Gearing class | Trackpads Warship Archive

Chart showing the development of the U.S. Navy Gearing -class destroyers. Grafik über die Entwicklung der Gearing -Klasse der United States Navy.Own work · CC BY-SA 3.0Image source

TypeDestroyer

CountryUnited States

NavyUnited States Navy

EraWorld War II

Ships completed98

Ships planned152

Construction began1944

Construction ended1952

Overview and historical setting

The Gearing class lengthened the Allen M. Sumner hull to increase fuel capacity and operating range for Pacific fleet operations.

The class belongs to the history of destroyers and torpedo combatants and served during World War II. Destroyers and torpedo combatants were built around speed, responsiveness, and the ability to screen larger ships or attack enemy forces. Their roles expanded over time to include anti-submarine warfare, air defense, surface attack, escort duty, and land attack, which makes configuration and era especially important. For Gearing class, the documented mission set included screening of larger fleet units, surface action, air defense, and anti-submarine warfare.

Development and design

The class retained the Sumner gun and torpedo battery on a fourteen-foot longer hull, producing a late-war destroyer especially well suited to later radar-picket, escort, and FRAM modernization programs. The program chronology records design work beginning in 1943, construction beginning in 1944, and the documented construction period ending in 1952. Program totals list 152 planned, 152 ordered, 103 laid down, 98 completed, and 54 cancelled. These dates and totals distinguish the design program from the number of ships that were actually completed and entered service.

The design evidence for Gearing class identifies destroyer, dual 127mm mounts, and extended range and screening of larger fleet units, surface action, air defense, and anti-submarine warfare. These features connect the class's technical arrangement to the work it was expected to perform for United States Navy. Later refits, revised sensors, new weapons, and changes in doctrine could alter the practical capabilities of individual members without changing their class identity.

Technical character

The As built configuration is presented as the as-completed configuration. Its listed characteristics include displacement 2,658 metric ton (standard), length 119.0 m, beam 12.5 m, and draft 4.4 m. The recorded armament is 6 × 127 mm/38 dual-purpose; 12 × 40 mm; 11 × 20 mm; 10 × 533 mm torpedo tubes. The figures describe one documented state and may not apply unchanged throughout the subject's service life.

Technical data for Gearing class is most useful when tied to a date and mission. Displacement changed with fuel, ammunition, electronics, weapons, and later modifications; speed and range depended on operating conditions; and sensors or armament could vary substantially between members and periods of service.

Ships of the class

The documented roster contains 103 members. These include USS Agerholm (DD-826), USS Arnold J. Isbell (DD-869), USS Basilone (DD-824), USS Bausell (DD-845), USS Benner (DD-807), USS Bordelon (DD-881), USS Brinkley Bass (DD-887), USS Brownson (DD-868), USS Carpenter (DD-825), and USS Charles H. Roan (DD-853), with 93 additional documented members. The sources reviewed do not establish this as a final class total, so the roster should be read as time-specific.

Individual ship histories are needed to show how a common design diverged through construction differences, refits, damage, transfers, new assignments, and final disposition. For a ship-level view of the class in service, see USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., whose profile follows the evidence available for one member of Gearing class.

Service history

Ninety-eight ships were completed, with the first entering service in 1945. Five additional named hulls progressed into construction but were never completed. The shared design created a common starting point, while individual ships could accumulate different deployments, combat damage, modernization work, transfers, and end states.

Historical significance

The long-hull Sumner design became one of the most enduring U.S. Destroyer types of the early Cold War. Its significance is best assessed through the relationship between mission, technical choices, production scale, and the service experience of its members.

For Gearing class, the most useful points of comparison are the requirement for screening of larger fleet units, surface action, air defense, and anti-submarine warfare, the use of destroyer, dual 127mm mounts, and extended range, and a program recorded as 152 planned, 152 ordered, 103 laid down, 98 completed, and 54 cancelled. Those factors help explain what the class offered United States Navy, how it differed from predecessors or contemporaries, and why ships built to the same design could still have different careers.

Understanding Gearing class across time requires separating the design as approved, the configuration in which individual ships entered service, and later changes made after operational experience. For United States Navy, that distinction matters because a refit could alter weapons, sensors, aviation facilities, command arrangements, or mission without creating a new class. The class history defines the common baseline; dated ship histories show how each member changed within it.

Ships in this class

Showing 103 recorded class members.

Sources and further reading

Gearing class destroyers ↗uboat.net · accessed 2026-09-18
Gearing-class destroyers in World War II ↗Destroyer History Foundation · accessed 2026-09-18

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