Big Navy Says The First Of Its New Frigates Will Be Named USS Brooke

| July 21, 2020


FFG(X) Artist’s Conception

Unless it isn’t.
The Navy hasn’t fielded a frigate since the 1977 Cold War era FFG 7 Oliver Hazard Perry, lead ship in a class of 51 and nicknamed OHP’s or Fig 7’s. Pretty decent escorts too, if memory serves. Some are still at sea under other country’s flags.
I digress.
Time to contract for a new Fig class with an accurate, if unglamorous name of FFG(X).

BY JOSEPH TREVITHICK

A Pentagon contracting announcements indicates that the first of the U.S. Navy’s new class of guided-missile frigates, commonly referred to as FFG(X), will be named the USS Brooke. Former Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly had sought to the name the first of these ships the USS Agility, before resigning earlier this year amid a scandal having to do with a serious COVID-19 outbreak on the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.

The mention of a new frigate named USS Brooke appeared in the Pentagon’s daily contracting notice for July 17, 2020, in an entry having to do with the purchase of Raytheon Enterprise Air Surveillance Radars (EASR), which you can read about in more detail here. The FFG(X)s, among other future Navy ships, are slated to receive a fixed-face variant of the EASR radar, now designated the AN/SPY-6(V)3.

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The hull number given, FFG-1, appears to be a typo, as it has already been reported that the first FFG(X) will be FFG-80. FFG-1 refers to a previous first-in-class USS Brooke, a guided-missile frigate that first entered service with the Navy in 1966. The service has not named any other ships after John Mercer Brooke, a 19th Century American naval officer, as well as scientist and engineer, who played a key role in the laying of the Great Transatlantic Cable, since then.

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While it remains unconfirmed, Brooke certainly seems like it might make sense name for these new FFG(X)s. It has more significant Navy history and heritage behind it than former Acting Secretary of the Navy Modly’s proposed Agility class. Additional suggested names for further ships in the class included Dauntless, Endeavor, and Intrepid, according to a document USNI News obtained in April. Navy officials reportedly rejected these proposals entirely.

However, John Mercer Brooke also resigned his Navy commission during the American Civil War to join the Confederacy, becoming a key figure in the Confederate Navy, including being involved in the conversion of the ironclad CSS Virginia. Naming a ship after him now, at a time when there is a renewed push to remove monuments and other references to the Confederacy from public display across the United States, including within the U.S. military, could prove controversial, at best.

There is precedent, two actually. USS Chancellorsville (CG-62) and USNS Maury (T-AGS-66). The former is named after what is arguably Confederate General Lee’s greatest battlefield victory, and the latter for Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, the “Father of Modern Oceanography” who also resigned from the US Navy to sail for the Confederacy. All of this is of course immaterial, and the chances of FFG-80 commissioned as USS Brooke are between slim and none.

Read the entire article here: The Drive

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Navy

25 Comments
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26Limabeans

Name it the Donald Trump One and then the next
ship can be named the Donald Trump two and so on.

MustangCryppie

LOL! I have a couple of lib acquaintances who would go into cardiac arrest on the spot!

But…maybe it would be better to name the first after PDT, then Melania, then Jr, then Ivanka, then…

Mustang Major

Naming the new FFG(X) after John Mercer Brooke, a Confederate figure, is dead in the water.

5th/77th FA

Not only that MM we must strike the name completely from the other ships named for him, melt down all Brooke Rifled Cannon, pull up all Trans-Atlantic communications cables, AND destroy all underwater maps. Oh and get rid of all metal ships, after all, The CSS Virginia was the FIRST of the armoured warships and he was instrumental in that. You can go ahead and blame him for the assault on Pearl Harbor due to his working with the Japanese Navy in the 1870s. He may even be responsible for the production of a certain shogun movie; they had to change the setting from Japanese Navy to Japanese Army since the star had already lost his loving feeling getting his goose cooked in a beach volley ball game. I need some ice, man.

I like the idea of naming these ships after Chiefs, after all, the NCOs (of all branches) are the ones that make sure the actual work will get done. Don’t think that will happen though cause, after all, many Navy Chiefs are, gasp…wait for it….Southerners!

26Limabeans

I like naming them after the States or small towns
that gave more than their share in blood.

Lots of Southern blood has been spent since the
Civil War and that needs to be recognized.
We are one country Dammit. Do not let the left
rive us apart.

Cameron

I thought the French were the first ones to launch an armored warship, the ironclad Gloire in 1859. Which prompted the British to launch the armored frigate HMS Warrior in response a year later, commissioning it in 1861.

Skippy

I agree ☝️

Atlanticcoast63

…USS Shannon Kent. By any reasonable standard, Chief Kent earned it.

Ret_25X

Yeah, not going to happen.

I like the idea of naming these frigates in honor of distinguished Chiefs…all of them.

There is certainly a lot of merit and it would be fitting for the class of ship to have all of them named after NCOs.

Docduracoat

These are warships.
I like names like Conqueror, Courage, Invincible, Terror,Victor, Valor, Vengeance, Warrior etc.

Ret_25X

ahhh…the British concept…

Back in the WW1 and WW2 days they had classes such as “C” Class, or “R” Class.

