I can obviously tell why you’d want a dedicated aircraft from a not, but trying to wrap my head around why you’d for example in the royal navy (UK) frigates are slightly specialised for anti submarine warfare whilst destroyers are slightly specialised for anti air warfare, why not have a single dedicated escort?.
And to mention historically, why would you have smaller ships alongside battleships (for example destroyers and torpedo boats in the battle of Jutland) when the battleships have a dedicated armament to combat destroyers?
Sorry if this seems stupid, I’m just doing my best to understand 🙂
In: 9
Smaller ships need less stuff. Can work closer to the shore. But are worse in storms and probably dont have the supplies to stay out to sea as long.
In modern fleets smaller ships are meant to protect the larger ones. The carrier is the cornerstone of American naval fleets and each carrier is supposed to be escorted by multiple smaller ships to protect it. More ships means more anti aircraft radar and missiles missile interception abilities and more sonar to try and detect submarines.
For the most part that was how world war 2 navy was as well. You had destroyers far away from the carriers to act as spotters and early warning to the enemy being close.
As you got closer to the carrier more ships were there to defend it.
Combined arms. It’s why tanks don’t go charging out solo. Easy pickings for RPG ambush. So you need mobile infantry at the very least.
Same thing applies at sea. Battleships (which today are outdated) and carriers are slow vulnerable targets. They need escorts. Why not put everything on one destroyer? Part of it is space. The other is modification, refits, and specialization. Why put 2 types of targeting systems on 2 ships when you can just create 2 different ships.
The other issue see F35. When you refit too many specs on one piece of equipment, issue become exponential.
Smaller ships need less stuff. Can work closer to the shore. But are worse in storms and probably dont have the supplies to stay out to sea as long.
In modern fleets smaller ships are meant to protect the larger ones. The carrier is the cornerstone of American naval fleets and each carrier is supposed to be escorted by multiple smaller ships to protect it. More ships means more anti aircraft radar and missiles missile interception abilities and more sonar to try and detect submarines.
For the most part that was how world war 2 navy was as well. You had destroyers far away from the carriers to act as spotters and early warning to the enemy being close.
As you got closer to the carrier more ships were there to defend it.
It’s the benefit of specification.
Let’s go with an extreme. If you do everything fairly well let’s say you destroy 50% of the targets you see. Regardless of type (let’s go with air vs sea)
So the first ship gets 50% then the next so gets 50% of the remaining targets. We have 75% elimination of enemy targets.
If you specialize let’s say you get 100% of your type (air). But 0,% of the other (sea) The event sends sea vessels after you. You can’t handle them, but your partner skip is right next to you .. So it cleans up 100%…
The challenge thigh is having these two units work together, very placed in support, by supplied, and two entirely different training programs….
It’s the benefit of specification.
Let’s go with an extreme. If you do everything fairly well let’s say you destroy 50% of the targets you see. Regardless of type (let’s go with air vs sea)
So the first ship gets 50% then the next so gets 50% of the remaining targets. We have 75% elimination of enemy targets.
If you specialize let’s say you get 100% of your type (air). But 0,% of the other (sea) The event sends sea vessels after you. You can’t handle them, but your partner skip is right next to you .. So it cleans up 100%…
The challenge thigh is having these two units work together, very placed in support, by supplied, and two entirely different training programs….
Combined arms. It’s why tanks don’t go charging out solo. Easy pickings for RPG ambush. So you need mobile infantry at the very least.
Same thing applies at sea. Battleships (which today are outdated) and carriers are slow vulnerable targets. They need escorts. Why not put everything on one destroyer? Part of it is space. The other is modification, refits, and specialization. Why put 2 types of targeting systems on 2 ships when you can just create 2 different ships.
The other issue see F35. When you refit too many specs on one piece of equipment, issue become exponential.
Combined arms. It’s why tanks don’t go charging out solo. Easy pickings for RPG ambush. So you need mobile infantry at the very least.
Same thing applies at sea. Battleships (which today are outdated) and carriers are slow vulnerable targets. They need escorts. Why not put everything on one destroyer? Part of it is space. The other is modification, refits, and specialization. Why put 2 types of targeting systems on 2 ships when you can just create 2 different ships.
The other issue see F35. When you refit too many specs on one piece of equipment, issue become exponential.
Containing costs.
Hunting submarines and patrols of any kind do require being more places, so you need many ships.
AA defense and submarine defense around main force does happen only around a main force. There you can afford better ships as you don’t need so many.
So makes sense to have slightly cheaper frigates to do scouting and patrolling in general, while using a more expensive destroyer as a jack of all trades to escort your main force.
Then your main force is basically few very powerful assets.
Consider that the price of vessels has escalated to the point that fleet do struggle being numerous, each ship needs to be super expensive to be a worthy asset in a era when a little defense hole means receiving a KO blow from a missile shot from 300km away. Each ship is filled with super expensive defense systems.
Destroyers originate from the torpedo-boat-destroyer which was the smallest possible unit to screen the main fleet from any threat. And still retain this role of absolute killer of anything that can harm your fleet.
Firgates and corvettes are basically a “can’t afford a destroyer” ship, a “gap-filler ship i wish was a destroyer but we can’t get any more broke than this”. And again, the escalation of weapons is at a point that affording frigates is becoming an issue for top-dog countries; let alone destroyers.
Containing costs.
Hunting submarines and patrols of any kind do require being more places, so you need many ships.
AA defense and submarine defense around main force does happen only around a main force. There you can afford better ships as you don’t need so many.
So makes sense to have slightly cheaper frigates to do scouting and patrolling in general, while using a more expensive destroyer as a jack of all trades to escort your main force.
Then your main force is basically few very powerful assets.
Consider that the price of vessels has escalated to the point that fleet do struggle being numerous, each ship needs to be super expensive to be a worthy asset in a era when a little defense hole means receiving a KO blow from a missile shot from 300km away. Each ship is filled with super expensive defense systems.
Destroyers originate from the torpedo-boat-destroyer which was the smallest possible unit to screen the main fleet from any threat. And still retain this role of absolute killer of anything that can harm your fleet.
Firgates and corvettes are basically a “can’t afford a destroyer” ship, a “gap-filler ship i wish was a destroyer but we can’t get any more broke than this”. And again, the escalation of weapons is at a point that affording frigates is becoming an issue for top-dog countries; let alone destroyers.
Containing costs.
Hunting submarines and patrols of any kind do require being more places, so you need many ships.
AA defense and submarine defense around main force does happen only around a main force. There you can afford better ships as you don’t need so many.
So makes sense to have slightly cheaper frigates to do scouting and patrolling in general, while using a more expensive destroyer as a jack of all trades to escort your main force.
Then your main force is basically few very powerful assets.
Consider that the price of vessels has escalated to the point that fleet do struggle being numerous, each ship needs to be super expensive to be a worthy asset in a era when a little defense hole means receiving a KO blow from a missile shot from 300km away. Each ship is filled with super expensive defense systems.
Destroyers originate from the torpedo-boat-destroyer which was the smallest possible unit to screen the main fleet from any threat. And still retain this role of absolute killer of anything that can harm your fleet.
Firgates and corvettes are basically a “can’t afford a destroyer” ship, a “gap-filler ship i wish was a destroyer but we can’t get any more broke than this”. And again, the escalation of weapons is at a point that affording frigates is becoming an issue for top-dog countries; let alone destroyers.
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