They're a death trap. Steel hull from the waterline down. Aluminum topside. Sacrifices safety for speed. Any large caliber weapon will punch thru like shooting a Coke can...
For the last 30 years, the Navy has assumed that there will be no combat damage. Even submarines aren’t built for damage control anymore. Its a pretty good assumption...until some ragheads in a speedboat pull alongside or someone gets too close with an Exocet or China decides that it wants to rule the oceans one day.
The Navy used to plan for the worst. Now they hope for the best so they can spend the money on “Gay Awareness and Sensitivity Training” for all hands.