History UsefulNotes / NavalWeapons

!![=SAMs=]

Today, the Vertical Launch System (VLS) is generally used, with missiles placed in silos inside the hull and launched on command. This is basically a box system with a ''much'' higher ammo capacity: it allows you to get a missile off about once a second (or faster), can use different types and sizes of missiles easily, is mechanically much more simple and reliable than the automated reloading and aiming systems associated with rail and box launchers, and reduces your radar cross-section (making you harder to find and hit). However, it isn't easy (or sometimes not even possible) to reload at sea without an ammo ship and special crane. Your launch-to-impact time is also slightly slower, because with a rail or box system, the missile is already pointing at the target when it fires, whereas in a vertical launch system, the missile has to launch and then turn towards its victim. Modern naval [=SAMs=] generally compensate for this by {{Roboteching}}, some turning from vertical to horizontal flight so fast that they barely clear the railings on the side of the ship on their way out.

ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Smaller-caliber, rapid firing. Machine guns mounted on ships have several advantages over their land-based bretheren: The ship itself provides a stable firing platform, an armored position to fight from, and storage space for literally ''tons'' of ammuntion. They provide defense against fast-moving small vessels, and in port against personnel on foot and in vehicles. When mounted in small, fast moving boats, they become the primary armament. Although there are exceptions, they are generally not automated and instead operated by crewmembers.

* The US [=M240B=] 7.62mm medium machine gun

** The US Mk 44 Bushmaster II is a 30mm chain gun (as the name implies, and improved version of the Mk 38) that's mounted in a fully automated turret and is loaded from inside, removing the need to have sailors exposed on the deck to reload it. However, this means it needs below-deck mechanisms to function, whereas the Mk 38 is merely bolted to the deck and hooked up to a power supply.

Drawbacks to dedicated stealth designs include higher cost, the the high cost and lower resilience of dedicated composites, limited deck space and internal volume and, in the case of the Zumwalt, a hull form with a history of instability problems - all of which would conspire to make such ships very hard to upgrade. At the same time, modern integrated sensor networks are causing naval theorists to question the very notion that naval stealth is possible at all.

Older naval [=SAMs=] used rail-based launchers or box launchers. Rail launchers usually had one or two missiles sitting on rails, basically providing you with one or two missiles available to launch before the launcher would reload from an automated magazine below decks. A box system came with say eight missiles in a launcher out on deck which you would then have to reload manually. These looked visually impressive, but caused a rate-of-fire issue. Either you could fire one or two missiles, and then spend 30 seconds to 2 minutes reloading, or fire eight missiles, and then spend 45 mintues reloading.

Today, the Vertical Launch System (VLS) is generally used, with missiles placed in silos inside the hull and launched on command. This is basically a box system with a ''much'' higher ammo capacity: it allows you to get a missile off about once a second (or faster), lets you carry bigger missiles, is mechanically much more simple and reliable than the automated reloading and aiming systems associated with rail and box launchers, and reduces your radar cross-section (making you harder to find and hit).

However, it isn't easy (or sometimes not even possible) to reload at sea without an ammo ship and special crane. Your launch-to-impact time is also slightly slower, because with a rail or box system, the missile is already pointing at the target when it fires, whereas in a vertical launch system, the missile has to launch and then turn towards its victim. Modern naval [=SAMs=] generally compensate for this by {{Roboteching}}, some turning from vertical to horizontal flight so fast that they barely clear the railings on the side of the ship on their way out.

* The British Sea Dart system, now retired, replaced with Sea Viper. Fired from a double-rail launcher.

* The Umkhonto, the rare South African missile and the equally rare VLS-launched IR missile.

They're also rather good at shooting up empty pirate skiffs.

As the name would imply, these missiles fly to their target in a ballistic arc. They are not nearly as accurate as cruise missiles but typically have much longer (intercontinental) range and response time and as such are today only carried by submarines and fitted with nuclear warheads. Each missile can be fitted with Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles (MIRV) which are warheads that can hit several targets independently, and they can be fired while submerged. The job of [[UsefulNotes/TypesOfNavalShips [=SSBNs=] or "Boomers"]] are to hide until such time as they are ordered to fire these, and usually carry 1-2 dozen of them. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Thankfully,]] no nuclear ballistic missiles have ever been fired in anger.[[note]]The German V-2, of course, was a ballistic missile, and ''has'' been fired in anger, but (1) it was armed with a conventional warhead and (2) it was never a particularly useful weapon. Also, although the Germans considered a submarine-towed launch platform, it was never used.[[/note]]

One way to avoid getting hit by misiles is to avoid being detected at all. New warships are now being designed so that their radar-cross section is reduced, making it harder to detect them initially and then harder for missiles to lock on. This started in the US in the 1980s but the practice has now become commonplace around the world. Generally it involves eliminating right angles and clearing away or concealing objects sticking out on deck and on the sides of the ship. This also has the added benefit of making the ships look more sleek, deadly and futuristic without all that ungainly, random crap like radars, antennas and deck fixtures sticking out.

However, it's worth pointing out the United States navy is backing away from stealth optimised designs like the Zumwalt. Placing stealth above all other considerations leads to many practical drawbacks including limited deck space and internal volume and, in the case of the Zumwalt, a hull form with a history of instability problems - all of which would conspire to make such ships very hard to upgrade. At the same time, modern integrated sensor networks are causing naval theorists to question the very notion that naval stealth is possible at all.

