USS Brownson (DD-518) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy commissioned on 3 February 1943. She was sunk by Japanese aircraft off Cape Gloucester, New Britain on 26 December 1943.

The Fletcher class was a class of destroyers built by the United States during World War II. The class was designed in 1939, as a result of dissatisfaction with the earlier destroyer leader types of the Porter and Somers classes. Some went on to serve during the Korean War and into the Vietnam War.