 In the German Navy, frigates were used to replace aging destroyers; however in size and role the new German frigates exceed the former class of destroyers.The future German s will be the largest class of frigates worldwide with a displacement of more than 7,200 tons.The same was done in the Spanish Navy, which went ahead with the deployment of the first Aegis frigates, the s.

Some new classes of ships similar to corvettes are optimized for high-speed deployment and combat with small craft rather than combat between equal opponents; an example is the U.S. littoral combat ship (LCS).