Destroyer
This article is about the warship. For other meanings, see destroyer (disambiguation).In
naval terminology, a
destroyer (French: "contre-torpilleur", German: "Zerstörer", Spanish: "destructor", Italian: "cacciatorpediniere", Russian: Esminets (Escadrenniy minonosets) - Эсминец (Эскадренный миноносец), Polish "niszczyciel") is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance
warship intended to escort larger vessels in a
fleet or
battle group and defend them against smaller, short-range attackers (originally
torpedo boats, later
submarines and
aircraft).
At the beginning of the 21st century, destroyers are the heaviest
surface combatant vessels in general use, with only two nations (the
United States and
Russia) operating
cruisers and none operating
battleships.
[Although there are currently no active battleships in any navy the United States navy still maintains two Iowa-class battleships, and could reactivate one or both if necessary though unlikely.] Modern destroyers are equivalent in tonnage but drastically superior in firepower to cruisers of the
World War II era, capable of carrying
nuclear missiles able to destroy cities in a very small volley.
The destroyer originated in the
United Kingdom and
Japan in the last years of the 1880s, and became firmly established after the
Chilean Civil War of 1891 and in the
Sino-Japanese War (1894"1895). In those conflicts, a new type of ship proved to be devastatingly effective—the swift, small
torpedo boat invented by
John Ericsson. Among the first ships to use the self-propelled torpedo was
HNoMS Rap, built by Thornycroft in 1873. It and the boats that followed were small, cheap to build, fast, and any of them could potentiallly sink a battleship.
While normally a small, short-range boat of this sort would be easily destroyed long before getting into range, they could be operated within a fleet with larger ships as long as the fleet was close to base. In this case the defending force had to choose which set of targets to attack: the larger ships which they were built to counter, or the smaller torpedo boats which were charging in to attack. Yet this one-two punch cost almost nothing to the attacker, as the small torpedo boats were very inexpensive.
The world's navies recognized the need for a counter weapon and developed the
torpedo-boat destroyer. The basic idea was to have a screen of ships that were as fast as the torpedo boats, but armed with guns instead of torpedoes. They would operate at a distance from the main fleet of
capital ships to keep the torpedo boats from ever getting into
torpedo firing range.
However it was clear even at the time that this concept had problems of its own. The ship would indeed be capable of holding off an attack by torpedo boats (which typically have no guns of their own), but while operating away from the fleet they would be easy targets for any other capital ship. Thus they were often given torpedoes of their own.
Another problem was that the torpedo boats were short ranged and thus easy and cheap to produce. However the destroyers had the problem of needing to operate as a screen for the fleet. This required them to have the speed and range of the
battleships, so destroyers were often much larger than the boats they were designed to counter.
First designs
The first effective design of a torpedo boat destroyer emerged in 1885 with the Japanese
Kotaka ("Falcon"), which
"was the forerunner of torpedo boat destroyers that appeared a decade later" (Kaigun, David C. Evans). Designed upon Japanese specifications and ordered from the British
Yarrow shipyards in 1885, she was transported in parts to Japan, where she was assembled and launched in 1887. She was armed with four 1-pounder (37 mm) quick-firing guns and four
torpedo tubes, reached 19 knots (35 km/h), and at 203 tons, was the largest torpedo boat yet designed. In her trials in 1889,
Kotaka demonstrated that she could go beyond a role of coastal defense, and was capable of following larger ships on the high seas. The Yarrow shipyards, builder of the parts for the
Kotaka,
"considered Japan to have effectively invented the destroyer" (Howe).
Almost immediately after the order of
Kotaka was placed,
Fernando Villaamil of the
Spanish Navy also placed an order for a torpedo boat destroyer in November 1885, with the British builder James and George Thompson, of
Clydebank, not far from the Yarrow shipyards. The ship, named
Destructor, was laid down at the end of the year, launched in 1886, and commissioned in 1887, thereby becoming the first torpedo boat destroyer to be completed. Her displacement was 380 tons, and she was equipped with triple expansion engines generating 3,800 HP (2.8 MW), for a maximum speed of 22.6 knots (42 km/h). She was armed with one 90 mm
Hontoria cannon, four 57 mm
Nordenfeldt cannon, two 37 mm
Hotchkiss guns and 3 Schwartzkopff torpedo tubes. Her complement was 60 men.
The next effective design of torpedo boat destroyer, with the range and speed to keep up with battleships, was the
Havock class of two ships of the
Royal Navy, developed in 1892 under the newly appointed
Third Sea Lord Rear Admiral "Jackie" Fisher, and launched in 1893. The
Havock had a 240 tons displacement, a speed of 27 knots (50 km/h), and was armed with a single 12-pounder (76 mm) gun, three 6-pounders (57 mm), and three 46 cm torpedo tubes.
