Why fleets group similar ships
A question about American carrier groups opens into the operational advantages of grouping ships with comparable performance.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
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Why a rebuilt sailing warship becomes a different ship
Long refits could preserve a famous name while replacing nearly all of the original vessel.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
An updated HMS Tiger as a cruiser hunter
A surviving and rearmed HMS Tiger could have been a powerful South Atlantic answer to a German raider.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why the 2022 DDG(X) concept remained provisional
The DDG(X) image shown in 2022 is treated as an early concept whose resemblance to an Italian PPA matters less than whether procurement reaches a contract.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why Falkland Islanders' choice governs the sovereignty question
Any sovereignty settlement must follow the islanders' stated choice rather than divide the islands between governments.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why Scharnhorst is a battleship despite 11-inch guns
Gun calibre alone does not settle whether a capital ship is a battleship or a battlecruiser.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
What happens to Courageous and Glorious if the Admirals become carriers
Converting the Admiral-class hulls into carriers creates several possible fates for Courageous and Glorious, including an unusual cruiser role.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
HMS Victory in the Anglo-Dutch Wars
HMS Victory's speed and armament would have been exceptional against the fleets of the Anglo-Dutch Wars.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
How the Royal Navy could answer a Jeune École fleet
A rival fleet of coastal battleships and torpedo craft would change British screens and quick-firing armament more than its basic capital-ship program.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why chemical and biological weapons are poor naval weapons
The shipboard environment and seawater washdown make chemical and biological agents less attractive at sea than their notoriety suggests.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Royal Navy cruiser designs worth reconsidering
Quadruple cruiser turrets, 9.2-inch heavy cruisers and an enlarged Dido concept illustrate several British paths not fully pursued.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
If Deutschland-class ships replaced German pre-dreadnoughts
Earlier German pocket battleships could push British cruisers and battleships toward greater speed and heavier cruiser guns.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Torpedoes as a capital ship's finishing weapon
Torpedoes offered a way to finish a damaged enemy or retain a last-ditch strike option.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why the Royal Navy has a strong claim to the longest continuous history
Institutional continuity, rather than the earliest appearance of ships, supports the Royal Navy's claim to an exceptionally long history.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why institutional dislike did not stop shells, torpedoes or submarines
Navies could distrust dangerous new weapons while continuing to develop and operate them because opponents would not abandon the same capabilities.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
What makes a four-quadruple-turret battleship super
Four quadruple 16-inch turrets would turn the proposal into a sixteen-gun capital ship with an immense broadside.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Early Royal Navy radar installations
A detailed answer traces early Royal Navy radar fits from Saltburn to Sheffield, Rodney, Curlew, Dido and Prince of Wales.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Comparing military innovation across European armies
A comparison of Dutch, French, German, British and American practice separates originating ideas from disciplined implementation.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why Courageous and Glorious became carriers
Furious supplied the precedent, while an underestimate of future carrier demand shaped the choice of Courageous and Glorious.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why County-class turret armor was hard to increase
Some County-class cruisers could receive more turret protection, but every added plate raised the ship's topweight.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
What central-battery ironclads gained from concentrated armor
Concentrating guns and protection amidships allowed designers to use thick armor where it mattered most instead of spreading it across the whole hull.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why the Royal Navy prioritizes SSNs over SSKs
A mixed submarine fleet can offer local utility, but a cheaper conventional boat should not displace the nuclear attack boat's wider role.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
How the Nelson class handled rough seas
The Nelson class performed better at sea than its unusual appearance might suggest and could exceed its expected speed when needed.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Royal Navy personnel on the Western Front
Royal Navy involvement ashore extended from aviation and armored cars to reservists fighting in the Royal Naval Division.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Radar aboard Norfolk and Suffolk in the Bismarck hunt
The cruisers that shadowed Bismarck probably received Type 79Y sets around 1940, connecting early radar adoption to a famous operation.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
A Second World War King George V at Jutland
Modern optics, rapid 14-inch guns and high speed would make a King George V-class battleship a devastating addition to the Grand Fleet.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
What Admiral-class carrier conversions could change
Converting additional Admiral-class hulls into carriers could transform British carrier numbers, air groups and operational reach.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Four Admiral-class battlecruisers as Jellicoe's fast wing
A complete Admiral-class squadron with the Grand Fleet could outflank the German retreat and turn Jutland's geometry against Scheer.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
A treaty fleet built to the two-power standard
Treaty permission to match the American and Japanese fleets combined would give Britain three capital-ship fleets and overwhelming regional superiority.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why the Royal Naval Air Service fielded armored cars
Royal Navy armored cars began as a practical way to recover downed aircrew from dangerous ground before they were captured.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
How Britain might base 22 SSNs and 40 conventional submarines
A very large mixed submarine force would divide conventional boats among regional bases while keeping most nuclear attack submarines in Britain and a possible Falklands squadron.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
The Des Moines-class aircraft hangar arrangement
The cruiser's crane-served aircraft arrangement worked, though helicopter decks and hangars made aviation handling much simpler.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
American standard battleships at Jutland
Earlier American participation would enlarge Jellicoe's battle line and make a German night escape even harder.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Could British armored cruisers become interwar heavy cruisers?
The newest British armored cruisers could be reconstructed into useful heavy cruisers if treaty tonnage allowed new machinery and major rebuilding.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why peacetime ASDIC trials had limits
Peacetime exercises could test ASDIC, but they could not safely reproduce every wartime submarine condition.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
How surviving carriers could strengthen the Far East Fleet
If Courageous and Glorious survive while Italian naval power collapses, Britain can assemble a much stronger carrier-battleship force in Ceylon before Japan enters the war.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why British convoys still needed heavy cruisers
British heavy cruisers insured convoy screens against Italian heavy cruisers when paper comparisons between light and heavy ships could not guarantee the outcome.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
How Hedgehog changes an ASDIC attack
Ahead-throwing weapons reduced the old problem of losing sonar contact during a depth-charge attack.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why capital-ship parity mattered more than cruiser advantage
The Royal Navy could bargain over cruiser categories, but it would not accept inferiority in the headline capital-ship balance.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why inheriting two great-power fleets could bankrupt Spain
A fantastical 1912 inheritance demonstrates that acquiring warships is useless without the budget and institutions to sustain them.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why naval rigs moved toward boom-and-gaff arrangements
The shift away from older lateen arrangements improved control and extracted more useful power from the wind.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Pearl Harbor as the largest concentrated battleship target
Pearl Harbor stands out because many battleships were present together at one moment, even if later campaigns deployed more ships over a wider period.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
What a modern two-power-standard Royal Navy would require
Matching the United States plus another carrier power would require about fifteen nuclear carriers, mass escort production and a much larger auxiliary fleet.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Three warnings for the Royal Navy before three wars
A deliberately humorous answer condenses pre-war advice into shell reform, carrier construction and widespread 40 mm close defence.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
A plausible bridge for an angled-deck Malta-class carrier
Ark Royal R09 offers the strongest real-world guide to how a 1950s Royal Navy Malta-class bridge might have evolved.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
If the United States enters the European war in 1939
Immediate American participation overwhelms German surface raiding and gives the Allies far more naval, air and ground strength before France falls.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
A naval war during the Abyssinian Crisis
An early war with Britain could destroy the Italian fleet, force imperial withdrawals and possibly remove Mussolini before the Second World War.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·
Why Giulio Cesare was hard to attack at Taranto
Giulio Cesare's place among other battleships forced attacking aircraft to cross additional targets and defenses before reaching her.
From Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru ·