USS Robert E. Peary (FF-1073)

USS Robert E. Peary (FF-1073) was a Knox-class frigate with the United States Navy from 1972 until 1992. In 1992, the ship was decommissioned and loaned to the Republic of China. The ship was renamed Chi Yang and was part of the Taiwanese navy until 2015.

Construction
The third US Navy warship named for Robert E. Peary was laid down on December 20, 1970, by the Lockheed Ship Building and Drydock Company in Seattle, Washington; launched June 26, 1971; sponsored by Miss Josephine Peary; and commissioned September 23, 1972.

Design and description
The Knox-class design was derived from the Brooke-class frigate modified to extend range and without a long-range missile system. The ships had an overall length of 438 ft, a beam of 47 ft and a draft of 25 ft. They displaced 4066 LT at full load. Their crew consisted of 13 officers and 211 enlisted men.

The ships were equipped with one Westinghouse geared steam turbine that drove the single propeller shaft. The turbine was designed to produce 35000 shp, using steam provided by 2 Babcock & Wilcox Modified "D" Super-heated boilers, to reach the designed speed of 27 kn. The Knox class had a range of 4500 nmi at a speed of 20 kn.

The Knox-class ships were armed with a 5"/54 caliber Mark 42 gun forward and a single 3-inch/50-caliber gun aft. They mounted an eight-round RUR-5 ASROC launcher between the 5-inch (127 mm) gun and the bridge. Close-range anti-submarine defense was provided by two twin 12.75 in Mk 32 torpedo tubes. The ships were equipped with a torpedo-carrying DASH drone helicopter; its telescoping hangar and landing pad were positioned amidships aft of the mack. Beginning in the 1970s, the DASH was replaced by a SH-2 Seasprite LAMPS I helicopter and the hangar and landing deck were accordingly enlarged. Most ships also had the 3-inch (76 mm) gun replaced by an eight-cell BPDMS missile launcher in the early 1970s.

Service history
Following two months of miscellaneous tests and trials along the northern Pacific coast of the United States, she steamed into her home port at Long Beach, California, November 8. Robert E. Peary remained in the Long Beach area for one year exactly, departing for WestPac November 9, 1973, and arriving in Subic Bay, Philippine Islands, ten days later.

Robert E. Peary was decommissioned on August 7, 1992, and loaned to the Republic of China. The destroyer escort was renamed Chi Yang by the Taiwanese Navy and served with the identification number FF-932. The vessel was commissioned into the Taiwanese Navy on October 6, 1993. On November 11, 1995, the ship was officially struck from the United States navy list. The frigate continued service until 2015, when on May 1, Chi Yang and her sister, Hai Ying, were decommissioned at Kaohsiung. The two ships will be cannibalized for parts to keep the remaining six Knox-class vessels of the Taiwanese Navy in service.