In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in the late 19th century by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish Navy as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War.
The People's Liberation Army Navy, also known as the Chinese Navy, PLA Navy or PLAN, is the naval warfare branch of the People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of China and, by default, the national armed forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLAN can trace its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese Civil War and was established on 23 April 1949. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union provided assistance to the PLAN in the form of naval advisers and export of equipment and technology. Until the late 1980s, the PLAN was largely a riverine and littoral force. However, by the 1990s, following the fall of the Soviet Union and a shift towards a more forward-oriented foreign and security policy, the leaders of the Chinese military were freed from worrying over land border disputes. Having traditionally been subordinated to the PLA Ground Force, PLAN leaders were able to advocate for a renewed attention towards the seas.
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes.
An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in long distance and high value trade.
Steam frigates, also known as screw frigates and the smaller steam corvettes and steam sloops, were steam-powered warships that were not meant to stand in the line of battle. The first such ships were paddle steamers. Later on the invention of screw propulsion enabled construction of steam-powered versions of the traditional frigates, corvettes, and sloops.
Knox-class frigates were United States Navy warships, originally laid down as ocean escorts, but were all redesignated as frigates on 30 June 1975, in the 1975 ship reclassification plan and their hull designation changed from DE to FF.
The Castle-class corvettes were an updated version of the much more numerous Flower-class corvettes of the Royal Navy, and started appearing during late 1943. They were equipped with radar as well as asdic.
The People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force is a branch of the People's Liberation Army Navy in China. It consists of all surface warships in operational service with the PLAN. It operates 661 ships. The ships are organized into three fleets: the North Sea Fleet, the East Sea Fleet, and the South Sea Fleet. The People's Liberation Army Navy is turning away from its traditional focus on coastal and littoral warfare and instead prioritising the development of blue water capabilities. This has led to a significant reduction in fleet numbers as the PLAN has replaced a larger number of smaller ships with a smaller number of larger and more capable ships, including destroyers, frigates, corvettes, amphibious warfare ships and large auxiliary ships.
The Type 072 landing ship are large landing ships built by Shanghai-based Zhonghua Shipyard in the 1980s to replace the aging World War II-era ex-US Navy L-1511 tank landing ships in service with the PLA Navy. The Type 072 is the PLA Navy’s first indigenous large landing ship. A total of 3 Type 072 are in service all of them are in service with the East Sea Fleet of the People's Liberation Army Navy.
The Type 074 landing ship is a class of landing ship medium (LSM) of the People's Liberation Army Navy. They were built at Wuhu Shipyard of Wuhu, Anhui from 1995 to 2000. Although entering service in the mid-1990s, the origin of Type 074 dates to almost three decades earlier in the mid-1960s, and Type 074 is the result of experience learned from around half a dozen models earlier.
Steam gun boats (SGBs) were small Royal Navy vessels used during the Second World War. The class consisted of nine torpedo boats, powered by steam, and built from 1940 to 1942 for the Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy.
Ping Hai was a light cruiser in the Chinese fleet before World War II and the second ship of the Ning Hai class. The ship was laid down in China to the specifications supplied by the Japanese, and Japanese advisors were hired to oversee the construction. Compared to its sister ship Ning Hai, it had a lower-output powerplant and lacked seaplane facilities. Its anti-aircraft armament was also different from that of its sister.
The Danlin class cargo ship is a class of Chinese cargo ship that is in service with People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Danlin class cargo ship is the armed version of its unarmed sister ship in civilian service, and both entered service between 1960 – 1962.
Type 912 degaussing/deperming ship is a class of degaussing/deperming ship of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) with many derivatives. Type 912 is also the most numerous degaussing/deperming ship in PLAN.
Chinese gunboat Minquan was a gunboat with more than half a century of service life in China, both in the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) and the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The gunboat was named after Minquan County, which in turn, is named after the Principle of Minquan devised by Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
The Yongfeng-class was a class of four Chinese gunboats built by Japan and China respectively, each building a pair. Due to their small size, these ships are also frequently referred as gunboats.
HMS Falcon is a river gunboat of Royal Navy built by Yarrow Shipbuilders in 1931 for Yangtze Patrol. The main armament of the gunboat is a 3.7 inch Howitzer, and the secondary armament is a QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt. For air defense, the gunboat is armed with ten machine guns that can also be used against surface targets.
The EOC 8 inch 45 caliber were a family of related 8-inch (203 mm) 45 caliber naval guns designed by the Elswick Ordnance Company and manufactured by Armstrong for export customers before World War I. In addition to being produced in the United Kingdom licensed variants were produced in Italy and in Japan. Users of this family of gun included the navies of Argentina, Chile, China, Italy, Japan and Spain. This family of guns saw action in the Spanish–American War, Boxer Rebellion, Russo-Japanese War, Italo-Turkish War, World War I and World War II. In addition to its naval role it was later used as coastal artillery and siege artillery after the ships it served on were decommissioned.
The EOC 4-inch 50 caliber was a British naval gun designed by the Elswick Ordnance Company for export customers in the years before World War I that armed warships of the Republic of China and the Greek Navy. These ships served in both World War I and later World War II.
