“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!
