[Wonder Warthog]

" thought the frigate was the smallest. The line between the cruiser and the destroyer was erased long ago."

I thought the Navy phased out frigates years ago for "open ocean" warfare--though I would guess that the Coast Guard probably has some vessels of that class??

[R. Scott]

The last I heard – and this was a couple decades ago – the Navy wanted more destroyers, but Congress thought we had enough. To get around the problem our Navy decided it really needed frigates – everyone else has them, so we need them. The frigates we build were actually the destroyers we wanted – but called “frigates”.