Board Thread:Event Community Discussion/@comment-25730832-20170511175819/@comment-1915363-20170512031521

Dandan550 wrote: Ar-cen-ciel wrote: According to USN's doctrine, they might fit the role, if only on the lightweight side for their liking. So no, they don't really fit to be escort destroyers, neither in IJN nor USN. Well they aren't designed anyway to fight in the frontlines anyway. It's no longer the matter of roles at this point, it's the matter of ship sizes and armament. The latter have more say in hull classifications than their designated role, which is why ships like Mogami-class light (actually heavy) cruisers and Zara-class (treaty) cruisers exist.

More importantly, being classified as escort destroyer means that those ships are capable of fighting like a fleet destroyer to some extent. Kaibokans are by ship classification, are too lightweight, both in displacement and armament to do that.