Edsall-class destroyer escort

This article is missing information about the history of the subject. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (May 2012)

USS Edsall
Class overview
Name	Edsall class
Builders	Consolidated Steel, TX Brown Shipbuilding, TX
Operators	United States Navy  United States Coast Guard  Mexican Navy  Philippine Navy  Tunisian National Navy  Republic of Vietnam Navy  Vietnam People's Navy
Preceded by	Cannon class
Succeeded by	Rudderow class
In commission	1943–2015
Planned	85
Completed	85
Lost	5
Retired	84
Scrapped	75
Preserved	1
General characteristics
Type	Destroyer escort
Displacement	1,253 tons standard 1,590 tons full load
Length	306 ft (93.3 m)
Beam	36 ft 7 in (11.2 m)
Draft	10 ft 5 in (3.2 m)
Propulsion	2-shaft Fairbanks-Morse geared diesel engines, 6,000 bhp (4,500 kW)
Speed	21 kn (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range	10,800 nmi (20,000 km; 12,400 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	186
Sensors and processing systems	1 × SC radar
Armament	3 × single 3 in (76 mm)/50 guns 1 × twin 40 mm AA guns 8 × single 20 mm AA guns 1 × triple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 8 × depth charge projectors 1 × depth charge projector (hedgehog) 2 × depth charge tracks

The Edsall-class destroyer escorts were destroyer escorts built primarily for ocean antisubmarine escort service during World War II. The lead ship, USS Edsall, was commissioned on 10 April 1943 at Orange, Texas. The class was also known as the FMR type from their Fairbanks-Morse reduction-geared diesel drive, with a type of engine used in the submarines of the time. The FMR's substitution for a diesel-electric power plant was the essential difference from the predecessor Cannon ("DET") class.^[1] This was the only World War II destroyer escort class in which all the ships originally ordered were completed as United States Navy destroyer escorts.^[2]

Destroyer escorts were regular companions escorting the vulnerable cargo ships. Late in the war, plans were made to replace the 3-inch (76 mm) guns with 5-inch (127 mm) guns, but only Camp was refitted (after a collision). In total, all 85 were completed by two shipbuilding companies: Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas (47), and Brown Shipbuilding, Houston, Texas (38). Most were en route to the Pacific Theater when Japan surrendered. One of the ships participated in Operation Dragoon and two were attacked by German guided missiles.