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The first automotive torpedo was developed in 1866, and the torpedo boat was developed soon after. In 1898, while the Spanish–American War was being fought in the Caribbean and the Pacific, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt wrote that the Spanish torpedo boat destroyers were the only threat to the American navy, and pushed for the acquisition of similar vessels. On 4 May 1898, the US Congress authorized the first sixteen torpedo boat destroyers and twelve ''seagoing torpedo boats'' for the United States Navy.〔Simpson p. 22〕 In World War I, the U.S. Navy began mass-producing destroyers, laying 273 keels of the ''Clemson'' and ''Wickes'' class destroyers. The peacetime years between 1919 and 1941 resulted in many of these flush deck destroyers being laid up. Additionally, treaties regulated destroyer construction. The 1500-ton destroyers built in the 1930s under the treaties had stability problems that limited expansion of their armament in World War II. During World War II, the United States began building larger 2100-ton destroyers with five-gun main batteries, but without stability problems. The first major warship produced by the U.S. Navy after World War II (and in the Cold War) were "frigates"—the ships were originally designated destroyer leaders but reclassified in 1975 as guided missile cruisers (except the ''Farragut'' class became guided missile destroyers). These grew out of the last all-gun destroyers of the 1950s. In the middle 1970s the ''Spruance'' class destroyers entered service, optimized for anti-submarine warfare. A special class of guided missile destroyers was produced for the Shah of Iran, but due to the Iranian Revolution these ships could not be delivered and were added to the U.S. Navy. The ''Arleigh Burke'' class, introduced in 1991, has been the U.S. Navy's only destroyer class in commission since 2005; construction continued through 2012 and was restarted in 2015. A further class, the ''Zumwalt'', is entering service; the first ship was launched in 2013. The ''Zumwalt'' class will number three ships. == Pre–World War I == In 1864, US Navy Lt. William B. Cushing sank the ironclad using a "spar torpedo"—an explosive device mounted on a long pole and detonated underwater. Two years later in Austria, the British engineer Robert Whitehead developed a compressed air "automotive" torpedo; capable of over a distance of .〔 The threat a small, fast, torpedo–delivering ship could pose to the battle line became clear to navies around the world; giving birth to the torpedo boat, including the of the United States Navy.〔 During the Spanish–American War, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt wrote Spanish torpedo boat destroyers (such as the 370-ton ''Furor'') were "the only real menace" to the fleet blockading Santiago, and pushed for the acquisition of torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers. As President, Theodore Roosevelt continued to pay close attention to naval affairs, including the expansion of the Navy's fleet of destroyers.〔 In 1898 Congress authorized 16 torpedo boat destroyers, which would join the fleet by 1903.〔 The first torpedo boat destroyers, the ''Bainbridge'' class, featured two torpedo tubes and two 3 inch guns, displacing .〔 The subsequent ''Smith'' and ''Paulding'' classes displaced , the reason these classes were nicknamed "flivvers" (lightweights, after the Model T Ford).〔 By the time the United States entered World War I, destroyers displaced and burned oil instead of coal.〔 These "1000 tonners" were armed with eight to twelve torpedo tubes, four 4 inch/50 caliber guns; and had a complement of approximately 100 officers and men.〔 The 1000 tonners were the ''Cassin'' through ''Sampson'' classes, and were also called "broken deckers", due to their high forecastles.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of destroyer classes of the United States Navy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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