Mitscher-class destroyer

The Mitscher class was a group of four experimental destroyers built for the United States Navy in the years after the Second World War. They were designed under project SCB 5 and ordered on 3 August 1948, and they were larger than any earlier American destroyer, though smaller than the one-off Norfolk that came before them. Reclassified during construction as destroyer leaders, they were redesignated DL-2 to DL-5 in 1951. Bath Iron Works in Maine built Mitscher and John S. McCain, while the Bethlehem Steel yard at Quincy built Willis A. Lee and Wilkinson. The ships were named for admirals of the Pacific war and were commissioned between 1953 and 1954. Each carried a different propulsion and equipment fit so that the Navy could judge the best course for later destroyer design, and the high-pressure boilers gave chronic trouble. Mitscher and McCain were converted into guided missile destroyers in the 1960s and served until 1978, while Willis A. Lee and Wilkinson left service in 1969.