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Usually the size and the purpose. The period of time sometimes distinguishes the name.
Modern navy combat ships are generally divided into seven main categories. The categories are: Aircraft Carriers,
Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Frigates, Submarines, and Amphibious assault ships. There are also support and
auxiliary ships, including the minesweeper, patrol boat, and tender. During the age of sail, the ship categories were
Frigate is a name which has been used for several distinct types of warships at different times. It has referred to a
variety of ship roles and sizes. From the 18th century, it referred to a ship smaller and faster than a ship-of-the-line,
used for patrolling and escort work rather than fighting fleet actions. In modern military terminology, the definition of a
frigate is a warship intended to protect other warships and merchant marine ships and as anti-submarine warfare
(ASW) combatants for amphibious expeditionary forces, underway replenishment groups, and merchant convoys.
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, smaller than a frigate but larger than a coastal patrol craft.
In naval terminology, a destroyer 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,
A cruiser (From Dutch Kruiser, “something that crosses”) is a classification of large warship. Historically they were
generally considered the smallest ships capable of independent operations — destroyers usually requiring outside
support such as tenders — but in modern parlance this difference has disappeared. In modern warfare the cruiser
In naval terminology, a destroyer 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,
At the beginning of the 21st century, destroyers are the heaviest surface combatant vessels in general use, with only
four nations (the United States, Russia, France and Peru) operating cruisers and none operating battleships.[1]
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.
Battleship was the name given to the most powerfully gun-armed and most heavily armored classes of warships built
between the 15th and 20th centuries. Battleships evolved from northern European cogs, and included carracks and
galleons in the 16th Century, ships of the line in the 17th and 18th centuries, broadside ironclads and Pre-
Dreadnoughts in the 19th century, and Dreadnoughts in the 20th Century. For over 300 years battleships ruled the
waves, allowing nations such as Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, France and the United Kingdom to create and
maintain trade-based overseas empires and restrain their rivals. During World War II (1939-45) they were