"High Reward and Low Cost: Patrol Boats" Topic

If a paintbrush is better at painting than a hammer, should one throw their hammer away before they paint? In the case of the U.S. Navy, a recent article by The Drive announcing their plans to ditch the recently acquired Mark VI patrol boats answers this question with a quiet yes. However, this decision fails to foresee that an individual can change from painting to construction where the hammer is necessary. Removing the Mark VI patrol boats from the fleet because they are not beneficial to fleet-on-fleet warfare is similarly single-minded and would be a significant mistake since patrol boats have proven potential in irregular warfare situations. The Dogger Bank incident in 1904 and the Oleg's sinking in 1919 are excellent historical examples of patrol boats' effectiveness in major conflicts and whose lessons can still be seen in modern Iranian and Chinese naval strategy…

USNI Blog: link

So they bought a bunch of boats to be PBRs and find they aren't that great against surface ships. If they can't stick a credible missile on it (even 1 or 2) then they should probably be mothballed or given to the USCG.

If there is war taking place around an archipelago, it's going to be bewteen fleets of small craft; Destroyers will be of less utility than PT boats…

That's true but the USN is geared for only high intensity blue water conflict. Hi-Low mix from the 70's (except our Euro partners forgot about their low part of the deal) is still in force and we don't know how to build "low".