A navy now had the potential to destroy a superior enemy battle fleet using steam launches to fire torpedoes. The emergence and development of the destroyer was related to the invention of the self-propelled torpedo in the 1860s. Sumner-class destroyers had a displacement of 2,200 tons, while the Arleigh Burke class has a displacement of up to 9,600 tons, thus growing in size almost 340%.įernando Villaamil, credited as the inventor of the destroyer concept, died in action during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba in 1898 Some NATO navies, such as the Canadian, French, Spanish, Dutch and German, use the term " frigate" for their destroyers, which leads to some confusion.Īfter the Second World War, destroyers grew in size. The Chinese Type 055 destroyer has been described as a cruiser in some US Navy reports due to its size and armament. At 510 feet (160 m) long, a displacement of 9,200 tons, and with an armament of more than 90 missiles, guided missile destroyers such as the Arleigh Burke class are actually larger and more heavily armed than most previous ships classified as guided missile cruisers. Modern guided missile destroyers are equivalent in tonnage but vastly superior in firepower to cruisers of the World War II era, and are capable of carrying nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. This resulted in larger and more powerful guided missile destroyers more capable of independent operation.Īt the start of the 21st century, destroyers are the global standard for surface combatant ships, with only two nations ( United States and Russia) officially operating the heavier class cruisers, with no battleships or true battlecruisers remaining. After the war, the advent of the guided missile allowed destroyers to take on the surface combatant roles previously filled by battleships and cruisers. īefore World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended ocean operations typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together. Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War. They were originally developed in 1885 by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish Navy as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort Churchill, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy
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