Editing Destroyer (section)

===Later combat===

{{further|American World War II destroyers|British World War II destroyers|French World War II destroyers|German World War II destroyers|Italian World War II destroyers|Japanese World War II destroyers|Soviet World War II destroyers|Romanian World War II destroyers}}
[[File:USS McGowan (DD-678) at sea, circa in 1945.jpg|thumb|left|{{USS|McGowan|DD-678|6}}, a {{sclass|Fletcher|destroyer|2}} during World War II]]
During the 1920s and 1930s, destroyers were often deployed to areas of diplomatic tension or humanitarian disaster. British and American destroyers were common on the Chinese coast and rivers, even supplying landing parties to protect colonial interests. By World War II, the threat had evolved once again. Submarines were more effective, and [[aircraft]] had become important weapons of naval warfare; once again the early-war fleet destroyers were ill-equipped for combating these new targets. They were fitted with new light [[antiaircraft]] guns, [[radar]], and [[Hedgehog (weapon)|forward-launched ASW]] weapons, in addition to their existing [[dual-purpose gun]]s, [[depth charge]]s, and torpedoes. Increasing size allowed improved internal arrangement of propulsion machinery with [[compartmentation]], so ships were less likely to be sunk by a single hit.<ref name=ast/> In most cases torpedo and/or dual-purpose gun armament was reduced to accommodate new [[anti-air warfare|anti-air]] and [[anti-submarine warfare|anti-submarine]] weapons. By this time the destroyers had become large, multi-purpose vessels, expensive targets in their own right. As a result, casualties on destroyers were among the highest.  In the US Navy, particularly in World War II, destroyers became known as [[Tin Can Sailors|tin cans]] due to their light armor compared to battleships and cruisers.

The need for large numbers of antisubmarine ships led to the introduction of smaller and cheaper specialized antisubmarine warships called [[corvette]]s and [[frigate]]s by the Royal Navy and [[destroyer escort]]s by the USN. A similar programme was belatedly started by the Japanese (see {{sclass|Matsu|destroyer|2}}). These ships had the size and displacement of the original TBDs from which the contemporary destroyer had evolved.