difference between a frigate, a destroyer & a cruiser
- Thread starter dcvergara
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A
Aussie Digger
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The names for the naval ships, basically referred to the size and capabilities of a warship, with Frigate being the smallest and least well armed to the Cruiser being the heaviest and best armed (beside the historical battleships and pocket battle ships (a kind of extremely well armed crusier) of course).
Frigates generally have anti-submarine and a light escort focus as their main tasks, with a capability in the anti surface and anti air roles, but with a lesser degree of capability than larger ships.
Destroyers are normally anti-submarine, anti-surface and anti-air capable and perform all 3 of these roles to a high degree of capability. Cruisers normally perform anti-surface and anti-air to a high degree of capability, but with only a lesser degree of capability or focus on the anti-submarine role.
Frigates these days weigh anything from 2000 - 5000 tons, Destroyers are in the range of 5000 - 8000 and cruisers normally 8000 tons and above. Few Navies actually operate ships as capable and as large as Cruisers these days, with most forces concentrating their surface action forces on Frigates, with perhaps a few destroyers. Modern heavily armed Cruisers are beyond the realities of funding for most Navies these days...
Frigates generally have anti-submarine and a light escort focus as their main tasks, with a capability in the anti surface and anti air roles, but with a lesser degree of capability than larger ships.
Destroyers are normally anti-submarine, anti-surface and anti-air capable and perform all 3 of these roles to a high degree of capability. Cruisers normally perform anti-surface and anti-air to a high degree of capability, but with only a lesser degree of capability or focus on the anti-submarine role.
Frigates these days weigh anything from 2000 - 5000 tons, Destroyers are in the range of 5000 - 8000 and cruisers normally 8000 tons and above. Few Navies actually operate ships as capable and as large as Cruisers these days, with most forces concentrating their surface action forces on Frigates, with perhaps a few destroyers. Modern heavily armed Cruisers are beyond the realities of funding for most Navies these days...
Platforms are also defined by capability, eg the first 5 Ticonderogas were recently reclassified as DDG's by the USN because of their weapons fitments. Outside of the USN those vessels would still be regarded as Guided Missile Cruisers (CG classification)
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Pre Guided Missile Warship definitions:Pendekar said:
Warship Types
Battleship (BB): Historically, the final arbiter of sea power. Descended from "battle ship of the line," which were the largest and most heavily gunned sailing warships (ex: H.M.S. Victory). After the end of the age of sail, the most heavily armed and protected warships were just called "battleships."
After the advent of H.M.S. Dreadnought, battleships were also called, generically, "dreadnoughts." (See below under Miscellaneous Terms for more about the Dreadnought.) This term basically just means a battleship armed with one size of big gun.
Battleships also carry the heaviest armor of all warships, generally intended to protect them from guns of the approximate size they themselves carried.
It was expected that in war, battleships would endeavor to meet their enemy in the sort of battle where one battle line would steam parallel to the enemy battle line and they would shoot it out until one battle line was sunk. This practically never happened (Tsushima and Jutland being the two times I can think of when it did, except that the Germans fled at Jutland and the battle was indecisive).
In WW II, BB's seldom fought each other, and in much smaller engagements when they did, usually just one or two battleships at a time. By then what is now called the 3rd generation of battleships were known as "fast battleships." (Dreadnought, and battleships like her armed with all 11" or 12" guns represented the first generation. The 2nd generation were the super Dreadnoughts with 13.5" to 16" guns, but speed still limited to the range of 20-24 knots.)
With the fast battleship, the battlecruiser and battleship types had merged. Battle line speeds were now 27 to 30 knots, about as fast as destroyers and cruisers could travel in a seaway. The battlecruiser H.M.S. Hood was really the precursor to all the fast battleships that followed. Improvement in power plants and the increase in size made high speed and heavy armor possible in the same ship. By treaty, the 3rd generation battleships built just before WW II were about 35,000 tons displacement. Read the introduction to my essay about the Treaty Battleships for more on this subject.
Battlecruiser (CC):
The rather rigid sort of battle as envisioned for the battle line led to the development of the battlecruiser. Battlecruisers, along with battleships, are classed as "capital ships." The battlecruiser was a ship about as large as a battleship and with battleship size guns, but protected against cruiser (6" or 8") gunfire, not against battleship gunfire. In the first and second generation ships, the weight that would have been devoted to additional armor was instead devoted to additional propulsion machinery. This allowed cruiser speeds (26 to 30 knots).
