Warship

Types and classes

• Submarine, are ships capable of staying submerged for days. Modern submarines can stay underwater for months, with food supplies as the only limiting factor.
• *Fleet submarine is a type of submarine with the speed, range, and endurance to operate as part of a navy's battle fleet.
• *Ballistic missile submarine is a submarine capable of deploying submarine-launched ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.
• *Cruise missile submarine are submarines equipped with cruise missiles.
• *Attack submarine is a submarine with the purpose of attacking other submarines.
• *Coastal submarine or littoral submarine is a small, maneuverable type of submarine with shallow draft well suited to navigation of coastal channels and harbors.
• *Midget submarine is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine.
• *Submarine aircraft carrier is a submarine equipped with aircraft for observation or attack missions. These submarines saw their most extensive use during World War II, although their operational significance remained small.
• *Cruiser submarine were a type of a very large submarine designed to remain at sea for extended periods in areas distant from base facilities.
• Amphibious warfare ships are warships employed to land and support ground forces, such as marines, on enemy territory during an amphibious assault.
• *Amphibious assault ship is a type of amphibious warfare ship employed to land and support ground forces with ship-deployed helicopters and V/STOL aircraft on enemy territory by an amphibious assault.
• **Landing helicopter dock is a multipurpose amphibious assault ship that is capable of operating as a helicopter carrier and also has a well deck for supporting landing crafts.
• *Amphibious transport dock is an amphibious warfare ship, that embarks, transports, and lands elements of a landing force for expeditionary warfare missions.
• *Dock landing ship is an amphibious warfare ship with a well dock to transport and launch landing craft and amphibious vehicles.
• *Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault.
• **Landing craft utility is a type of landing craft used by amphibious forces to transport equipment and troops to the shore. They are capable of transporting tracked or wheeled vehicles and marines from amphibious assault ships to beachheads.
• **Landing craft mechanized is a landing craft designed for carrying vehicles during amphibious assaults.
• **Landing ship, tank is the naval designation for ships first developed during World War II to support amphibious operations by carrying tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, transport vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto shore with no docks or piers.
• *Landing craft support were two distinct classes of amphibious warfare vessels used by the United States Navy during World War II to support landing crafts.
• Capital ship, the largest and most important ships in a nation's fleet. These were previously battlecruisers, battleships, and aircraft carriers, but the first two warship types are now no longer used.
• * Aircraft carrier, a warship primarily armed with carrier-based aircraft.
• ** Fleet carrier is an aircraft carrier designed to operate with the main fleet of a nation's navy.
• ** Light aircraft carrier is an aircraft carrier that is smaller than the standard carriers of a navy.
• ** Escort carrier, also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" is a slow type of aircraft carrier used during WWII.
• ** Anti-submarine warfare carrier is a type of small aircraft carrier whose primary role is as the nucleus of an anti-submarine warfare hunter-killer group.
• ** Aircraft cruiser is a type of warship that combines the features of the aircraft carrier and a surface warship, such as a cruiser or battleship.
• *** Helicopter cruiser.
• ** Helicopter carrier, an aircraft carrier especially suited to carry helicopters and V/STOL aircraft.
• **Seaplane tender, a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes. Some of these vessels, also known as seaplane carriers, could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation; these ships are regarded by some as the first aircraft carriers and became obsolete at the end of the Second World War.
• * Battleship, a large, heavily armored warship equipped with many powerful guns. A term which generally post-dates sailing warships.
• ** Ironclad battleship, battleships built before the pre-dreadnought in the late 1850s to the early 1890s.
• ** Pre-dreadnought battleship, sea-going battleships built to a common design before the launch of dreadnoughts, between the mid-1880s to the early 1900s. Pre-dreadnoughts commonly featured a mixed main battery composed of several different caliber guns.
• ** Dreadnought, an early 20th-century battleship, which set the pattern for all subsequent battleship construction. Dreadnoughts differ from pre-dreadnoughts in that they feature an all-big-gun main battery. The advantage lies in that if all the big guns have the same characteristics, only one firing solution will be needed to aim them all.
