NEXT-GEN
While Britain’s navy ruled the waves in centuries past, the future battles above and below the surface call for cutting-edge capabilities
If you thought that the golden age of naval combat came to an end 200 years ago, then clearly somebody forgot to tell the national navies of today, as scores of state-of-the-art, armed-to-the-teeth battleships are currently emerging from shipbuilding yards with a singular aim in mind: total domination of the world’s seas.
From the formidable Type 45 destroyers being pushed out of British dockyards, through to the almost sci-fi Zumwalt-class battleships emerging in the US, and on to the cruising carrier vessels sitting like small islands in the world’s oceans, battleships are being produced en masse and to a more advanced spec than ever before.
Far from the basic heavyweights of bygone centuries, required simply to go toe-to-toe with each other in a deadly game of broadsides, today’s warships need to take down a variety of threats, whether at sea, on land or in the air, and they need to do so at extreme range. As such, step onto a battleship today – be it a frigate, destroyer or corvette – and you’ll find an arsenal of incredible weapons systems. There are cannons that can fire over distances of 60 miles (95km) and deliver a guided smart munition to a target with pinpoint accuracy, as well as Gatling guns that can automatically track a target moving at hundreds of miles per hour and then fire explosive bullets at up to 3,600ft (1,100m) per second to take it down.
Modern missile launch systems are capable of launching a wide variety of city block-levelling missiles directly into the heart of enemy encampments in minutes from a safe distance, while naval guns are now built to subject a target to continuous bombardment with highexplosive shells. All this is but a taste of the weaponry being fitted to the most advanced 21st-century warships.
The heavy armament of vessels currently knows no bounds, with even coastguard fleets, convoy vehicles and civilian support ships being outfitted with some form of military-grade offensive weaponry.
Clearly, controlling the world’s waters is not as old-fashioned a priority as the history books would have us believe. In this feature we take a look at the various types of battleship taking to the seas and the weapon systems that are revolutionising not just naval combat but warfare in general.
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