Talk:Destroyer

John --

What is a "warship," a "surface warship" and a "surface combattant"?

Although some definitions insist that a ship must be armed to be a "warship," others merely state the ship be part of a navy. Thus, a fleet oiler is a warship even though it has no weaponry worthy of the name.

A surface warship simply means a warship which can't submerge (or rather, it can submerge only once 8^] ).

A surface combattant means a surface warship which can actually engage in ship-to-ship combat with guns or missiles.

By these definitions, an aircraft carrier is not a surface combattant since it relies on its aircraft to do its dirty work. Ergo, a destroyer is (except in a handful of navies) the largest surface combattant, not an aircraft carrier.

I've no interest in revert wars, or monomanical edit discussions, but it seems that these defintions may be useful not just in this article but in at least several others. Make sense? Sound like BS?

Sober Thought 01:54, 11 June 2006 (GMT)

Well, US Aircraft carriers carry missile launchers.... although they are antiaircraft and turrets which can engage other surface combatants. But... the reason I did that edit was because the Wikipedia article on the British fleet listed Aircraft Carriers under Major Surface Combatants. John 03:19, 11 June 2006 (GMT)