Since the battlecruiser could outshoot cruisers, it could sink enemy scout cruisers, and brush aside enemy cruiser screens to scout the enemy fleet's disposition. Of course, this only applied as long as the enemy did not also have battlecruisers. Since both sides built the type, they evolved toward the fast battleship. Protection against the enemy battlecruiser's big guns became important. This was driven home to the British in WW I at the Battle of Jutland, where they lost 3 CC's to enemy gunfire, which hastened the development of H.M.S. Hood. Hood was the first CC to carry the same thickness of armor as contemporary battleships. In order to combine heavy armor with high speed (given the efficiency of steam turbines at the time she was designed--during WW I), she was about 10,000 tons bigger than contemporary battleships (31,000t vs. 41,000 tons).
Only Russia operates modern, guided missile equipped battlecruisers today. Read the introduction to my essay about battlecruisers for more information about these fascinating ships.
Large cruiser (CB), super cruiser, pocket battleship:
All terms used for ships that were basically battlecruisers, built at a time when it was politically incorrect to build battlecruisers. After the loss of three lightly armored battlecruisers at Jutland, the type came into serious question. Yet the need for the type still existed. So navies found other names for the type, names for which politicians would appropriate money. The smallest were the German "pocket battleships" (more properly "pocket battlecruisers") at about 13,000 tons (11 in. guns), and the biggest about 30,000 tons (12 " to 14" guns). Again, read my essay "Battlecruisers, Large Cruisers . . . ."
Cruiser (C):
The next biggest surface combatant after the capital ships. During the interwar years cruisers were limited by treaty to a maximum size of 10,000 tons standard displacement. Two types were defined by treaty: heavy cruisers (CA)--cruisers with 8 inch guns, and light cruisers (CL)--cruisers with 6 inch guns.
Cruisers had many roles. One was literally cruising the world; showing the flag, and representing overwhelming force that could be brought to bear far from home in colonial times. In wartime cruisers were to operate alone on the high seas to interdict enemy commerce; also to protect the battle line against enemy scout (light) cruisers. These were mostly heavy cruiser roles. Heavy cruisers are the smallest warships to which the term "heavy ships" is applied.
Light cruisers were primarily scout cruisers, intended to operate far in front of the battle line to find the enemy battle line and report its position. Also to drive off enemy destroyers that might attempt to torpedo friendly capital ships. Also to patrol lines of commerce against raiders. As they grew larger, their role tended to merge with that of the heavy cruisers.
Both wound up about 10,000 ton ships; the heavy cruisers carried 8 to 10 8" guns, the light cruisers carried 12 to 15 6" guns, and both carried a heavy battery of secondary and AA guns. Some cruisers also carried torpedo tubes. Both types usually had top speeds in excess of 30 knots. For more information, read the introduction to my essay "Heavy Cruisers of WW II."
Today, cruisers are primarily guided missile warships, ranging in size from around 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.
Destroyer (DD):
Historically called torpedo boat destroyers. Destroyers came about after the invention of the whitehead (self-propelled) torpedo. Suddenly there was a weapon that could be carried on a small, fast, cheap motorboat type of craft that could strike a capital ship underwater, bypassing all its armor protection (which at that time was designed to protect against gunfire above the surface, not threats below), and sink it.
Small fleets that could not afford capital ships built torpedo boats to defend against them. Naturally, the major naval powers that did have battleships moved to build small, fast, vessels that were larger and much better armed (with guns) than torpedo boats, and which were blue water ships that could travel with the fleet to defend it against torpedo boats.
Thus the torpedo boat destroyer came about. Later the name was shortened to just "destroyer." Soon, the destroyer itself was armed with torpedoes as well as guns. This allowed it to torpedo bigger enemy warships beyond the range of the small coastal torpedo boats. Torpedo boats were revived by all combatants in WW II--we called ours "PT" (Patrol Torpedo) boats, and John F. Kennedy commanded one. As it turned out, torpedo boats did little damage in any war, but destroyers became the jack of all trades among warships. Today, they are the largest surface combatants operated by most navies, ranging in size up to about 6,000 tons.
When submarines became practical, the destroyer was equipped with depth charges, SONAR, and other ASW weapons, and became their major enemy. Destroyers were used to protect convoys and larger warships against submarines. When aircraft became a major threat to ships, destroyers became AA ships as well. WW II destroyers ran around 2,000 tons, and were armed with a main battery of 4 to 6-4" to 5" guns, AA guns, torpedo tubes, and depth charges and other AS weapons. They were fast ships, generally capable of 30+ knots in calm seas.
Destroyer Escort (DE):
A small destroyer, typically designed more for antisubmarine warfare than general purpose fleet defense. Along with frigates, DE's were the smallest blue water surface combatants. They were mass produced in great numbers during the Second World War, primarily as convoy escorts, but served in many capacities and in every theater. WW II DE's ran around 1,200 tons or smaller. DE’s carried a lighter main battery than destroyers (3-3" or 2-5" guns would be typical), plus AA guns, and perhaps a small battery of torpedo tubes. Their AS weapons fit was usually their strength. They were generally slower than fleet destroyers, with top speeds of 20-24 knots.
