The Farragut class was the first new American destroyer class after the World War I programme. USS Farragut commissioned in June 1934, about thirteen years after USS Melvin, the last Clemson, entered service in May 1921. Japan had meanwhile built several destroyer classes and was commissioning the Hatsuharu class, so its designers had repeatedly tested ideas at sea. Some Japanese designs had serious stability and weight problems, but those failures still produced practical knowledge. The eight Farraguts were a strong restart, though building them over five years could not instantly replace lost industrial and engineering experience. The later wartime shortage of fast tankers and modern destroyers shows why a continuous peacetime programme would have mattered.
Chapter · 14:17-22:18
Farragut ended a thirteen-year gap in destroyer commissioning
Eight Farragut-class ships restarted construction after a thirteen-year commissioning gap, while Japan had already worked through several postwar destroyer generations.