These destroyers were originally ordered by the last
Shah of Iran for service in the
Persian Gulf in an
air defence role around 1973/74. The original order of six ships was tentatively assigned hull numbers DD 993–998 by the U.S. Navy but it was reduced to four ships after U.S. Congress declined to halt the original production run of 30
Spruance ships. Compared to the preceding
Spruance class, they retained the former's anti-submarine capabilities while adding two Tartar-D missile launchers for the Mark 26/Standard anti-aircraft missile system. In order to operate more effectively in the Middle East, they also had four air conditioning plants to the Spruances' three, additional dust separators on their gas turbines' air intakes, and increased water distillation capacity. The Shah was overthrown in the
Iranian Revolution, prior to Iran accepting delivery of the ships, causing the United States Navy to integrate the vessels into its own fleet in 1981–82 as the
Kidd class. On 3 February 1979, the Iranian government canceled the second two ships in the class, signing a
memorandum of understanding indicating that they were available for acquisition by the U.S. Navy. On 21 February. 1979, the
Iranian Prime Minister notified the U.S. government that Iran intended to terminate the contract of the first two ships, officially cancelling delivery on 8 March 1979. Each ship in the class was named after a
U.S. Navy Admiral who had died in combat in the
Pacific in World War II: • was named after
Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who died on the
bridge of his
flagship, , during the
attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. • was named after Rear Admiral
Daniel Callaghan, who was killed during a surface action at the
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 13 November 1942, aboard . • was named after Rear Admiral
Norman Scott, who was killed during the same surface action that killed Admiral Callaghan at the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, aboard . • was named after Rear Admiral
Theodore Chandler, who died on 7 January 1945, as a result of burns received from a
kamikaze crashing into his flagship, , the previous day. Because they were equipped with heavy-duty air conditioning and other features that made them suitable in hot climates, they tended to be used in the
Middle East, specifically the Persian Gulf itself. In 1988–90, the
Kidds received the "
New Threat Upgrade", which allowed cooperative engagement with
Aegis cruisers, enabling the cruisers to control the
Kidds surface-to-air missiles in flight while the destroyers remained electronically silent. However, the arrival of the Aegis-equipped destroyers led to the accelerated retirement of the
Kidd class. All four ships were decommissioned from the U.S. Navy in the late 1990s and were initially offered for sale to Australia in 1997 for
A$30 million each. The Royal Australian Navy was a strong supporter of buying the
Kidd-class destroyers to replace the
Perth class as their air warfare ships. In 1999, the offer was rejected, based on extensive problems the
Royal Australian Navy had encountered during the acquisition of two surplus s from the U.S. Navy in 1994. After the Australian refusal, the four ships were offered to Greece, which also refused. ==Sale and reactivation==