Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization

The Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) program of the United States Navy extended the lives of World War II-era destroyers by shifting their mission from a surface attack role to that of a submarine hunter. The FRAM program also covered cruisers, aircraft carriers, submarines, amphibious ships, and auxiliaries. The United States Coast Guard also used this term in the 1980s for the modernization of its Hamilton-class cutters.

The program was started by Admiral Arleigh Burke as a response to estimates that the Soviets would have a force of about 300 modern fast-attack submarines by 1957. The US Navy was unable to produce enough destroyer escorts (frigates after 1975) and other anti-submarine warfare-capable ships to counter this threat, given other priorities such as new anti-aircraft warfare-capable frigates (cruisers after 1975) and aircraft carriers, so Burke instead looked for ways to modify the existing World War II-era destroyer fleet, which was rapidly becoming outdated anyway.

Burke oversaw preparation of a report to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees entitled "The Aging Fleet." The idea that became FRAM was only one of six recommendations of a special committee to address the poor material conditions of ships built during World War II. Those recommendations were, in order of preference:

United States Secretary of the Navy Thomas S. Gates embraced the last recommendation in a meeting with United States Secretary of Defense Neil Hosler McElroy on 11 November 1958.

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