Designing destroyers for close defence and mine warfare

The late-session destroyer design combines a double hull, minesweeping gear, depth charges, guns, and torpedo armament. It is intended primarily as a gunnery destroyer for close defence, so torpedo numbers are lower than on the campaign's earlier boats. Weight, fore-and-aft balance, and roll become the limiting problems, forcing compromises in speed and layout before the ship is accepted. The hull has to carry several mission systems without losing seaworthiness, so no single weapon can define the design.