Board Thread:Game Updates/@comment-3502824-20180328015558/@comment-26574811-20180411062547

Sebsmith wrote: It looks like people have gotten stuck in their corners and lost sight of the broader space of american small ship designations (and potential designations).

I agree that Escort is a valid term to describe KB and I understand why that leads people towards classifying them with the only type of Escort they know of.

On the other hand, the coast defense role matches very closely to the Patrol role. (There also might be an argument that it matches the Cutter role, depending on how close Coast Defense Ship and Coast Guard Ship are in Japanese.)

Therefore, one way to think of KB is as some sort of Patrol Escort or PE. Of course, before we jump immediately to that we should look to see if something like that existed in the American Inventory. Interestingly, American PEs existed in the Eagle-Class patrol craft, but I've seen some discussion that the E in this case stands for Eagle, unlike it's use everywhere else. Which leads us to the other type in this role, the PCE, or Patrol Craft Escort which were actually built at the same time as some later KB.

Another more modern option which I've seen used to describe both KB and PCE is small Frigate or FS. One downside to using this is that in the time period in question, FS meant Army Freight and Supply Vessel. Agreed, exactly what I have been reminding people from long ago. Remember, Japan didn't have a coast guard before the end of WWII, so the IJN had to include coast guard duties as well as related equipment too. There has to be something to be classified as patrol ships in the IJN arsenal, which are bigger than patrol boats, but smaller than full-fledged navy ships. And given the development history of Shimushu, these Kaiboukans are the closest equivalent.