History
United States
Name	Newport
Namesake	City ofNewport, Rhode Island
Reclassified	PF-27, 15 April 1943
Builder	Walter Butler Shipbuilding Company,Superior, Wisconsin
Yard number	24
Laid down	8 June 1943
Launched	15 August 1943
Sponsored by	Mrs. Nicholas Brown
Commissioned	8 September 1944
Decommissioned	4 September 1945[1]
Fate	Transferred toSoviet Navy, 4 September 1945[1]
Acquired	Returned by Soviet Navy, 14 November 1949
Recommissioned	27 July 1950
Decommissioned	30 April 1952
Fate	Transferred toJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 1 October 1953
Stricken	1 December 1961
Acquired	Returned by Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 20 May 1975
Fate	Final disposition unknown
Soviet Union
Name	EK-28[2]
Acquired	4 September 1945[1]
Commissioned	4 September 1945[3]
Fate	Returned to United States, 14 November 1949
Japan
Name	JDSKaede (PF-293)
Acquired	1 October 1953
Reclassified	PF-293, 1 September 1957
Renamed	YAC-17, 31 March 1966
Reclassified	Auxiliary stock craft (YAC), 31 March 1966
Decommissioned	31 March 1972
Fate	Returned to United States, 20 May 1975
General characteristics
Class & type	Tacoma-class frigate
Displacement	1,430 long tons (1,453 t) light 2,415 long tons (2,454 t) full
Length	303 ft 11 in (92.63 m)
Beam	37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Draft	13 ft 8 in (4.17 m)
Propulsion	2 × 5,500 shp (4,101 kW) turbines 3 boilers 2 shafts
Speed	20knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	190
Armament	3 ×3"/50 dual purpose guns (3x1) 4 x40 mm guns (2×2) 9 ×20 mm guns (9×1) 1 ×Hedgehoganti-submarine mortar 8 ×Y-gun depth charge projectors 2 × Depth charge tracks

USSNewport (PF-27), aTacoma-classfrigate in commission from 1944 to 1945, and from 1950 to 1952, was the second ship of theUnited States Navy to be named for the city ofNewport, Rhode Island. She later served in theSoviet Navy asEK-28 and in theJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force asJDSKaede (PF-13),JDSKaede (PF-293) and asYAC-17.

Originally classified as a patrolgunboat,PG-135,Newport was reclassified as apatrol frigate, PF-46, on 15 April 1943. She waslaid down by theWalter Butler Shipbuilding Company inSuperior,Wisconsin, on 8 June 1943, andlaunched on 15 August 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Nicholas Brown. She wascommissioned atNew Orleans,Louisiana, on 8 September 1944.

Aftershakedown atBermuda,Newport proceeded fromNew York,New York, toGuantanamo Bay Naval Base,Cuba, on escort duty, returning on 24 February 1945 toTompkinsville onStaten Island, New York, herhome port for exercises and patrol off theUnited States East Coast until 9 July 1945.

Earmarked for transfer to theSoviet Navy inProject Hula, a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy in anticipation of theSoviet Union joining thewar against Japan,Newport steamed via thePanama Canal andSeattle,Washington, toCold Bay in theTerritory of Alaska to train her new Soviet crew.^[4]

Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew,Newport wasdecommissioned on 4 September 1945^[1] at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union underLend-Lease immediately^[1] along with hersister shipsUSS Gloucester (PF-22),USS Bath (PF-55), andUSS Evansville (PF-70), the last of 28 patrol frigates transferred to the Soviet Navy in Project Hula. Commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,^[3]Newport was designated as astorozhevoi korabl ("escort ship") and renamedEK-28^[2] in Soviet service.^[5]

On 5 September 1945, all ship transfers to the Soviet Union were ordered stopped, although training for ships already transferred was allowed to continue. Accordingly,EK-28 remained at Cold Bay along withEK-26 (ex-Gloucester),EK-29 (ex-Bath), andEK-30 (ex-Evanvsille) for additional shakedown and training until 17 September 1945, when all four ships departed in company bound forPetropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, the last four of the 149 Project Hula ships to do so. Too late forWorld War II service with the Soviet Navy,EK-28 served as a patrol vessel in theSoviet Far East.^[6]

In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union for use during World War II. On 8 May 1947,United States Secretary of the NavyJames V. Forrestal informed theUnited States Department of State that theUnited States Department of the Navy wanted 480 of the 585 combatant ships it had transferred to the Soviet Union for World War II use returned,EK-28 among them. Negotiations for the return of the ships were protracted, but on 14 November 1949 the Soviet Union finally returnedEK-28 to the U.S. Navy atYokosuka, Japan.^[7]

Reverting to her original name,Newport lay idle in thePacific Reserve Fleet until recommissioned on 27 July 1950 for service in theKorean War. Lieutenant Commander P.A. Lilly became her recommissioning Commanding Officer. She patrolled offInchon,Korea, from 15 to 26 September 1950, screeningUnited Nations ships during theInchon landings. Lilly recalled, "The extreme tides made for extreme currents and rip tides. When I went alongside an anchored tanker, I had to keep engines turning to stay alongside until fully moored. After the troops were safely ashore, we (escort ships) made our way back to Japan with the newly empty troop ships."^[8]

Newport then was converted for service as aweather ship, and so served onocean weather stations in the NorthwestPacific Ocean until November 1951, when she took up varied duties off Korea, including screeningunderway replenishment groups, patrolling, and on 29 December 1951 conducting ashore bombardment atWonsan. She next operated in thePhilippine Islands until decommissioning at Yokosuka on 30 April 1952 and returning to a reserve status.

Loaned toJapan on 1 October 1953 for service in theJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), the ship was commissioned asJDSKaede (PF-13) (かえで (PF-13); "maple").^[9] The JMSDF reclassified her asPF-293 on 1 September 1957.^[9] The U.S. Navy struck her from the U.S.Naval Vessel Register on 1 December 1961, and the United States transferred her to the JMSDF outright on 28 August 1962.Kaede was reclassified as an "auxiliary stock craft" (YAC) and renamedYAC-17 on 31 March 1966,^[9] serving thereafter as a non-operational training ship. Decommissioned on 31 March 1972,YAC-17 was returned to U.S. custody on 20 May 1975. Her final disposition is unknown.

• American Campaign Medal
• Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
• World War II Victory Medal
• China Service Medal
• National Defense Service Medal
• Korean Service Medal with fourbattle stars
• United Nations Service Medal

•  This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.

• hazegray.org: USSNewport
• "The Naval Database: JMSDF Kusu class patrol frigate (PF293) Kaede" (in Japanese). Retrieved22 September 2014.

• Tacoma-class frigates
• Ships built in Superior, Wisconsin
• 1943 ships
• World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States
• Tacoma-class frigates of the Soviet Navy
• World War II frigates of the Soviet Union
• Cold War frigates of the Soviet Union
• Cold War frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States
• Korean War frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States
• Tacoma-class frigates of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
• Ships transferred under Project Hula

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