Ship types

The development of space warships followed naturally out of the naval doctrines which were already present among the great powers. The fleets designed for service in space served many of the same purposes as those that had long served on the oceans of Earth. Fleets served to project national influence and power, to protect or sometimes threaten trade lanes, to protect colonies, and so on. If anything, the importance of naval power was only increased by stellar colonization because in space, every nation is an island nation.

BB - Battleships
The Battleship is the most powerful class of ship and the core of any respectable navy. Defined by their heavy armor and main battery composed of large caliber guns, Battleships are descended from the old Ship of the Line during the Age of Sail and the Ironclad's of the mid 19th century. The Battleship has been at the center of naval warfare doctrine for more than a century.

The role of the battleship is sweep the enemy from the field with overwhelming firepower. To this end battleships are built both to give and to be able to take a beating. The only ships that can go toe to toe with a battleship in a stand up fight are other battleships.

CV - Fleet Carrier
Carriers are a relative new-comer to the space navies of the great powers. While the development of space fighters and bombers was in its infancy, they provided little tactical utility. As they have become more powerful, however, they have begun to take on a greater role in naval combat. As a result Carriers are beginning to become a standard and important component of a well-rounded navy.

CA - Cruisers
The name Cruiser originates from a type of mission during the Age of Sail. Missions such as commerce raiding or commerce escort that required long range ships, capable of operating independently, were known as cruising missions. Eventually the ships best suited to these types of missions, originally Frigates and Sloops of War, became known as Cruisers.

When cruiser became it's own class of ship, it quickly developed into two distinct types, the Protected Cruiser and the Armored Cruiser. By the time of the Great War the Armored Cruiser had developed into the Heavy Cruiser and Battle Cruiser, while the Protected Cruiser had developed into the Light Cruiser. These ships tend to be a jack of all trades. They are usually long range ships that can operate without support for long periods of time. This makes them ideal commerce raiders, convoy escorts, and scouts. The heavy cruiser can outgun anything but a battleship, and outrun anything it can't outgun.

CL - Light Cruiser
A variant of the Cruiser class described above, the Light Cruiser serves in the traditional role of convoy escort and scout, but does not often serve as a commerce raider. Light Cruisers also sometimes serve as Destroyer command ships and Fleet support roles.

FF - Frigate
The original frigates during the Age of Sail were the ancestor of the modern cruiser. The Frigate designation largely disappeared in the late 19th century up through the Great War. It began to be used again from the mid-century onward. During this time the Frigate class was not well defined and a wide variety of different types of ships were referred to as Frigates. In the space age the frigate designation is primarily used for ships larger than destroyers but smaller than cruisers. Frigates sometimes serve as Destroyer or Corvette command ships but perhaps most often they fill fleet support roles.

DD - Destroyer
The Destroyer class originates in the late 19th and early 20th century with he advent of the first practical torpedoes. Small torpedo boats began to pose a significant threat to Battleships. These small, fast, boats were hard for the big guns of capital ships to hit. If they could get close enough, torpedo boats could take down even a mighty battleship. As a result a new type of ship was born. It had to be small enough to match the torpedo boat's speed and maneuverability, but big enough to mount guns capable of blasting torpedo boats out of the water. This class of ship was originally known as the Torpedo Boat Destroyer. The name was eventually shortened to just Destroyer.

The first job of Destroyers was to screen and protect the fleet's capital ships. Relatively quickly torpedoes were mounted on destroyers and the torpedo boat disappeared.

Destroyers continued to occupy the primary role of screens and escort ships, protecting against Submarines and other threats, throughout the Great War and the subsequent 20th century.

TC - Torpedo Corvette
Torpedo Corvettes are more often just referred to as Corvettes. This class includes any military ship smaller than a destroyer.

The first spacefaring warships ever built were corvettes. When piracy began to threaten trade lanes during the colonization of the solar system, the great powers built the first military vessels to provide security. These ships were small, lightly armed with no armor. They only had to deal with pirates using improvised weapons on civilian craft.

As space navies advanced corvettes continued to be used for a variety roles ranging from courier ships to patrol boats. Since corvettes are too small to mount guns big enough to threaten larger ships, they were often armed with torpedoes. This lead to their evolving into the old role of the torpedo boat from the beginning of the 20th century.

SS - Dimensional Sub
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