The
United States commissioned its first destroyer,
USS Bainbridge, Destroyer No. 1, in 1902 and by 1906 there were 16 destroyers in service with the Navy.
The torpedo-boat destroyer later on took over the role of the smaller torpedo boats, performing torpedo attacks on fleets, such as the devastating Japanese attack on the Russian fleet in
Port Arthur at the opening of the
Russo-Japanese War in 1904, and attacks in the Pacific theatre of
World War II.
Destroyers grew in size and effectiveness in the early part of the 20th century. Innovations such as
turbine propulsion, oil-fired rather than coal-fired boilers, and longer ranged "heater" torpedoes led to effective ships being designed by the United Kingdom and Germany.
The threat evolved by
World War I with the perfection of the
submarine. In general, the submarine, or
U-boat, of the era was nothing more than a submersible torpedo boat. This change allowed the submarine to hide from the guns of the destroyers and close to firing while underwater. This led to an equally rapid destroyer evolution during the war, which was quickly equipped with
depth charges and
sonar for countering this new threat.
At the end of the war the state of the art was represented by the British
V and W class destroyer.
 |
Japan's Fubuki (1928) |
Destroyer construction continued during the inter-war period, initially with designs evolved from the British V & W Class. A major innovation came with the Japanese
Fubuki class destroyers or special type of 1928, which introduced enclosed turrets capable of anti-aircraft fire and the 24-inch (60 cm) oxygen fuelled
Type 93 torpedo. Most other nations replied with similar larger ships, including the US
Porter-class destroyer leader and the British
Tribal class destroyer (sometimes called "Afridi" after one of two lead ships)
Anti-submarine sensors included
sonar (or ASDIC), although training in their use was indifferent. Anti-sub weapons changed little, and ahead-throwing weapons, a need recognized in WWI, had made no progress.
By
World War II the threat had evolved once again. Submarines were more effective, and
aircraft had become important weapons of naval warfare; once again the fleet destroyers were unequipped for combatting these new targets. They were re-equipped with new
anti-aircraft guns,
radar, and
ahead-throwing ASW weapons, in addition to their existing light guns, depth charges, and torpedoes. By this time the destroyers had become large multi-purpose vessels, expensive targets in their own right rather than expendable vessels for the protection of others, also they were one of the most sunk kinds of ships even though they were mass produced. This led to the introduction of smaller and cheaper specialized anti-submarine warships by the
Royal Navy:
corvettes and later
frigates, while the US introduced
destroyer escorts.
Some conventional destroyers were completed in the late 1940's and 1950's which built on wartime experience. These vessels were significantly larger than wartime ships and had fully automatic main guns, unit Machinery, radar, sonar, and antisubmarine weapons such as the Squid mortar. Examples include the British
Daring class, US
Forrest Sherman-class, and the Soviet
Kotlin-class destroyers.
Some World War II-vintage ships were modernised for anti-submarine warfare, and to extend their service lives, to avoid having to build (expensive) brand-new ships. Examples include the US
FRAM I programme and the British
Type 15 frigates converted from fleet destroyers.
The advent of surface-to-air (
SAM) missiles and surface-to-surface (
SSM) missiles, such as the
Exocet, in the early 1960's changed naval warfare.
Guided missile destroyers (
DDG in the US Navy) were developed to carry these weapons and protect the fleet from air, submarine and surface threats. Examples include the Soviet
Kashin-class, the British
County class, and the American
Charles F. Adams-class.
|
HMS Manchester a Type 42 destroyer of the Royal Navy |
In the
US Navy, destroyers operate in support of
carrier battle groups, surface action groups, amphibious groups and replenishment groups. The destroyers currently in use by the US Navy are the
Arleigh Burke-class. Destroyers (with a DD
hull classification symbol) primarily perform anti-submarine warfare duty while
guided missile destroyers (DDGs) are multi-mission (
anti-submarine,
anti-aircraft, and anti-surface warfare) surface combatants. The relatively-recent addition of
cruise missile launchers has greatly expanded the role of the destroyer in strike and land-attack warfare. As the expense of heavier surface combatants has generally removed them from the fleet, destroyer tonnage has grown (a modern
Arleigh Burke-class destroyer has the same tonnage as a
World War II light cruiser).
Arleigh Burke is billed by her builders, the
Bath Iron Works, as ton-for-ton the most powerful warship in history.The Royal Navy currently operates 8 ships of the
Type 42 class. The destroyers (as well as frigates) are, as always, the workhorses of the fleet, the former optimised for air defence and the latter for surface and subsurface warfare. They are equally at home in large task groups or on independent operations which may include sanctions enforcement, humanitarian relief or anti-drug patrols. British destroyers (of recent times) have an average displacement of around 5000 tonnes, and are armed with a mixture of guns and missiles including 114 mm (4.5 inch) Mk 8 guns,
Sea Dart Missiles, 20 mm Close range guns, Vulcan Phalanx close in weapons system (CIWS), anti submarine torpedo tubes.
