The St. Laurent class destroyer was a class of destroyers that served the Royal Canadian Navy and later the Canadian Forces from the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s. This was the first major class of warship designed and built in Canada. They were similar to the British Type 12 Whitby class frigate, but used more American equipment than British. There were seven ships of the class commissioned between 1955 and 1957. They were originally intended as destroyer escorts (DDE) but were later refitted and reclassed as destroyer helicopter escorts (DDH).