USS Carronade

USS Carronade IFS-1, at sea
History
United States
Name	USS Carronade
Namesake	A type of short-barreled cannon
Builder	Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company
Laid down	19 November 1952
Launched	26 May 1953
Commissioned	25 May 1955, and 1 January 1969
Decommissioned	24 July 1970 (final)
Stricken	1973
Identification	IFS-1
Fate	Scrapped
General characteristics
Displacement	1,500 tons
Length	245 ft (75 m)
Beam	38 ft 6 in (11.73 m)
Draft	11 ft (3.4 m)
Propulsion	Diesel, twin screw, 3,100 shp (2,300 kW)
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Capacity	162 officers and enlisted
Armament	1 × 1 5-inch/38 caliber gun DP mount 2 × twin 40 mm Bofors 8 × twin Mark 105 rocket launchers[1]

USS Carronade (IFS-1/LFR-1) was a ship of the United States Navy first commissioned in 1955. She was named after the carronade, a type of short barreled cannon.

As an Inshore Fire Support Ship (IFS), part of the so-called "brown-water navy", Carronade was designed under project SCB 37, and built to provide direct naval gunfire support to amphibious landings or operations close to shore. Carronade was armed with two twin 40 mm anti-aircraft mounts (mounted fore and aft of the superstructure), one dual-purpose 5-inch/38 caliber naval cannon, and eight mk.105 twin automatic rocket launchers. Each launcher was capable of firing thirty spin-stabilized rockets per minute. Carronade was designed to fire rockets with no crew on deck, decreasing risk to crew, and her rockets were controlled by an electronic fire control computer believed to be faster and more accurate than that on her predecessor, the Landing Ship Medium (Rocket).^[1] Carronade was also very maneuverable thanks to her variable-pitch propellers and faster than her predecessor, with a top speed of 15–17 knots (17–20 mph).^[1]