In the middle 1970s the Spruance-class destroyers entered service, optimized for anti-submarine warfare. These grew out of the last all-gun destroyers of the 1950s.

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). The first major warship produced by the U.S. During World War II, the United States began building larger 2100-ton destroyers with five-gun main batteries, but without stability problems. The 1500-ton destroyers built in the 1930s under the treaties had stability problems that limited expansion of their armament in World War II. Additionally, treaties regulated destroyer construction. The peacetime years between 19 resulted in many of these flush deck destroyers being laid up. Navy began mass-producing destroyers, laying 273 keels of the Clemson and Wickes-class destroyers. On, the US Congress authorized the first sixteen torpedo boat destroyers and twelve seagoing torpedo boats for the United States Navy.

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. The first automotive torpedo was developed in 1866, and the torpedo boat was developed soon after. USS Gridley, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

U.s. navy destroyers world war 2