Navy facts for kids

The USS Lassen is a modern warship of the United States Navy.

A navy is the part of a country's military that works on water. Navies use boats, often called warships, to protect their country or fight battles at sea. People who work in the navy are called sailors or naval officers.

Navies can have many different types of ships. Some are large aircraft carriers that carry airplanes. Others are submarines, which are special boats that can travel underwater. A navy might also have its own air force and soldiers, like marines, who are trained to fight on land after arriving by sea.

How Navies Changed Over Time

For a long time, naval battles involved ships trying to crash into each other. After ramming, soldiers would jump onto the enemy ship to fight the crew. In Ancient Greece and Rome, ships were often powered by many oars.

From Oars to Cannons

During the Middle Ages, a big change happened: the cannon was invented. Cannons allowed warships to shoot at other ships from far away. Around this time, ships also started using sails instead of oars to move. This made them faster and able to travel longer distances.

Modern Warships Emerge

In the mid-1800s, ships began to be covered in armor for protection. Steam engines were invented, which helped these heavy, armored ships move. Better steam engines soon made them much faster. These early armored warships, called ironclads, were the start of the naval warfare we see today. Since then, warships have become much larger and more powerful.

Related pages

• Royal Navy
• United States Navy
• Royal Australian Navy
• Royal New Zealand Navy

Images for kids

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  The Spanish Armada fighting the English navy at the Battle of Gravelines in 1588.

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  British and Danish navies in the line of battle at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801).

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  A group of ships from the Indian Navy's Western Fleet with aircraft carriers INS Viraat and INS Vikramaditya in the Arabian Sea in 2014.

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  An ancient Roman painting showing a naumachia (mock naval battle) with triremes, from the Temple of Isis in Pompeii.

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  Two Javanese jongs, which were large sailing ships, from an old map.

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  HMS Invincible sailing towards the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War of 1982. This war was the largest naval conflict since World War II.

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  US Navy officers on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln checking defense systems during maritime security operations. Navies sometimes do operations that are not direct warfare.

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  The ship's bell of ORP Iskra II, a Polish Navy school tall ship.

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  Typhoon-class submarines are the largest submarines ever built.

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  INS Shivalik is a stealth frigate of the Indian Navy, designed to be hard to detect.

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  The Royal Canadian Navy's Orca-class patrol vessel.

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  A Soviet PT-76 light amphibious tank leaving an Aist-class hovercraft.

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  Ships from the multinational fleet Combined Task Force 150 in formation.

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  Indonesian Navy officers.

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  Chinese sailors in 2009.

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  Newly appointed officers celebrating their new roles by throwing their hats in the air at a U.S. Naval Academy graduation.

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  From left to right: President P. E. Svinhufvud and Commander Einar Schwank of the Finnish Navy at the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, Finland, in 1931.

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  Jaubert commandos of the French Navy showing a practice sea assault on the support vessel Alcyon.

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  Spanish Navy Marines.

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  A Sea Harrier on the flight deck of an Indian Navy aircraft carrier in 2007.

See also

In Spanish: Armada para niños