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A submarine chaser is a small and fast naval vessel specially intended for anti-submarine warfare.
[edit] U.S. Submarine chaser
United States submarine chasers were designed specifically to destroy German and Japanese submarines in World War I and World War II. They are small patrol craft of a design first used in World War I with the hull designator SC. Their main weapon was depth charges. They also carried machine guns and anti-aircraft guns. They were mostly withdrawn after World War II and replaced with corvettes, frigates, and destroyers. A few are still in service with Third World navies. Pacific sub chasers used the PC hull classification symbol (for Patrol, Coastal). Submarine chasers were used mostly by the United States Coast Guard in World War II for destroying German U-boats that were on the coast of the United States trying to sink merchant convoys once they left. By the end of World War II, submarine chasers had sunk around 67 German U-boats.
See also List of patrol vessels of the United States Navy