The
Canadian Navy currently operates the
Iroquois-class destroyers, a class of four
helicopter-carrying, anti-aircraft,
guided missile destroyers. Launched in the 1970s, the
Iroquois's were the first all
gas turbine powered military ships, using two turbines for cruise power, and another two fast starting "boost" turbines for speeds of up to 29 knots (54 km/h) (such an arrangement is known as
COGOG). The design was a major inspiration for the US's later
Spruance class ships. They were originally fitted out for
anti-submarine warfare, but the entire class underwent major retrofits as a part of the Tribal Class Update and Modernization Program, or TRUMP, in the 1990s. These refits had the effect of re-purposing the ships for air-defence, and the ships are now referred to as area air-defence destroyers.
The Russian Navy and the People's Liberation Army Navy of
China operate the
Sovremenny class, a class of large multi-purpose missile destroyers. They are powered by
pressure-fired boilers, making them capable of speeds in excess of 30 knots. Their armament consists of 8
SS-N-22 Sunburn anti-ship missiles, launchers for
SA-N-7 Gadfly anti-air missiles and two
AK-130 twin-barreled 130mm automatic naval guns which can fire laser-guided shells. While they also carry 533mm torpedo tubes and
RBU-6000 rocket launchers for use against submarines, their primary mission is to attack surface ships. Their anti-aircraft missiles have a surface attack mode, and both the 130mm guns and the torpedoes are useful against ships at close range.
The last US Navy
Spruance-class destroyer in service,
USS Cushing, was decommissioned on
September 21 2005. The
Zumwalt class are planned to replace them; on
November 1,
2001, the US Navy announced the issuance of a revised Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Future Surface Combatant Program. Formerly known as DD 21, the program will now be called
DD(X) to more accurately reflect the program purpose, which is to produce a family of advanced technology surface combatants, not a single ship class. DD(X), also called
Zumwalt class, is much larger than traditional destroyers, being nearly three thousand tons heavier than a
Ticonderoga-class cruiser. It will potentially employ advanced weaponry and an all-electric
Integrated Power System. With the retirement of the
Spruance class, the Navy began commissioning an advanced variant of the
Arleigh Burke class with expanded ASW capabilities, the
Arleigh Burke Flight IIA, beginning with
USS Oscar Austin. As of 2006, 22 of these vessels are in service, with at least seven more under construction.
The current Royal Navy Type 42 destroyers are to be replaced by the new
Type 45 Daring-class from 2006 onwards. A class of 8 ships is envisaged, with an entire programme budget of £6 billion. Displacing around 7,200 tons, they will be equipped with the UK variant of the
Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS) and BAE
SAMPSON radar. Design and construction of the first ships is split between
BAE Systems and
Vosper Thornycroft under the overall project management of BAE systems. The ships are assembled at
Scotstoun, by
BAE Systems Naval Ships. HMS Daring, the first of her class, was christened by Sophie, Countess of Wessex, and launched on the Clyde on
1 February 2006.
The $5.2 billion CADRE (Command & Control and Air-Defence Capability Replacement) project is meant to replace Canada's
Iroquois class destroyers whose primary role shifted to area air-defence after TRUMP refits in the 1990s. Although the area air-defence capability had not previously existed, the Canadian Navy now regards "wide area air defence" as part of Canada's core naval capabilities. When the project began, Canadian Navy destroyers were expected to need replacing by 2005, they are now expected to serve until 2010. There was some work on a replacement design, known to Navy-watchers as the
Province class destroyers, but this was confined largely to studies of a much-improved multi-function three dimensional
phased array radar system being developed in conjunction with the Dutch and German navies, known as
APAR. Current speculation is that the ships themselves would be similar to a "stretched"
Halifax-class frigate.
*
List of destroyer classes*
United States Navy 1975 ship reclassification*
"Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941", David C. Evans, Mark R.Peattie, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland ISBN 0870211927
* "The Origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy: Development and Technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War", Christopher Howe, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226354857
* "The Atlantic Campaign", Dan van der Vat.
* "DD-963 Spruance-class" http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/dd-963.htm
* "Navy Designates Next-Generation Zumwalt Destroyer" http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2006/nr20060407-12772.html
*
The Japanese 1887 Kotaka (Japanese)*
The Spanish 1886 Destructor (Spanish)*
MaritimeQuest Minekaze Class Destroyer Class Overview
