Will they ever bring back the little destroyer escorts?
No, because most of their roles have been subsumed by patrol boats, littoral warfare craft (which our Navy screwed up with and is now desperately trying to make into destroyers or frigates or something) and the like.
If you’re thinking a patrol boat is something like a PT boat, they’re not any more and haven’t been a while. A modern patrol boat could fight off an entire squadron of DEs. They mount combined missile and gun CIWS systems, mount multiple full-sized antishipping missiles in racks or VLS, carry ASROC and/or torpedoes and some mount 3” guns.
Chinese Type 22 Missile (patrol) Boat:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gjJji77BZ_A/Vl6bgwz_dlI/AAAAAAABE1c/L25qZwGCG4o/s1600/type-022missileboat2.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_22_missile_boat
Other modern vessels of similar type or role:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamina-class_missile_boat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skjold-class_corvette
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roussen-class_fast_attack_craft
