Here’s some American coastal vessels I’ve found while doing research (aka reading US Small Combatants by Norman Friedman) for suggestions that I think would be interesting to share. They all have too little info on, are “impractical”, or I’m just too lazy to make a real suggestion for.
The Shallow Water Attack Boat (SWAB). A tiny little thing that was meant to fight missile boats. has 14(!) recoilless rifles and only 4 crew members. It was also tested with FFAR rocket pods. Trials found the thing to barely properly function as it was far too small.
PTF-13, a Nasty-class patrol boat. Tested the 81mm Oerlikon rocket launcher (which seemed to really get around, the Chileans also did the same with a patrol boat). I haven’t really done any other research as the Nasty-class isn’t very interesting.
The Special Warfare Craft Medium (SWCM, “Sea Viking”), a catamaran that was meant to replace the 65ft patrol boats. Was planned to be armed with 2 25mm rotary guns and a stinger. Pretty cool eh? It’s even pogging. Unfortunately the shipyard went bankrupt during construction and it was never completed. Its role would be fulfilled by the Cyclone-class, which as we know is hot garbage in-game.
It’s Tucumcari, which is in-game, but in 1971 the 20mm Emerson EX-73 turret was tested on it. Honestly would’ve made Tucumcari quite a bit more powerful if it had this in-game.
The Assault Support Patrol Boat Mark II by Teledyne-Sewart. Has guns superfiring like the big gun ships of yore. There’s a lot less info on this than the Sikorsky prototype so I’ve never made a suggestion for it.
A River Patrol Craft (RPC). A dinky patrol boat that was an early attempt to create a river warfare craft. Mostly sent to South Vietnam. Honestly just a goofy looking boat.
Not exactly American, this is a Landing Craft Medium Monitor conversion, originally performed by the French. In order to support the South Vietnamese forces the US also began their own conversions. A suggestion for a French one with an armoured car turret was on the old forums.
Sadly a paper project, the Shallow Water Attack Craft Medium (SWAM). It’s about 19.5m long and can be armed with 2 20mm Vulcans and a twin 30mm. The most amazing thing I’ve ever seen and a true tragedy it never came to be.
The SWAM was meant to be a modular design, as shown here of a fire support version with a 105mm howitzer.
Another paper project, the Air-cushion Armored River Patrol Craft (ARPC). A hovercraft with 2 side-by-side turrets with 20mms. Only 1.9m in total height, I know someone about as tall lmao.