• *** Fast battleships were battleships which emphasized speed without – in concept – undue compromise of either armor or armament.
• * Battlecruiser, a ship with battleship-level armament and cruiser-level armour; typically faster than a battleship because the reduction in armour allowed mounting of more powerful propulsion machinery, or the use of a more slender hull shape with a lower drag coefficient.
• Cruiser, a fast, independent warship. Traditionally, cruisers were the smallest warships capable of independent action. As of 2024, only two countries operated active duty vessels formally classed as cruisers: the United States and Russia.
• * Guided missile cruisers are cruisers armed anti-ship missiles.
• * Torpedo cruiser is a type of cruiser that is armed primarily with torpedoes.
• * Armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast enough to outrun any battleship it encountered.
• * Large cruiser is the class of the battlecruiser-sized Alaska-class cruisers of the United States Navy during World War II.
• * Heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm caliber; its parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
• ** Pocket battleship, nickname for the Deutschland-class heavy cruisers.
• * Light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck.
• * Scout cruiser was a type of warship of the early 20th century, which were smaller, faster, more lightly armed and armoured than protected cruisers or light cruisers, but larger than contemporary destroyers. They were used for scouting.
• * Protected cruiser is a type of naval cruiser of the late-19th century, gained their description because an armored deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them.
• * Unprotected cruiser was a type of naval cruiser in use during the early 1870s Victorian or pre-dreadnought era.
• * Coastal defence ship were a type of cruiser-sized warship built for the purpose of coastal defense.
• Destroyer, a fast and highly maneuverable warship, traditionally incapable of independent action. Originally developed to counter the threat of torpedo boats, they are now the largest independent warship generally seen on the ocean.
• * Guided missile destroyer are destroyers armed with anti-ship missiles.
• *Escort destroyer was a small warship built to full naval standards which was optimised for air-defence and anti-submarine duties in wartime, but which retained many of the capabilities of a traditional fleet destroyer, enabling it to conduct operations in conjunction with main fleet units as well as carrying out convoy escort and ASW patrols.
• * Destroyer escort was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a 20-knot, warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships similar to frigates.
• Frigate, originally a medium-sized sailing ship. Although they date back to the 17th century, frigates in modern navies are typically used to protect merchant ships and other warships.
• *Armoured frigate are frigates with armour which was added to ships based on existing frigate and ship of the line designs. The additional weight of the armour on these first ironclad warships meant that they could have only one gun deck, and they were technically frigates, even though they were more powerful than existing ships-of-the-line and occupied the same strategic role.
• *Guided missile frigates are frigates armed with anti-ship missiles.
• Corvettes were small ships during the age of sail. The concept was revived again in WWII as a merchant convoy escort and anti-submarine ship. Today they are used for anti-submarine warfare and patrolling.
• * Littoral Combat Ship is a United States Navy classification of warships with the size and role of corvettes.
• Fast attack crafts are a small, fast, agile, offensive, often affordable type of warships armed with anti-ship missiles, guns or torpedoes.
• * Missile boats are small, fast warship armed with anti-ship missiles.
• * Torpedo boat, are small, fast surface vessels designed for launching torpedoes.
• **Torpedo ram is a type of torpedo boat combining a ram with torpedo tubes.
• **Motor torpedo boat is a type of fast torpedo boat, especially of the mid-20th century.
• Patrol vessels are relatively small naval vessels generally designed for coastal defence, border protection, immigration law-enforcement, search and rescue duties. They may be broadly classified as inshore patrol vessels or offshore patrol vessels.
• Mine warfare vessels:
• * Minesweeper are small warships designed to remove or detonate naval mines.
• * Minehunter are naval vessels that seek, detect, and destroys individual naval mines.
• * Mine countermeasures vessels are a type of naval ships designed for the location of and destruction of naval mines which combines the role of a minesweeper and minehunter in one hull.
