Yugumo as an incremental Kagero design

Thirty-eight Yugumo-class destroyers are described as planned and nineteen as built. They are presented as Kagero derivatives with improvements, especially to anti-aircraft armament, and about forty-five tons of additional displacement. Such an incremental design should have allowed existing construction arrangements to continue. Reusing jigs and established yard training reduced the disruption associated with a new design. British and American ordering practices in 1939 provide comparisons for producing more of what was already being built. The unresolved production problem is why this sensible approach still failed to deliver Japanese destroyers at the required pace.