Naval ship facts for kids

HMS Invincible, a British aircraft carrier

USS Port Royal, an American cruiser

A Berlin-class replenishment ship of the German Navy

HMCS Algonquin, a Canadian destroyer

HMAS Darwin, an Australian frigate

Al-Fahaheel, a La Combattante-class fast attack craft of the Kuwaiti Navy

A naval ship is a military ship (or sometimes boat, depending on classification) used by a navy.

Types of ships

• Aircraft carrier – ships that are mobile seaborne airfields. They were designed for the purpose of doing combat by Carrier-based aircraft. They do attacks against airborne, surface, sub-surface and shore targets.
• Surface combatant – big, heavily armed surface ships. They are designed mostly to engage enemy forces on the high seas, including various types of battleship, battlecruiser, cruiser, destroyer, frigate, and corvette.
• Submarine – self-propelled sjips that go underwater. They can be combatant, auxiliary, or research and development vehicles which have at least a slight combat ability.
• Patrol combatant – combatants whose mission may extend beyond coastal duties and whose characteristics include adequate endurance and sea keeping providing a capability for operations exceeding 48 hours on the high seas without support.
• Amphibious warfare – ships having organic capability for amphibious assault and which have characteristics enabling long duration operations on the high seas.
• Combat logistics – ships that have the capability to provide underway replenishment to fleet units.
• Mine warfare – ships whose primary function is mine warfare on the high seas.
• Coastal defense – ships whose primary function is coastal patrol and interdiction.
• Sealift – ships that have the capability to provide direct material support to other deployed units operating far from home base.
• Support – ships, such as oilers, designed to operate in the open ocean in a variety of sea states to provide general support to either combatant forces or shore based establishments. (Includes smaller auxiliaries which, by the nature of their duties, leave inshore waters).
• Service type craft – navy-subordinated craft (including non-self-propelled) designed to provide general support to either combatant forces or shore-based establishments.

Size

In weight (largest to smallest), modern naval ships are often put into different groups (called classes). The bigger ships in the list can also be classed as capital ships:

• Aircraft carrier
• Helicopter carrier
• Battleship
• Battlecruiser
• Heavy cruiser
• Light cruiser
• Destroyer
• Frigate
• Corvette
• Patrol boat
• Fast attack craft

Images for kids

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  The "Baden-Württemberg", an F125-class frigate of the German Navy; currently the biggest frigates worldwide