Scout cruiser


A scout cruiser was a type of warship of the early 20th century, which was smaller, faster, more lightly armed and armoured than protected cruisers or light cruisers, but larger than contemporary destroyers. Intended for fleet scouting duties and acting as a flotilla leader, a scout cruiser was typically armed with six to ten destroyer-type guns of 3-inch to 4.7-inch calibre, plus two to four torpedo tubes.
The British were the first to operate scout cruisers, when the Royal Navy acquired 15 ships divided into two distinct groups: eight vessels ordered under the 1903 Programme, and seven heavier-armed vessels ordered under the 1907–1910 Programmes. All these ships served in World War I, although the advent of better machinery and larger, faster destroyers and light cruisers had already made them obsolete.
The other major operator of scout cruisers was the Kingdom of Italy. With no conventional protected cruisers or light cruisers planned between 1900 and 1928, the Italian Royal Navy instead operated a number of scout cruisers from 1912 onwards. Ranging in size from enlarged destroyers to substantial, light-cruiser-like ships, these esploratori were also given secondary capabilities as fast minelayers. Later esploratori, such as the, carried extremely heavy armament for their modest size, capable of outgunning any destroyer of the early 1920s. By 1938 the surviving esploratori were re-rated as destroyers.

Scout cruiser designs

Austro-Hungarian Navy

  • Brazilian Navy

  • Kriegsmarine

  • Spähkreuzer – Translates to 'scout cruiser' in English; developed from late 1930s Zerstörer 1938A/Ac large ocean-going destroyer design concept intended for oceanic escort.

    Peruvian Navy

  • Regia Marina

Note: this list includes all vessels rated as scouts by Italy.
  • – protected cruisers, rated as esploratori from 1914 to 1921
  • Alessandro Poerio class - included
  • - originally classified esploratori oceanici, then re-rated light cruisers

    Romanian Navy

  • Royal Navy

  • United States Navy

  • * – later re-classified as light cruisers
  • * The first three ships were also designated "scout cruisers" when ordered, but in 1920, before any were launched, the Navy revised its classification system and they - and the Chesters - became light cruisers.