The Treasury class preceded the Hamilton class, and its ships served for about forty years. A warship may spend most of its career on peacetime duties, but combat remains the requirement that governs its hull and systems. A cutter is designed first for the work it performs continually rather than treating those missions as secondary tasks. Peacetime cutter work can become dangerous in grey-zone crises, and cutters can support wartime operations, but their institutional purpose still produces different design priorities.
Notable Point · 24:16-25:18
Treasury-class cutters and peacetime-first design
Treasury-class cutters were designed around recurring peacetime missions even though they could support combat operations in war.