Supertest: U.S. Tier X Freemium Destroyer Forrest Sherman
4 min read
Historical background
U.S.S. Forrest Sherman was the lead ship of the eponymous class of U.S. destroyers, counting a total of 18 units. These ships were the first U.S. destroyers built after the war.
Forrest Sherman herself was laid down in October 1953, launched in February 1955 and commissioned in November 1955. In her initial configuration, the ship was armed with three fast-firing 127 mm/55 guns, two twin 76.2 mm AA guns and four fixed single torpedo launchers located behind the front superstructure.
In terms of service, the ship didn’t see any real action. She took part in multiple exercises, patrols and ceremonies but that was pretty much it. The only real “Hot situation” she got into was during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. She supported the islands of Quemoy and Matsu that were getting shelled by forces of the People’s Republic of China in an attempt to ” liberate” Taiwan.
Forrest Sherman was decommissioned in November 1982. She was initially supposed to be scrapped in 1992 but the company in charge of it went bankrupt. The ship was later recovered by the Navy and an attempt was made to restore her as a museum in 2006. These plans failed and she was ultimately sold for scrap in December 2014.
In World of Warships, we are getting the ship as she was when launched. Unlike the rest of the U.S. destroyers, she is equipped with SAP shells instead of AP.
Ship’s preview
Camouflage
For the classic reminder, this is a ship in testing, anything can change so don’t look at her like she would already be released.
Modules
Hull | Engine | Gun Fire Control System | Main battery | Torpedoes |
Forest Sherman |
Propulsion: 71 500 HP |
Mk10 mod. 1 |  127 mm/54 Mk.42 in a turret |
Mk25 mod. 1 |
General Characteristics
| Tier | X |
| Health | 24 900 HP |
| Torpedo Damage Reduction | 0 % |
| Displacement | 4 916 tons |
| Dimensions | |
| Overall length | 127.56 m |
| Beam | 13.7 m |
| Overall height (keel to the highest point on the ship) | 18.0 m |
| Freeboard | 3.0 m |
| Main Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 12.600 km |
| 127 mm/54 Mk.42 in a turret | 3 x 1 127 mm |
| Torpedo Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 16.500 km |
| 533 mm Single | 4 x 1 533 mm |
| Maximum speed | 33.9 knots |
| Turning Circle Radius | 680 m |
| Rudder Shift Time | 5.3 s |
| Surface Detectability | 8.28 km |
| Air Detectability | 3.84 km |
| Detectability After Firing Main Guns in Smoke | 3.13 km |
Main Armament
| 3 x 1 127 mm/54 Mk.42 in a turret All turrets can turn at 360° | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 12.600 km |
| Reloading Time | 2.5 s |
| 180 Degree Turn Time | 4.5 s |
| Optimal firing angles at the front | 25° |
| Optimal firing angles at the rear | 30° |
| Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
| Maximum Dispersion | 110 m |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | HE – 127 mm HE Mk.41 |
| Alpha Damage | 1 800 |
| Penetration capacity | 21 mm |
| Explosion size | 0.44 |
| Fire chance | 9 % |
| Projectile Speed | 808 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.21 |
| Projectile Mass | 31.75 kg |
| Type of Projectile | SAP – 127 mm CS Mk.42 |
| Alpha Damage | 2 700 |
| Penetration capacity | 36 mm |
| Projectile Speed | 808 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.21 |
| Projectile Mass | 31.75 kg |
| Ricochet Angles | 65° – 75° |
Torpedo Armament
| 4 x 1 533 mm Single Mk17 | |
| Reloading Time | 81 s |
| Maximum Distance | 16.500 km |
| Firing angles | 42° – 45° (starboard) 43° – 46° (port) |
| Damage | 17 900 |
| Flooding Chance | 301% |
| Speed | 66 knots |
| Surface Detectability | 1.4 km |
Anti-air Armament
| 3 x 1 127 mm/54 Mk.42 in a turret | |
| Sector range | 0.1 km – 6.0 km |
| Hit chance | 100 % |
| Sector’s damage | 28 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 98 |
| Flak clouds number | 4 |
| Flak cloud damage | 1 750 |
| 2 x 2 76.2 mm/50 Mk.22 on a Mk.33 mount | |
| Sector range | 0.1 km – 4.0 km |
| Hit chance | 100 % |
| Sector’s damage | 23 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 81 |
Consumable
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 | Slot 4 |
Damage Control Party  Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 40 s | Smoke Generator
Number of charges: 3 Work time: 30 s Cooldown: 160 s Smoke radius: 450 m Smoke duration: 130 s | Engine Boost  Number of charges: 3Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Speed bonus: +8% | Defensive AA Fire  Number of charges: 4Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Continuous Damage: +50% Damage from shell explosions: +300% |
The Armor
Personal Opinion
Well, that is going to be rough… Firstly, her firepower is lackluster, to say the least. She might have SAP but the DPM is low for a tier X destroyer. The moment any target angles, you are then forced to switch to HE and it gets even more painful.
As for the torpedo launchers, since they are fixed launchers and with only 2 torpedoes per side that, on top of that, take more than 80 s to reload, might as well have no torpedoes at all. Now, my little finger tells me that the ship is gonna get homing torpedoes like submarines to compensate for having such mediocre firing angles. Maybe. Perhaps. I hope.
As a cherry on top of that lackluster firepower and torpedo power, the ship is incredibly slow for a destroyer with a pedestrian maximum speed of 33.9 knots, making her the slowest tier X destroyer.
So yeah… right now, I really can’t see how this ship will be even remotely able to perform. I might be wrong but I think I will slightly suffer when testing it.
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Looks seriously underpowered. With the current stats it should be Tier IX.
To work at Tier X it needs a faster reload. Historically these guns had only 1.5 sec reload, not 2.5. Wargaming needs to either buff them or add MBRB to the consumables.
Need couple tanks air craft and couple mussels and boats lmk is there’s anything out there
Luckily they’ve since buffed it twice, now we’re down to 1.5 second reload and they buffed its torpedo reload as well from 83 seconds down to 73s