Frigate (FF):
Another term for Destroyer Escort. Most European nations, including the British, called their DE's "frigates." Today, the U. S. Navy has abandoned the destroyer escort nomenclature, and also calls this class of warship frigates. Like all other classes of warships, frigates have grown in size. Today they are larger than WW II destroyers, often displacing up to 3,000 tons, and are usually capable of top speeds of 27 to 30 knots.
Submarine (SS):
Submersible Ship. Modern submarines, if not nuclear powered, are sub-classed as "coastal" (short range) or "fleet" (oceanic patrol) types.
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Under the normal NATO naming conventions it would be regarded as a CGN (Cruiser, Guided Missile platform, Nuclear Powered)Pendekar said:
The Battlecruiser reference is still applicable in the old terminology, it is however, incorrect as such when compared to NATO standards.
as much as it would be nice to take all the credit for an applauded article - its not all mine.
I actually grafted a few articles I had saved as text files a few years back and then included some of my own input.
I have no idea what the original source was - so my apols to all.
I thought that the british lost those ships because the gunpowder was made of extremely reactive materials. I thought they sunk because the gunpowder exploded not because the germans did to much damage to the ships, but overall excellent post.
A
Aussie Digger
Guest
In the numerous studies I have conducted over the years, I have found one thing to be true. That is: "one man's "grafted articles" is another man's "essay"...
which is rapidly followed by that other maxim... "give credit where credit is due"
I'm wondering whether part of it came from the old Warships1 site as I'd normally keep it as an HTML file rather than text without attribution.
All of it came from Chuck Hawks' Naval History site.
http://www.chuckhawks.com/glossary_naval.htm
He doesn't like his material reproduced...
Please remember that all of the documents on this web site are protected by copyright and are for your personal use and enjoyment only. They may not be duplicated, reproduced, or disseminated in any fashion without the express written permission of the author
It definitely didn't come from his site - I guess I pulled it from someone who has copied it as well.
But thanks for clearing it up - its actually a load off my mind now that I've found its original home.
If I may point out that the BBs hold a fascination, even still, that far outweighs their actual military worth. By Taranto the BBs short reign of the high seas was over, in reality the first time Billy Mitchell sank a ship with an airplane the worth of the BB had started to diminish.
But still we love them. I'm not even a navy man but If I had only one class of ship I could see pictures of it would be the BB. If there was only one class of ship I could serve on it would be the BB. I think we should activate the Iowas again just so's I can see them shoot those guns again, "and their invasion gun support still does have worth".
WW-ll has been mentioned and its truly sad that this war saw both the ultimate evolution in BB shipbuilding, and, the demise of the platforms status as a major instrument of naval power. By 1944, when they weren't supporting amphibs, they were mostly bullet catchers for the ultimate naval platform, The Carrier. The destruction of the IJN Yamatos was the final curtain call for a platform, as was the blundering rebuild of the IJN ISE class BBs into something resembling carriers.
Anyway, forgive me. Im just a guy who loves talking about the BBs. Then again very few guys dont.
But still we love them. I'm not even a navy man but If I had only one class of ship I could see pictures of it would be the BB. If there was only one class of ship I could serve on it would be the BB. I think we should activate the Iowas again just so's I can see them shoot those guns again, "and their invasion gun support still does have worth".
WW-ll has been mentioned and its truly sad that this war saw both the ultimate evolution in BB shipbuilding, and, the demise of the platforms status as a major instrument of naval power. By 1944, when they weren't supporting amphibs, they were mostly bullet catchers for the ultimate naval platform, The Carrier. The destruction of the IJN Yamatos was the final curtain call for a platform, as was the blundering rebuild of the IJN ISE class BBs into something resembling carriers.
Anyway, forgive me. Im just a guy who loves talking about the BBs. Then again very few guys dont.
contedicavour
New Member
Yep and besides the end of the super battleships of the Japanese Navy, a lot of other battleships were completed only to be scuttled a few years afterwards. Think of the Royal Navy Vanguard battleship, or of the French Richelieu ... or, sadly, of the Italian Vittorio Veneto and Doria classes (demolished in the 1950s).
cheers
cheers
Rich: It is more or less a technological law: The best represenatatives of a concept are made AFTER the concept has become obsolete.
The best stone daggers were made in the bronce-age.
The best sailingsships were build after steamengines had taken over.
The best propfighters were build after the jetengine.
The best stone daggers were made in the bronce-age.
The best sailingsships were build after steamengines had taken over.
The best propfighters were build after the jetengine.