The list of ship commissionings in 1988 includes a chronological list of all ships commissioned in 1988.
| Operator | Ship | Flag | Class and type | Pennant | Other notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 May |  Spanish Navy | Príncipe de Asturias | STOL aircraft carrier | R11 | ||
| November |  People's Liberation Army Navy | Changzheng 4 | Type 091 submarine | 404 | date of initial operational capability |
| Ship events in 1988 | |||||||||||
| Ship launches: | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 |
| Ship commissionings: | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 |
| Ship decommissionings: | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 |
| Shipwrecks: | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 |
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighters, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. While heavier aircraft such as fixed-wing gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, one has yet to successfully land on one. By its diplomatic and tactical power, its mobility, its autonomy and the variety of its means, the aircraft carrier is often the centerpiece of modern combat fleets. Tactically or even strategically, it replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet. One of its great advantages is that, by sailing in international waters, it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus obviates the need for overflight authorizations from third-party countries, reduces the times and transit distances of aircraft and therefore significantly increase the time of availability on the combat zone.
The Kirov class, Soviet designation Project 1144 Orlan, is a class of nuclear-powered guided missile cruisers of the Soviet Navy and Russian Navy, the largest and heaviest surface combatant warships in operation in the world. Among modern warships, they are second in size only to large aircraft carriers, and of similar size to a World War I-era battleship. The Soviet classification of the ship-type is "heavy nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser". The ships are often referred to as battlecruisers by Western defence commentators due to their size and general appearance.
A ship prefix is a combination of letters, usually, abbreviations, used in front of the name of a civilian or naval ship that has historically served numerous purposes, such as identifying the vessel's mode of propulsion, purpose, or ownership/nationality. In the modern environment, prefixes are used inconsistently in civilian service, whereas in government service, the vessels prefix is seldom missing due to government regulations dictating a certain prefix be present. Today the common practice is to use a single prefix for all warships of a nation's navy, and other prefixes for auxiliaries and ships of allied services, such as coast guards. For example, the modern navy of Japan adopts the prefix "JS" – Japanese Ship. However, not all navies used prefixes; this includes the significant navies of China, France, Russia, and Spain, which, like France, uses the NATO designation SPS if needed.
Ulyanovsk, Soviet designation Project 1143.7, was a fixed-wing aircraft carrier laid down on 25 November 1988 as the first of a class of Soviet nuclear-powered supercarriers. It was intended for the first time to offer true blue water naval aviation capability for the Soviet Navy. The ship would have been equipped with steam catapults that could launch fully loaded aircraft, representing a major advance over the Kuznetsov class, which could only launch high-powered aircraft from their ski-jumps. However, construction of Ulyanovsk was stopped at about 40% after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
USS MacKenzie (DD–175) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. In 1940, as part of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement she was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy as the Town-class destroyer HMCS Annapolis.
USS Niagara, commonly called the US Brig Niagara or the Flagship Niagara, is a wooden-hulled snow-brig that served as the relief flagship for Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. As the ship is certified for sail training by the United States Coast Guard, she is also designated SSV Niagara. Niagara is usually docked behind the Erie Maritime Museum in downtown Erie in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania as an outdoor exhibit for the museum. She also often travels the Great Lakes during the summer, serving as an ambassador of Pennsylvania when not docked. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and was designated the official state ship of Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1988.
USS Vermilion (AKA-107/LKA-107), was a Tolland-class attack cargo ship of the United States Navy, named after a parish in southern Louisiana and a county in eastern Illinois. She served as a commissioned ship for 25 years and 9 months.
The ships of the F120 Köln class of frigates were the first major warships built in Germany after World War II.
The Cannon class was a class of destroyer escorts built by the United States primarily for antisubmarine warfare and convoy escort service during World War II. The lead ship, USS Cannon, was commissioned on 26 September 1943 at Wilmington, Delaware. Of the 116 ships ordered, 44 were cancelled and six were commissioned directly into the Free French Forces. Destroyer escorts were regular companions escorting vulnerable cargo ships.
The Pondicherry class are a class of minesweepers built for the Indian Navy by the Soviet Union. They are modified versions of the Natya-class minesweeper. The vessels were acquired in two batches. The first were purchased from 1977 to 1980 and the second from 1986 to 1988. Technically, the second batch is referred to as the Karwar class but are physically identical to the first batch with the exception of additional surface-to-air missiles. As minesweepers, they are large and heavily armed. They can serve a dual purpose as an anti-submarine warfare escort. Their hulls are constructed of U3 low magnetic signature steel.
USS Allendale (APA-127) was a Haskell-class attack transport in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. She was scrapped in 1988.
HMS Ramillies was a Royal Sovereign-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, named after the Battle of Ramillies. The ship was built by J. & G. Thompson at Clydebank, starting with her keel laying in August 1890. She was launched in March 1892 and commissioned into the Mediterranean Fleet as flagship the following October. She was armed with a main battery of four 13.5-inch guns and a secondary battery of ten 6-inch guns. The ship had a top speed of 16.5 knots.
The Fargo-class cruisers were a modified version of the Cleveland-class cruiser design; the main difference was a more compact pyramidal superstructure with single trunked funnel, intended to improve the arcs of fire of the anti-aircraft (AA) guns. The same type of modification differentiated the Baltimore and Oregon City classes of heavy cruisers, and to a lesser degree the Atlanta and Juneau classes of light cruisers. Changes were made in order to reduce the instability of the Cleveland-class light cruisers, especially their tendency to roll dangerously. The main battery turrets sat about a foot lower and the wing gunhouses were lowered to the main deck. The medium (40 mm) anti-aircraft mounts were also lowered.
The Veer-class corvettes of the Indian Navy are a customised Indian variant of the Soviet Tarantul class. They form the 22nd Killer Missile Vessel Squadron.
The Type L6 ship is a United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) designation for World War II as a Great Lakes dry break bulk cargo ship. The L-Type Great Lakes Dry Bulk Cargo Ships were built in 1943 to carry much-needed iron ore from the upper Great Lakes to the steel and iron production facilities on Lakes Erie and Ontario in support of the war effort. The ships have a 15,675 tonne deadweight tonnage. The L6 ships were built by two companies: American Ship Building Company, in the case of the type L6-S-A1 models, of which 6 were built; and Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ashtabula, Ohio/ Great Lakes Engineering Works, River Rouge, Ohio, in the case of the type L6-S-B1, which produced 10 ships. Steel supply needed for World War was great. To supply iron ore from Lake Superior to steel foundries, the United States Commission had a series of L6 Lakers ship built. The Maritime Commission ordered ten Great Lakes Bulk Carriers of the L6-S-B1 type. The L6-S-B1 was design with a 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engines. The L6-S-A1 used a lentz 4-cylinder compound engine. All L6 ships were coal burning and delivered between May and November 1943. L6-S-B1 was built for the US Maritime Commission under USMC contract MCc-1834 in 1943 at the River Rouge yard. Each L6 ship cost $2.265 million. The first L6-S-B1 was the SS Adirondack/Richard J. Reiss, hull 290, keel was laid on March 9, 1942 and launched on September 19, 1942. The ships are often called the Class Lake Bulk Freighter now.