An easy classification system to understand and track.

I like names like this because they are active words and concepts…but in this oh so sensitive age we need passive and effeminate names:

USS Soothing Herbal Tea
USS Spa Day
USS Soft Towel
USS Soccer Mom
USS Child Support
USS Trigger Warning
USS Welfare
USS Child Support
USS Man Bun
USS Skinny Jeans
USS Sparkles

A related class of warships could be a new Corvette:

USS Ratchet
USS Karen
USS Reeeeeeeeeee
USS Butt Hurt
USS Weave
USS Twerk
and…..
USS Pay Me

LOL

Ret_25X

The new classes of capital ships need new, appropriate names as well;

USS BBW
USS Large Fries and Diet Coke
USS Belly Fat
USS Slimfast
USS Riots for Daze
USS Low IQ
USS Cuckistan
USS Fast Food
USS Beer Fart
USS Virtue Signal
USS Cancel Culture
USS Durrrrrrrrrrr
USS Weed be gud

Ret_25X

how could I forget new base names?

Joint Base Little D
Naval Base Jazzy Hands
NAS SJW
and let’s not forget…

NS Fired for Loss of Confidence

Ret_25X

this could get fun…imagine the Army base names one could have to “modernize” and be more in tune with the times:

Fort SHARP
Fort I’m calling IG
Fort Not my Job
Camp WTAF
FOB Redline
COP Sweaty Balls

and building names!

Entitlement Hall
Sham Center
Hook Up Chapel
Dependa Housing Area
Congressional Investigation Gate and Entrance Facility

and special for Fort Hood;

IDK Command and Ops Center

SFC D

USS Soccer Mom sounds fun…

26Limabeans

USS NADS…

The Other Whitey

Destroyers, frigates, and destroyer escorts before them are traditionally named for noteworthy Sailors and Marines. Personally, I think they should stick with that convention. Then again, I also think they should go back to the old way of naming cruisers for cities, subs for marine creatures, battleships for states, and carriers for either great battles or legacy names.

The current practice of naming warships for politicians needs to go and stay gone. If they want to name a capital ship after a political figure, then name it after one of the Founders.

Enterprise, Intrepid, Yorktown, Constellation, Ranger, Hornet, Wasp, Essex, Saratoga, Bunker Hill, Lexington, Independence, Bonhomme Richard, America, etc, are all carrier names (LHAs/LHDs also count). There’s some good ones among the cancelled Essex-class ships as well, like Reprisal. Carl Vinson, John C. Stennis, and Gerald Ford are not.

There’s a long, long list of Navy and Marine heroes who are worthy namesakes. For example (I know some of these currently do have destroyers names for them):

John Paul Jones
Stephen Decatur
Isaac Hull
Presley O’Bannon
John Winslow
David Farragut
Bartlett Laffey
Charles Gridley
Daniel Daly
Lewis Puller
John C. England
Mervyn S. Bennion
Cassin Young
Doris Miller
John Finn
Norman Scott
The Sullivan Brothers
John Basilone
Willis Lee
Ernest E. Evans
Paul Carr
Clifton Sprague
Joseph O’Callahan
Vincent Cappodanno

That’s just off the top of my head. There’s literally hundreds more.

SFC D

How about the USS R. Lee Ermey.

The Other Whitey

Fuck yeah!

Cameron

I must respectfully disagree on keeping state names for battleships, TOW. The problem with the battleship is that we don’t use them anymore (even with rail guns, a revival of a big gun ship will probably be more along the lines of a heavy cruiser than a battleship). They had their time, but not anymore. Now as for the rest of our ships such as our cruisers, I whole heartily agree. I also agree with the naming of aircraft carriers, destroyers, and frigates.

However, I like the idea of naming our submarines (both ballistic missile/guided missile and attack classes such as the Virginia) after states since they are much more capable than previous ones especially since they carry a decent amount of missiles (projected to be around 65 for the Virginia while the Ohios that have been converted to guided missile can easily carry 154 tomahawks in 22 tubes with each tube carrying 7 missiles). Thus, I believe the Virginia and Ohio classes deserve their more prestigious names.

In fact, I am happy to see that the Navy is reviving the names Utah, Oklahoma, and Arizona for the Virginia-class. If we had submarines more along the lines of the WWI and WWII subs up to the Los Angeles class (since the Virginia can carry 12 of its missiles in dedicated VLS tubes rather than having to launch them from the torpedo tubes only), than sure, those can be named after sea creatures since they would most likely be used for hunting other ships and subs where as the Virginia and Ohio classes can also function as potent strike platforms.

Sapper3307

The shipyard in Main is on strike, They are already way behind schedule with this CoViDZ/TDS so its time for more money before reopening.

Frank

FFG? Is that like a FNG for frigates?

Name them for 80’s action heroes
USS Chuck Norris, Arnie, and Steven Seagul etc

Messkit

I suggest the “USS Dave”. Not only does it have my personal touch.

But, since it will use radar evading technology in the hull design, and have plenty of knotty turbine speed in the go fast levers, when our adversaries go looking for it they can honestly report back that…

…”Dave’s not here.”

11B-Mailclerk

Samuel B Roberts

There -must- be an FFG/DDE of that name.

Must