Warship - Armament, Armor, Speed

Warship - Armament, Armor, Speed: The era of big-gun cruisers ended with the completion of ships laid down during World War II. In 1961 the United States commissioned USS Long Beach, the first vessel designed from the keel up as a guided-missile cruiser and the first surface warship to steam under atomic energy. This 14,000-ton ship was followed by a series of nuclear-powered U.S. cruisers that ended, in the 1970s, with the 10,400-ton Virginia class. This class has been supplemented since the 1980s and ’90s by the 7,400-ton, gas-turbine-powered Ticonderoga cruisers. Both the Virginia and Ticonderoga ships are fitted with a broad array of weaponry,
Warship, the chief instrument by which military power is projected onto the seas. Warships have been designed from earliest times to be faster and sturdier than merchant ships and to be capable of carrying offensive weapons. This article traces the development of warships from their beginnings to the present day.