Successive American destroyer designs tested different arrangements before wartime construction expanded. The Navy expected insufficient peacetime orders to lead to another crash building program, with a new design taking the numerical role previously filled by the Clemson and Wickes classes. It also expected to begin the war with too few destroyers for the distances and commitments involved. Individual survivability therefore mattered alongside the ability to build large numbers. These two requirements help explain why the later production design combined repeatable construction with protection against the loss of essential systems.
Chapter · 1:43-2:59
Prewar experiments prepared a destroyer for mass production
Successive prewar designs prepared the US Navy for another crash building program, while long operating distances made each surviving ship valuable.