The New Frigate

摘要

With the retirement later this year of the last Perry-class guided-missile frigates, the U.S. fleet was to be without frigates indefinitely. But Navy Secretary Ray Mabus came to the "rescue" in January with the decision to designate the 20 future modified littoral combat ships (LCSs) as frigates. The frigate designation also is likely to extend to many of the 32 LCSs already planned or programmed. Mabus told reporters the changes would be made all at once. "It's a frigate," Mabus said in a Jan. 15 address to the Surface Navy Association National Symposium in Arlington, Va. "We're going to call it that. We're going to change the hull designation to FF, instead of LCS.