‘She Won’t Sink’: The Navy Hit a Oliver Hazard Perry Frigate with 3 Harpoon Missiles

The Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates were a mainstay of the Cold War and nearly a naval legend. 

Part of the then-Chief of Naval Operations Zumwalt’s high-low fleet plan, in which a large number of affordable and somewhat less capable frigates like the Oliver Hazard Perry-class and Pegasus-class hydrofoils worked alongside a smaller number of more capable — and therefore more expensive — Spruance-class destroyers in order better to counter a growing threat from the Soviet Navy.

The crux of that teaming mix hinged on modern missile weaponry to keep these smaller and less technically advanced ships capable against larger Soviet ships. 

Harpoon anti-ship missiles, close-in weapon systems, SM-1 surface-to-air missiles, and anti-submarine helicopter assets ensured their survivability and offensive firepower in the face of heavily armed and heavily armed enemy surface vessels.

“In sum, an all-high Navy would be so expensive that it would not have enough ships to control the seas,” Admiral Zumwalt said about his strategy. “An all-low Navy would not have the capability to meet certain kinds of threats or perform certain kinds of missions. In order to have enough ships and good enough ships there had to be a mix of high and low.”

At a lower price tag, the class offered the United States Navy — and other countries that operated the ships — a relatively robust package of anti-ship and air-defense capabilities with a credible anti-submarine warfare ability to boot. 

Despite the fact that the ships ultimately cost more than originally anticipated by U.S. Navy planners, the entire fleet of 51 ships for the U.S. Navy was ultimately built by shipbuilders in the United States.

Oliver Hazard Perry-Class: A Tough Nut to Crack

Though the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates were certainly smaller and in some ways less capable than their destroyer counterparts, they proved to be incredibly robust, able to absorb a great deal of punishment without going under. 

In the 1980s, Iranian naval forces targeted several Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates, and despite scoring several hits, none of the ships sank.

During a Rim of the Pacific SINKEX exercise in 2016, one decommissioned Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate, the USS Thach, endured an incredible amount of ordnance before it sank.

It was hit with three Harpoon missiles, as well as a Hellfire missile, and did not sink.

It took another Harpoon, more Hellfire missiles, and a Mk. 48 Torpedo, a GBU-12 Paveway 500-pound bomb, and a Mk 84 2,000-pound bomb to ultimately sink the ship — and incredible amount of ordnance for a ship that is not among the most heavily armored in the United States Navy.

Just imagine how many hits a heavily-armored battleship or cruiser from the Second World War could, in theory, take — or even a larger ship, like the U.S. Navy’s current fleet of aircraft carriers.

In all fairness, however, one aspect that certainly helped the USS Thatch was the fact that at the time of the exercise, it was not carrying any fuel or ammunition, two very large sources of secondary explosions that would certainly help to sink a ship.

Close to a Second Life

In 2017, the United States Navy looked into reactivating mothballed Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates in order to meet President Trump’s goal of having a 355-ship navy. 

Ultimately, U.S. Navy planners decided that reactivating the ships would be too costly and would be too practical, and they kept the ships out of commission. 

Interestingly, Zumwalt’s high-low mix of ships could be an option for the U.S. Navy in the future to counter a numerically superior People’s Liberation Army Navy.

About the Author: Caleb Larson 

Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.