The Brooke class was based on the Garcia-class frigate hull but added the Tartar guided missile system, creating the US Navy's first guided-missile frigate class. The ships were originally classified as guided missile destroyer escorts before the 1975 fleet reclassification changed them to FFG. This made the class a bridge between ASW escorts and air-defense-capable frigates.
Brooke-class ships combined anti-submarine sensors and weapons with a single-arm missile launcher for Tartar surface-to-air missiles. This created more balanced escort capability than pure ASW ships, but within the size and growth limits of a destroyer-escort hull. The design shows the Cold War pressure to give convoy and amphibious escorts some defense against aircraft and missiles.
Only six Brooke-class ships were completed, but their role foreshadowed later US frigates that combined air-defense, ASW, and convoy escort missions. They were eventually superseded by larger and more capable classes, yet they remain important because they show an early US attempt to bring guided missiles into the frigate-sized escort fleet.
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