Capital ship
The
capital ships of a
navy are its "important" warships; the ones with the heaviest
firepower and
armor. There is usually no formal criterion for the classification, but it is a useful concept when thinking about
strategy, for instance to compare relative naval strengths in a
theater of operations without having to get bogged down in the details of tonnage and gun diameters. A capital ship is generally a leading or a primary ship in a fleet.
In the
20th century, especially in World Wars I and II, typical capital ships would be
battleships,
battlecruisers, and in WWII,
aircraft carriers (though it took until late 1942 for carriers to be universally considered capital ships). All of the above ships were close to 20,000 tons displacement or heavier.
Heavy cruisers, despite being important ships, were not considered capital ships. During the Cold War, a Soviet
Kirov-class large missile cruiser had a displacement great enough to rival WWII-era capital ships, perhaps defining a new battlecruiser for that era. In the
21st century, the aircraft carrier is the last remaining capital ship, with firepower defined in decks available and aircraft per deck, rather than in guns and
calibres. The United States has undeniable supremacy in both categories of aircraft carriers, possessing not only 11
supercarriers each capable of carrying and launching nearly 100 tactical aircraft, but an additional 12
amphibious assault ships every bit as capable (in the "
sea control ship" configuration) as the light VSTOL carriers of other nations.
Ballistic missile submarines (or "boomers"), while important ships and in tonnage are similar to early battleships, are usually counted as part of a nation's
nuclear deterrent force and do not share the sea control mission of traditional capital ships. (Although in some navies (Royal Navy and US Navy), Ballistic submarines are given names typically formerly given to Battleships).
The definition of "capital ship" was formalized in the limitation treaties of the
1920s and
30s; see
Washington Naval Treaty,
London Naval Treaty, and
Second London Naval Treaty.
Before the advent of the all-steel navy in the late
19th century, a capital ship was a warship of the
First,
Second or
Third rates:
* 1st Rate: 100 or more guns, typically carried on three or four
decks. Four-deckers tended to have problems with the waterline and the lowest deck could seldom fire except on the calmest of seas.
* 2nd Rate: 90-98 guns
* 3rd Rate: 64 to 80 guns (although 64-gun third-raters were very small and not very numerous in any era).
Frigates were ships of the fourth or fifth rate; a
corvette was a ship of the sixth rate.
See also
Ship of the lineIn most
military science fiction universes, capital ships are considered to be warships of frigate-size or larger.
In the
Star Wars universe, "capital ship" refers to any starship at least 100 meters long.
In the
Battlestar Galactica universe,
Battlestars are large spacegoing capital ships that function similar to aircraft carriers.
In the computer game
StarCraft, capital ships are considered to be
Terran Battlecruisers or
Protoss Carriers.
In the computer game series
Homeworld, capital ships are classified as producable ships (non-flagships) that are significantly more important and expensive than other, smaller ships, whether in combat or in ship production. Examples are the carrier (mobile base for frigate, fighter, and utility ship production), the shipyard (almost-immobile production facility that can manufacture even the largest ships), and the destroyer, the battlecruiser, and the juggernaught, all formidable anti-capital ship or anti-frigate warships.