• * Minelayer are naval vessels that plant naval mines offshore.
• Fire ship, a vessel of any sort set on fire and sent into an anchorage or fleet with the intention of causing destruction and chaos. Exploding fire ships are called hellburners. The development of unmanned surface vehicles has revived the use of fire ships.
• Naval drifters are boats built along the lines of a commercial fishing drifter but fitted out for naval purposes.
• Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of fishing trawlers but fitted out for naval purposes.
• Armed merchantman is a type of merchant ship equipped with naval guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact.
• Commerce raider, any armed vessel—privately or government-owned—sanctioned to raid a nation's merchant fleet.
• *Merchant raiders are disguised commerce raiders.
• Gunboats are naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets.
• * River gunboat is a type of gunboat for riverine use.
• * Flat-iron gunboats were a number of classes of coastal gunboats generally characterized by small size, low freeboard, the absence of masts, and the mounting of a single non-traversing large gun, aimed by pointing the vessel.
• * Torpedo gunboat were a form of gunboat armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats.
• * Motor gunboat is a type of a fast gunboat armed with machine-guns and autocannons.
• Monitor, a type of small, heavily gunned warships with shallow draft designed for shore bombardment.
• *River monitor, a type of monitors used in rivers.
• *Breastwork monitor was a modification of the monitor by Sir Edward Reed of the Royal Navy.
• Q-ship, also known as Q-boats, decoy vessels, special service ships, or mystery ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them.
• Submarine chaser was a small warship used in anti-submarine warfare.
• Armed yachts were modified yachts that were armed with weapons and were typically in the service of a navy.
• Balloon carrier was a type of ship equipped with a hot-air balloon tied to the ship with a rope or cable, which was used for observation. This type of ship was later replaced by seaplane tenders and aircraft carriers.
• Sloop-of-war was a sailing vessel category later revived in WWII as a convoy escort ship.
• *Screw sloop was a propeller-driven sloop-of-wars used during the mid-19th Century.
• Ironclad, a wooden warship with external iron plating.
• * Casemate ironclad were a type of ironclad gunboats used in the American Civil War.
• * Central battery ship in European continental navies, was a development of the broadside ironclad of the 1870s
• * Turret ship was a 19th-century type of warship, the earliest to have their guns mounted in a revolving gun turret, instead of a broadside arrangement.
• * Floating battery is a kind of armed watercraft, often improvised or experimental, which carries heavy armament but has few other qualities as a warship.
• Ship of the line, a sailing warship capable of standing in the line of battle. A direct predecessor to the later battleship.
• Cottonclad warships were steam-powered warships with bales of cotton lining as armour used in the American Civil War. The armaments consisted of a ram, random numbers of different cannons and sharpshooters.
• Brig of War is a brig armed for use by a navy.
• Bomb vessels were wooden sailing ships which carried mortars instead of cannons.
• Dispatch boats were small boats, and sometimes large ships, tasked to carry military dispatches from ship to ship or from ship to shore or, in some cases from shore to shore. Dispatch boats were employed when other means of transmitting a message was not possible or safe or as quick.
• * Aviso, a kind of dispatch boat.
• Man-of-war, a British Navy expression for a sailing warship.
• Grab was a type of ship common on the Malabar Coast in the 18th and 19th centuries. The ghurāb was originally a galley, but the type evolved into sailing ships armed with cannons.
• Gallivat were small, armed type of boats, with sails and oars, armed with swivel guns and used on the Malabar Coast in the 18th and 19th centuries.
• Galleass, a sailing and rowing warship, equally well suited to sailing and rowing.
• Galleon, a 16th-century armed cargo carriers.
• Galley was a type of ship optimised for propulsion by oars. Galleys were historically used for warfare, trade, and piracy.
• War canoe was a kind of watercraft of the canoe type designed and outfitted for warfare using bow, spear and shield wielding warriors. During the gunpowder era a single brass or iron cannon was mounted on the bow or stern along with musketeers. These warships were used by many tribes and cultures all around the globe.
