Knox Class

Frigates,
United States of America

INTRODUCTION
The Knox Class frigates are ex-US Navy ships currently remaining in
service with the Navies of Republic of China (Taiwan), Mexico, Turkey,
Thailand and Egypt. The US Navy put a total of 46 ships into retirement
by 1994.
The keel for the lead ship in the class, USS Knox (FF-1052), was laid in
October 1965. The ship was commissioned in April 1969 at the Todd
Shipyard in Seattle.
The final ship of the class, USS Moinester (FF-1097), was commissioned
in November 1974. The Knox Class ships were built at Todd, Avondale
and Lockheed shipyards.

DESIGN
Designed principally as anti-submarine platforms, the
Knox Class frigates are equipped with hull mounted
sonars.
The ship's design incorporates a helicopter deck and a
hangar on the aft side.
The frigate is powered by a steam powerplant. The
propulsion system provides faster acceleration to the ship.
Knox Class has an overall length of 133.5m, beam of
14.3m and draught of 7.5m.

ARMAMENTS
Knox Class frigates are armed with an Mk-16 eight-cell
missile launcher for ASROC and Harpoon missiles, and a
RIM-7 Sea Sparrow basic point defence missile system
(BPDMS) or Phalanx close-in weapon system (CIWS).
The Sea Sparrow missile can be used against the low-flying
aircraft approaching the ship.
Four single tube launchers are fitted for Mark 46 torpedoes.
The main gun installed forward is a 127mm 54 calibre Mark
42 gun.

COUNTERMEASURES
The Raytheon AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare
(EW) system on-board provides early warning,
identification and direction capabilities against
simultaneous threats.
The system can be interfaced with decoy
launchers for the firing decoys and chaff to
deceive incoming anti-ship missiles.

PROPULSION
The frigate is powered by a single, screw-geared turbine
driving a single propeller shaft.

It generates a power output of 26MW. Two boilers

installed on the steam plant are equipped with a highpressure forced draught air supply system.

The propulsion system provides the ship a maximum

speed of 27kt.

REFERENCES
http://
www.naval-technology.com/projects/knoxclassfrigates/knox
classfrigates4.html

http://ussknox.org/images/ff1052_SternShot.jpg
http://
www.naval-technology.com/projects/knoxclassfrigates/knox
classfrigates2.html

THANK YOU