Gearing destroyers as the Cold War baseline

The argument for new Cold War destroyers faced the objection that the US Navy already had many wartime ships. Those wartime designs centered on guns, torpedoes, and depth charges. The Gearing class was a capable late-war design, developed from the Sumner class, with six 5-inch guns, ten 21-inch torpedoes, depth charges, and substantial light anti-aircraft armament. Its roughly 3,500-ton full-load displacement left limited room for helicopters and missiles. Repeated upgrades kept the ships useful into the 1970s, while the original layout constrained the equipment they could accommodate. DASH offered an uncrewed ASW aircraft for hulls unable to carry a full-sized helicopter.