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The USS Lassen (DDG-82), an Arleigh Burke class destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet or battle group and defend them against smaller, short-range attackers.
Another, rarer (perhaps only in Germany; German: Zerstörer), use is to refer to aircraft specifically designed to operate at long ranges and hunt down bombers or opposing fighters. Here they are often referred to specifically as bomber destroyers with their anti-fighter role being better described as an escort fighter .
The destroyer originated in Britain shortly after the Chilean Civil War of 1891 and in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895). In those conflicts, a new type of ship proved to be devastatingly effective—the swift, small torpedo-boat invented by John Ericsson. These small boats had speed equal to that of the larger ships, and could dash in close to them, loose their torpedoes, and dash away.
While normally a small, short-range boat of this sort would be easily destroyed long before getting into range, they could be operated within a fleet with larger ships as long as the fleet was close to base. In this case the defending force had to choose which set of targets to attack: the larger ships which they were built to counter, or the smaller torpedo boats which were charging in to attack. Yet this one-two punch cost almost nothing to the attacker, as the small torpedo boats were very inexpensive.
The world's navies recognized the need for a counter weapon and developed the torpedo-boat destroyer. The basic idea was to have a screen of ships that were as fast as the torpedo boats, but armed with guns instead of torpedoes. They would operate at a distance from the main fleet of capital ships to keep the torpedo-boats from ever getting into torpedo firing range.
However it was clear even at the time that this concept had problems of its own. The ship would indeed be capable of holding off an attack by torpedo boats (which typically have no guns of their own), but while operating away from the fleet they would be easy targets for any other capital ship. Thus they were often given torpedoes of their own.
Another problem was that the torpedo-boats were short range and thus easy and cheap to produce. However the destroyers had the problem of needing to operate as a screen for the fleet. This required them to have the speed and range of the battleships, so destroyers were often much larger than the boats they were designed to counter.
The threat evolved by World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of with the introduction of the submarineUSS Los Angeles (SSN-688)|USS Los Angeles A submarine is a specialized boat that travels under water, usually for military or scientific purposes. Most major navies of the world employ submarines. Submarines are also used for marine and freshwater science. In general terms the submarine, or U-boatOctober 1939. U-47 returns to port after sinking HMS Royal Oak''. The battlecruiser Scharnhorst is seen in the background. A U-boat is any of the German submarines of World War I and World War II, as well as the Austro-Hungarian submarines of World War I., is nothing more than a torpedo boat with the ability to submerge for a short period of time. However this change allows the submarine to hide from the guns of the destroyers and close to torpedo range while underwater. This led to an equally rapid evolution of the destroyer during the war, which quickly equipped with depth chargeThe depth charge is the oldest anti- submarine weapon. A concept of a "dropping mine" was first discussed in 1911, and the idea was developed into practicality when the Royal Navy's Commander in Chief, Sir George Callaghan, requested its production in 191s and sonarAcronyms Sonar so und n avigation a nd r anging) is a technique that uses sound propagation under water to navigate or to detect other watercraft. There are two kinds of sonar, active and passive. Active sonar Active sonar creates a pulse of sound, often for countering this new threat.
By World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough the threat had evolved once again. The aircraft had now become the primary weapon of naval warfare, and again the fleet destroyers were unequipped for combatting this new target. Again they were re-equipped with new anti-aircraftAmerican troops man an anti-aircraft gun near the Algerian coastline in 1943 Anti-aircraft or air defense is any method of combating military aircraft from the ground. Various guns and cannons have been used in this role since the first military aircraft guns, in addition to their already-existing light guns, depth charges, and torpedoes. By this time the destroyers had become large multi-purpose vessels, expensive targets in their own right rather than expendable vessels for the protection of others. This led to the introduction of smaller and cheaper specialized anti-submarine warships by the Royal NavyThe Royal Navy is the navy of the United Kingdom. It operates a number of aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates, fifteen nuclear submarines, and various other ships, as well as aircraft and Britain's amphibious forces, the Royal Marines. The Royal Navy: corvettes and later frigates.