The Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) program of the United States Navy might be considered the beginning of the final phase in the shift of mission for destroyers from a surface attack role to that of a submarine hunter.

The ships received a larger combat information center (CIC) and sonar control as well as an antisubmarine rocket (ASROC) launcher, a torpedo magazine, and the 01-level afterdeck was converted to a hangar and helicopter flight deck to facilitate the use of drone antisubmarine helicopters (DASH). The new ASROC launcher was installed between the stacks in the space formerly held by the 21-inch torpedo tubes which, in turn, were replaced by two 15.5-inch triple torpedo tube mounts located in the waist at the after stack one to port and the other to starboard. The DASH flight deck and hangar replaced the after 5-inch double mount which reduced the main surface battery to four 5-inch/38-caliber guns in two twin mounts forward and the 40 mm and 20 mm gun mounts were removed. This modernization was designed to extend the life of the destroyer by at least eight years.