“4.5 acres of sovereign and mobile American territory”.
That is how the US Navy describes their Nimitz-class carrier.
Most people know what an aircraft carrier or a submarine is,
but there are seven categories of modern warships which consists of aircraft carriers,
cruisers, destroyers, frigates, corvettes, amphibious assault ships, and submarines.
“What about battleships?”
Oh, well, A battleship was a large armored warship with large caliber guns. They were
the most powerful type of warship during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But as
newer types of warships started traveling the blue waters, battleships faded away,
with the last one being decommissioned at the end of the Cold War.
“How about the …” No more audience
questions during the video. That’s what the comments section is for!
Once your voyage through this video is over, you would know why destroyers are called as such,
even though all warships have the power to destroy, and
what differentiates these classes of ships from one another … or will you?
The first aircraft carriers became operational in the early 1920s,
storing, launching, recovering, and servicing aircraft at sea.
Enabling a nation with airborne operations far away from home and close to the enemy
is very advantageous for obvious reasons. A single supercarrier holds enough firepower to rival the
entire air forces of some nations. A carrier air wing is able to perform over 150 strike missions
at once, hitting over 700 targets a day, but they can also protect friendly forces, conduct
electronic warfare, assist in special operations, and carry out search and rescue missions.
Super carriers can accommodate 4 to 5
thousand personnel including the ship's company, air wing and other support staff.
Even though aircraft carriers do have surface-to-air missiles,
guns and other armament, they usually do not travel alone.
Instead, they travel with a fleet composed of other classes of military ships,
called a carrier strike group, which is typically made up of an aircraft carrier, at least one
cruiser and two destroyers or frigates, and a carrier air wing of 65 to 70 aircraft. A carrier
strike group could also on occasion include submarines, logistics ships and a supply ship.
The aircraft carrier often acts as the command
platform for large battle groups or multi-national task forces.
Aircraft carriers traditionally ran on diesel fuel, but newer American carriers
are nuclear-powered. If you are interested in a comparison between diesel and nuclear-powered
carriers, we made a detailed video on it. We’ll put the link in the description.
In colonial times, a cruiser would have been cruising the world; showing off their flag,
and representing the overwhelming force that could be brought to bear
far from home. The name has stayed, but the role is not exactly just cruising around anymore.
During the period between the end of the First World War in 1918 and the beginning
of the Second World War in 1939, also known as the interwar period, cruisers were limited
by treaty to a maximum size of 10,000 tons. Two types were defined by treaty: The heavy
cruisers carried anywhere from 8 to 10 8" guns, and the light cruisers carried 12 to 15 6" guns,
and both heavy and light cruisers carried a heavy battery of secondary and anti-aircraft guns.
In wartime, cruisers were to operate alone on the high seas to interdict enemy commerce,
but also to protect the battle line against enemy light cruisers. These were mostly heavy
cruiser roles, but both types of cruisers usually had top speeds in excess of 30 knots.
Today’s cruisers are primarily guided missile warships, ranging in size anywhere from 7,000
to 10,000 tons. Only the world’s largest navies can afford to build and operate modern cruisers,
principally the United States and Russia. Their use today depends on the navy it is employed in.
In the US Navy, cruisers are primarily an air defense vessel while in the Russian
Navy they are anti-ship platforms. Other missions included commence raiding and shore bombardment.
Even though the US Navy at some point had a number of nuclear-powered cruisers in its fleet, they
were all decommissioned in the 90s, since they were deemed too expensive to build and maintain.
Enough cruising, let’s move on to destroyers!
Before we talk about destroyers, we need to briefly talk about torpedoes.
In 1866, an English engineer called Robert Whitehead invented the first
effective self-propelled underwater torpedo, eponymously named Whitehead torpedo. At the time,
battleships were heavily armored and protected against gun fire,
but only above the water. So the invention of Whitehead torpedoes changed everything!
Suddenly there was a weapon that could be carried on a small, fast and relatively inexpensive boat,
called a torpedo boat, that could strike a large ship underwater, bypassing all its
armor protection. The torpedo had the potential to cripple and even sink a battleship with one blow.
But wait! With all its armament, why wouldn’t a large battleship be able to annihilate a
little torpedo boat? See, the turbine engine allowed the torpedo boats to reach speeds
that challenged the large caliber, but slow firing guns on the battleships and cruisers.
As a result, a new class of ships emerged to protect the main fleet from Torpedo Boats,
and it was creatively called Torpedo Boat Destroyers.
Torpedo Boat Destroyers were larger than the Torpedo Boats, but much,
much smaller than the Cruisers, which meant they were more maneuverable and
better equipped to deal with torpedo boats. So they started traveling the blue waters with the
fleet to protect them against torpedo boats. Shortly after, the destroyers themselves were
armed with torpedoes, which allowed them to torpedo bigger enemy warships beyond
the range of the small coastal torpedo boats. … and that was the end of it for torpedo boats,
but not for the torpedo boat destroyers, which are now just referred to as “destroyers”.
Destroyers are protectors of the fleet. So when submarines became practical, the
destroyer was equipped with depth charges, SONAR, and other anti-submarine weapons, and became the
submarines’ #1 enemy. And when aircraft became a major threat to the naval fleet, destroyers
adopted anti-air missiles. They were fast ships, generally capable of 30+ knots in calm seas.
