Editing Tacoma-class frigate (section)

==Construction program==
In November 1942, MARCOM gave its West Coast Regional Office the responsibility for coordinating the construction of the ships of the ''Tacoma'' class, which were to be split between commercial shipyards on the [[United States West Coast]] and five shipyards on the [[Great Lakes]], the latter in particular chosen because they had building ways available for use in the ''Tacoma'' program. MARCOM tendered a contract to [[Kaiser Cargo, Inc.]], of [[Oakland, California]], to prepare detailed specifications based on the Gibbs & Cox design and to manage the overall construction program.<ref name="Russell p. 22"/>

On 8 December 1942, MARCOM contracted for 69 ''Tacoma''-class ships, for which the US Navy dropped the British "corvette" designation in favor of classifying the ''Tacoma''s (along with the two ''Asheville''-class ships that preceded them) as "patrol gunboats" (PG); on 15 April 1943, the two ''Asheville''s and all ''Tacoma''s were reclassified as "patrol frigates" (PF). Kaiser Cargo itself received an order for 12 ships; the [[Consolidated Steel Corporation]], of [[Wilmington, California]], received an order for 18; the [[American Ship Building Company]], received an order for 11, with four to be built at [[Cleveland, Ohio]], and eight at [[Lorain, Ohio]]; the [[Walter Butler Shipbuilding Company]], of [[Superior, Wisconsin]], received an order for 12; [[Froemming Brothers, Inc.]], of [[Milwaukee]], received an order for four; the [[Globe Shipbuilding Company]], of Superior, Wisconsin, received an order for eight; and the [[Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Company]], of [[Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin]], received an order for eight. American Shipbuilding later received an order for another six (four at Cleveland and two at Lorain), bringing the total orders for the US Navy to 79 ships, while the [[Walsh-Kaiser Company]], of [[Providence, Rhode Island]], received an order for 21 additional ships, all of which were to be transferred to the Royal Navy, where they were known as the [[Colony-class frigate|Colony class]], bringing the total planned construction to 100 units. Four ships scheduled for construction at Lorain, by American Shipbuilding, {{USS|Stamford|PF-95|2}}, {{USS|Macon|PF-96|2}}, {{USS|Lorain|PF-97|2}}, and {{USS|Milledgeville|PF-98|2}} (ex-''Vallejo''), were cancelled in December 1943 and February 1944, dropping the ultimate total of ''Tacoma''-class ships built to 96.<ref name="Conway's pp. 62, 148-149"/><ref name="Russell p. 22"/>

From the beginning, the construction program was plagued by difficulties which caused it to fall far behind schedule. Unfamiliar with the capabilities of the Great Lakes yards, Kaiser Cargo used prefabrication techniques unsuited to the Great Lakes yards{{'}} smaller [[Crane (machine)|cranes]] and had to rework them. Ice prevented patrol frigates built on the Great Lakes from transiting the [[Soo Locks]] on the [[St. Marys River (Michigan–Ontario)|St. Marys River]] between [[Lake Superior]] and [[Lake Michigan]] in the winter and spring, requiring them to be floated down the [[Mississippi River]] on [[Float (nautical)|pontoon]]s to [[New Orleans]] or [[Houston]] for [[Fitting-out|fitting out]], often doubling their construction time. Delays became so lengthy that shipyards began to deliver the ships in such an incomplete state that [[shakedown cruise|shakedown]] and post-shakedown periods of repair and alteration took months for some of them. [[Bilge keel]]s that cracked in rough seas or cold weather, failures in the welds holding the [[deckhouse]] to the deck, engine trouble, and ventilation problems plagued all of the ships. As a result, no ''Tacoma''-class ship was [[Ship commissioning|commissioned]] until late in 1943, none were ready for service until 1944, and the last one, {{USS|Alexandria|PF-18}}, was not commissioned until March 1945. The ships Consolidated Steel built proved the most reliable, while Kaiser Cargo-built units were the most trouble-prone; among the latter, ''Tacoma'' took ten months of shakedown and repairs to be ready after her commissioning, and {{USS|Pasco|PF-6|2}} proved equally difficult to make ready for service.<ref>Russell, Richard A., ''Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan'', Washington, D.C.: [[Naval Historical Center]], 1997, {{ISBN|0-945274-35-1}}, pp. 22–23.</ref>