Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization
The Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) program of the United States Navy extended the lives of World War II-era destroyers by shifting their mission from a surface attack role to that of a submarine hunter. The FRAM program also covered cruisers, aircraft carriers, submarines, amphibious ships, and auxiliaries. The United States Coast Guard also used this term in the 1980s for the modernization of its Hamilton-class cutters.
USS George K. MacKenzie, after her FRAM I conversion
Two Gearing-class destroyers, as delivered and after FRAM I.
Nicholas, a Fletcher-class destroyer, after her FRAM II upgrade.
Bryce Canyon with FRAM II-modernised Lyman K. Swenson, Collett and Blue. Shelton, closest to camera, received FRAM I (note the ASROC launcher on the mid-deck).
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were originally conceived in 1885 by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish Navy as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War.
USS Arleigh Burke, the lead ship of her class of guided-missile destroyers.
The destroyers of the US Navy's Zumwalt-class, pictured here sailing with a Littoral combat ship (LCS) are the longest and heaviest destroyers currently in service.
The Italian Caio Duilio, belongs to the Horizon-class of Franco-Italian designed first-rate frigates.
Fernando Villaamil, credited as the inventor of the destroyer concept, died in action during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba in 1898.