How Many Perry Class Frigates Are Awaiting Disposal?

The Oliver Hazard Perry class is a guided-missile frigate class, named after U.S. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, a commander known for his role in the Battle of Lake Erie. These warships were designed in the United States in the mid-1970s and were a primary support warship in the US Navy’s surface fleet. They performed vital functions, such as anti-submarine. However, the last active-duty Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates decommissioned in 2015 without an onboard ceremony.

The US Navy has concluded its annual training exercise Valiant Shield, which included joint operations at sea, air, land, and cyberspace. The Navy estimates that bringing back 10 of the Perry-class frigates would cost in excess of 4.32 billion over 10 years, taking away from money needed to modernize the Navy’s existing cruisers. The Navy has not made a final determination if it will reactivate decommissioned Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates in its push to expand to a 355 ship fleet despite an internal report that said reactivating the ships could cost.

The Oliver Hazard Perry Class guided missile frigates are the most numerous of any U.S. Navy ship class yet, but there is little published on their shiphandling. The Navy has been reducing the number of inactive ships, which numbered as many as 195 in 1997, but was down to 49 by the end of 2014. The twenty-two remaining Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigates are currently largely useless, but the cost will be partly offset by the decommissioning and disposal of the two older frigates.

The Navy cannot shortchange the needs of Oliver Hazard Perry- and Knox-class frigates because it is expensive to fix them, as they provide too much of the Navy’s surface fleet.