It didn't take all that long for the affordable Destroyer Escort to die off inside of a few ship build designs, and become a very big "Frigate". Somehow, money had to keep flowing to a massive congressional-military-industrial-complex. This ship transition is important because what we need today in many regions, are small ships. We tried with the Littoral Combat Ship, but failed.
During WWII, hundreds of DEs were made in addition to the Butler-class mentioned below. The following are just a sample of ship-classes.
Class-Number-Year-Standard Displacement (not loaded displacement)-Number Built
Butler-DE339-1944-1350-83
Dealey-DE1006-1954-1270-13
Claud Jones-DE1033-1958-1314-4 *
Bronstein-FF1037-1963-2360-2 **
Garcia-DE1040 (later FF)-1964-2624-10
Knox-DE1052 (later-FF)-1969-3020-46
The later, and effective O.H. Perry-class of Frigate being demonized in favor of the Littoral Combat Ship. With a Navy marketing campaign to the effect of: "We don't need Frigates."
We are told by the United States Navy Marketing Office that getting a 300 ship Navy is hard work, and puts America at risk if we don't get there. Even though the United States, has a very large 'Navy'.
Consider:
$15B nuke carriers with an obsolete to the threat carrier air wing. The next JFK will be stripped, not equipped.
$6B "destroyers" the size of the Graf Spee.
$3B flat-top amphibs for the USMC mission...without a well deck.
Tens of billions on the Littoral Combat Gyp
The Just So Failed
And recently, the United States Navy Marketing Department says there is no way it can afford an Ohio-Class SSBN replacement.
* Design goal, a cheap, rapid-to-produce ship
** Developmental ships
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