Destroyer escort (
DE) was the
United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a 20-knot (23 mph)
warship designed with endurance to escort mid-ocean
convoys of
merchant marine ships.
[1] Kaibōkan were designed for a similar role in the
Imperial Japanese Navy.
[2] The
Royal Navy and Commonwealth forces identified such warships as
frigates, and that classification was widely accepted when the United States redesignated destroyer escorts as frigates (FF) in 1975.