the other nine ships with magazines. Close-range anti-submarine defense was provided by two triple sets of Mk 32 torpedo tubes. The primary armament of the Farraguts was the Terrier anti-aircraft missile designed to defend the carrier battle group. They were fired via the dual-arm Mark 10 launcher and the ships stowed a total of 40 missiles for the launcher.