This is how destroyers became the jack of all trades among warships. Today, destroyers
are the largest surface combatants operated by most navies, ranging in size up to 6,000 tons.
With the destroyers getting lagers and more heavily armed,
the difference between a Cruiser and a Destroyer has greatly diminished.
While a cruiser should nominally be bigger, this is not always the case. But a Cruiser is
generally considered to have greater facilities for command and control, at least in the US Navy,
which often means cruisers have more space and spare energy to power the additional
communications equipment and a command & control room to coordinate the defense of the fleet.
Similar to destroyers, Frigates are quite common ships in a navy’s fleet.
They are quick to maneuver and their role is to escort and protect larger vehicles from Air,
surface and underwater threats.
Frigates are one of the smallest blue water surface combatants. In the past, they used to
carry a lighter main battery than destroyers, for example three 3" or two 5" guns would have been
typical. These days, they may have anti-air guns, and perhaps a small battery of torpedo tubes,
however, they are not particularly well-suited to theater air defense. Their strength is usually
in their anti-submarine weapons. For example, the Royal Navy’s Duke class of frigates, have
specialized anti-submarine warfare capabilities and are fitted with enhanced sonar equipment
and torpedoes. ASW-enhanced frigates come with helipads and hangers that accommodate helicopters
capable of identifying and attacking nuclear submarines using torpedoes and depth charges.
Frigates are traditionally slower than Destroyers, although, in modern times, there
is not a significant difference in their speed. Today’s frigates often displace up to 3,000 tons,
and are usually capable of top speeds of 27 to 30 knots. One of the faster frigates is
the Indian Navy’s Shivalik class, which can travel at speeds of up to 32 knots.
Some European Navies such as the Dutch, French, German and Spanish
use the term "frigate" for both their destroyers and frigates.
Vessels that are smaller than frigates are typically identified as Corvettes or Missile
Boats, which are not big enough to have a full air defense radar,
and therefore are not used to escort other vessels or defend large areas. They play
more of an “offense” role, given that they can use their anti-ship missiles to attack,
and they are small and maneuverable enough to avoid being hit. They are also typically not
suited or capable of operating in blue waters, so they typically stay closer to the shores.
A Missile Boat is a small craft, outfitted with several anti-ship missiles. They have low costs,
and are somewhat an outgrowth of torpedo boats from World War II.
A Corvettes is a smaller version of a modern Frigate,
usually geared towards one type of mission; surface or anti-submarine warfare.
The first littoral combat ship, USS Freedom, was commissioned in 2008.
Littoral Combat Ships are a US Navy design, meant to replace the Perry-class frigates.
While the LCS class ships are smaller than the frigate class that they are replacing,
they offer a similar level of weaponry while requiring
less than 50% of the crew. They can have a top speed that exceeds 40 knots.
Littoral combat ships are smaller vessels that are well-suited for littoral or close-to-shore
operations. In other navies, the closest thing to them would be patrol vessels or corvettes.
One interesting feature of littoral combat ships was their modular design;
they could be reconfigured for different roles, like anti-submarine warfare
or surface warfare by changing their weapon systems, sensors and mission crews. These
module changes were envisioned to happen within a few hours, but in practice took a lot longer
and proved to be logistically difficult. In a 2016 announcement, the US Navy abandoned
the modular concept for littoral combat ships, and decided to use them with a single module.
Amphibious assault ships are used to help land and support ground forces on enemy territory.
At a glance, they resemble aircraft carriers, but they are primarily designed for supporting
helicopters. They can also carry vertical and short take-off and landing aircraft.
Most modern amphibious assault ships have a well deck, which is a hangar-like deck
located at the waterline in the stern of the ship. When the well deck is flooded,
landing craft, like hovercraft, can be launched and recovered without the need for a crane.
A submarine, also commonly referred to as a sub,
is a watercraft that is capable of independent underwater operation.
Submarines typically fall into one of three propulsion categories:
diesel-electric transmission, nuclear power, and air-independent propulsion. All current
submarines in the US Navy are nuclear-powered, but there are a few other countries like Russia,
France, the UK, China, and India which also have nuclear subs in their fleet.
Submarines range in size from midget submarines with a displacement of less than 150t to
Ballistic Missile Submarines with a displacement of up to 48,000t
when submerged, and regardless of their size, they are all referred to as “boats”.
There are three major types of submarines in the United States Navy: attack submarines,
cruise missile submarines, and ballistic missile submarines.
Attack submarines use torpedoes as their main armament and have more of a multi-role mission.
They are smaller in size, making them faster and more maneuverable. Cruise missile submarines are
typically larger slower boats focused on the long distance strike using guided missiles.
Ballistic missile submarines, as the name suggests can carry and launch nuclear ballistic missiles.
If we take a look at the 7 categories of warships that were just reviewed, aircraft carriers,
amphibious assault ships, and submarines are quite easily distinguishable from one another,
in appearance and in the role that they play. However, the appearance and roles that cruisers,
destroyers, frigates, and corvettes once had, have been blurred over time. Most of them
have a mix of anti-surface, anti-submarine and anti-aircraft weapons, and their size
and displacement does not necessarily fall within their traditional class designations.
It's kind of like iPhones, iPads and iPods. They used to look different
from one another and do different things, but now they all have cameras,
touch-screen and FaceTime. But at least the iPod still has the headphone jacks!