• Longship, a Viking raiding ship.
• East Asian warships:
• *Geobukseon were wooden sail and oar propelled Korean warships armed with cannons.
• *Panokseon were a type of Korean wooden warships propelled by both sailing and rowing armed with cannons and Hwacha multiple rocket launchers.
• *Atakebune were wooden oar propelled 16th Century Japanese warships armed with few cannons, arquebusiers, and archers. They were mostly bulky floating fortifications.
• *Mengchong was a type of leather-covered assault warship used in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE in China.
• *Louchuan was a type of warship used as a floating fortress in Ancient China. The Louchuan was meant to board troops onto enemy ships. Although they were also armed with trebuchets for ranged combat.
• *Wugongchuan was a Chinese oared vessel of the 16th century inspired by the Portuguese galley.
• Hellenistic galleys, warships propelled by oars with a sail for use in favorable winds used in the Mediterranean Sea:
• * Bireme, an ancient vessel, propelled by two banks of oars.
• * Trireme, an ancient warship propelled by three banks of oars.
• * Quadrireme, an ancient warship invented in Carthage with two levels of oarsmen, and was therefore lower than the quinquereme.
• * Quinquereme, an ancient warship propelled by three banks of oars. On the upper row, two rowers hold one oar; on the middle row, two rowers; and on the lower row, one man to an oar.
• * Hexareme, an ancient warship invented in Syracuse. The exact arrangement of the hexareme's oars is unclear. If it evolved naturally from the earlier designs, it would be a trireme with two rowers per oar.
• * Septireme, an ancient warship invented by the Macedonia, the septireme was derived by adding a standing rower to the lower level of the hexareme.
• * Octeres, very little is known about the octeres, at least two of their type were in the fleet of Philip V of Macedon at the Battle of Chios.
• * Enneres, a type of warship whose oaring system may have been a modification of the quadrireme, with two teams of five and four oarsmen.
• * Deceres, a type of warship which is present alongside "nines" in the fleet of Antigonus I Monophthalmus in 315 BC. It is most likely that the "ten" was derived from adding another oarsman to the "nine".
• * Tessarakonteres, a very large catamaran galley reportedly built by Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt. It had seven naval rams, with one primary, and the deck would have provided a stable platform for catapults that were often mounted on supergalleys. However, the "forty" was likely just a showpiece; Plutarch describes the ship as for exhibition only.
• * Lembos, light warships most commonly associated with the vessels used by the Illyrian tribes, chiefly for piracy, in the area of Dalmatia. Was soon adopted by Macedonia, Seleucid Empire, Roman Republic and Sparta.
• * Hemiolia, light and fast warship that appeared in the early 4th century BC. It was particularly favoured by pirates in the eastern Mediterranean, but also used by Alexander the Great as far as the rivers Indus and Jhelum, and by the Romans as a troop transport. According to one view, it was manned by half the number of oarsmen to make room for the soldiers. According to another, there were one and a half files of oarsmen on each side, with the additional half file placed amidships, where the hull was wide enough to accommodate them.
• * Trihemiolia, this type was classed with the trireme, and had two and a half files of oarsmen on each side. Judging from the Lindos relief and the famous Nike of Samothrace, both of which are thought to represent trihemioliai, the two upper files would have been accommodated in an oarbox, with the half-file located beneath them in the classic thalamitai position of the trireme.
• * Liburna, a type of small galley used for raiding and patrols. It was originally used by the Liburnians, a pirate tribe from Dalmatia, and later used by the Roman Navy. It had one bench with 25 oars on each side, while in the late Roman Republic, it was equipped with two banks of oars, remaining faster, lighter, and more agile than triremes.
• Maritime Southeast Asian warships:
• *Djong were sailing warships armed with up to a hundred cannons.
• *Kakap were small warships used in Maritime Southeast Asia.
• *Kelulus were Nusantaran warships used as troop transports and raiding vessels.
• *Lancaran were a type of galley warships armed with cetbang cannons.
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