The report groups frigates, LCS, mine-warfare ships, and patrol craft as small surface combatants. It assigns them independent operations in lower-threat areas and work alongside larger ships in higher-threat areas. The criticism here is that this description still leaves individual duties unspecified. The later frigate paragraph uses the present tense even though the February 2026 fleet has no frigates in service. The objection concerns the difference between describing a historical ship type and identifying ships actually available to the fleet.
Notable Point · 1:45:50-1:55:06
Vague force language obscured what frigates were for
Congressional descriptions grouped several unlike small combatants together while giving decision-makers little explanation of concrete frigate missions.