* The US Mk 45 5" gun system is still considered "Dual Purpose" in that it can target both surface and air targets. Like its WWII counterpart, it fires "Variable Timed" fragmentary rounds that have a radar fuse as a secondary air defense weapon.
* The Phalanx CIWS mentioned below has two versions. Block 1A can only engage incoming missiles, as its whole targeting system is automatic and radar aimed. Block 1B on the other hand has an infrared and electro-optical camera and can be aimed by the operator, so it is useful against low and slow aircraft.
* The Italian OTO-Melara 76mm Compact and Super-Rapid guns are the most popular naval guns currently afloat due to compact size and high rate of fire, and like the Mk 45 are considered Dual-Purpose guns. The Super-Rapid in particular is considered by the Italian Navy to be good enough to act as a CIWS, especially once it gets guided anti-aircraft rounds.

As the name would imply, these missiles fly to their target in a ballistic arc. They are not nearly as accurate as cruise missiles but typically have much longer (intercontinental) range and response time and as such are today only carried by submarines and fitted with nuclear warheads. Each missile can be fitted with Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles (MIRV) which are warheads that can hit several targets independently, and they can be fired while submerged. The job of [[UsefulNotes/TypesOfNavalShips [=SSBNs=] or "Boomers"]] are to hide until such time as they are ordered to fire these, and usually carry 1-2 dozen of them. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Thankfully,]] no nuclear ballistic missiles have ever been fired in anger.

Chaff consists of thousands of small strips of metal which are fired into the air in a "cloud" to decoy radar-guided missiles in a similar manner to flares. They create a large swarm of false targets for the missile to home in on.

The most insidious mines use a combination of the above; for example, there are mines that sit on the bottom, listen acoustically for a certain ship type, and then only float to the surface after a certain number have passed by, and only detonate when it gets the right magnetic signature to be sure it is close enough. Many navies try not to use mines if they can help it because they ''hate'' them and don't want to give their enemies any bright ideas.

As an interesting bit of trivia, torpedoes are actually an offshoot of mines, with the original torpedos being a type of sea mine named for an electric ray that would sting predators that came too close. Some clever wit decided to drag one of these behind a Torpedo Boat, and later someone decided to attach it to the [[RammingAlwaysWorks front of the boat]], before someone was finally clever enough to just leave the crew off and let the whole rig sail off at a target unattended, creating the [[AttackDrone Self-propelled Torpedo]]. More recently, things have come full circle with the CAPTOR ([=enCAPsulated=] [=TORpedo=]) mine, which is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a mine containing a torpedo]]. When it detects a submarine within range that matches the acoustic profile of an enemy, it releases the torpedo.

Once again, main guns were the original form of shore bombardment. Naval guns are usually highly automated, or at least mechanized, so their firing rate is much higher than field guns of similar caliber, which have to be light enough to be dragged around by trucks. One ship can provide nearly the same amount of shells on target at a time as an entire battery of field artillery. Their main limitation is typically range; The ship can only get as close to shore as its draft allows, and max range is usually around 10-15 miles. When the marines push farther inland than that, they're on their own.

* Though there are none in active service today, the all-big-gun battleships of the 1900s to 1940s were perhaps the most fearsome naval fire support platforms ever. Their heavy armor meant that they could take fire from land-based guns and ask for more, and they typically mounted upwards of 9 ''very heavy'' caliber guns. The US ''Iowa'' class ships mounted 9 ''16"/50 caliber'' guns which they could fire about every 30 seconds, independently. This means either a full broadside of 9 rounds every thirty seconds or a rolling fire of 1 round every 3 1/3 seconds. [[MoreDakka For an enemy soldier, this was equivalent to a Volkswagen filled with high explosives landing on your position from 20 miles away every few seconds until the Marines told them to stop!]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill That, or 9 50-foot craters suddenly appearing at your position at once.]] YouCanPanicNow.

As the name would imply, these missiles fly to their target in a ballistic arc. They are not nearly as accurate as cruise missiles but typically have much longer (intercontinental) range and response time and as such are today only carried by submarines and fitted with nuclear warheads. Each missile can be fitted with Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles (MIRV) which are warheads that can hit several targets independently, and they can be fired while submerged. The job of [[UsefulNotes/TypesOfNavalShips [=SSBNs=] or "Boomers"]] are to hide until such time as they are ordered to fire these, and usually carry 1-2 dozen of them. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Thankfully,]] no nuclear ballistic missiles have ever been fired in anger.[[note]]The German V-2, of course, was a ballistic missile, and ''has'' been fired in anger, but (1) it was armed with a conventional warhead and (2) it was never a particularly useful weapon. Also, although the Germans considered a submarine-towed launch platform, it was never used.[[/note]]

Chaff consists of thousands of small strips of metal which are fired into the air in a "cloud" to decoy radar-guided missiles in a similar manner to flares: They create a radar target larger than the ship for the missile to home in on. The British proved that these work during UsefulNotes/TheFalklandsWar, though they also demonstrated that you should be careful ''where'' exactly you fire these off; in at least one case an incoming missile was fooled by the chaff launched by destroyers, flew through it, and then acquired the next target it found on the other side, which turned out to be a merchant converted into a cargo transport by the British. Whoops.

These work by flying out away from a ship and then turning on a radar repeater which imitates the signals from a radar-guided misile and hopefully causes it to belive there's a bigger ship where there actually isn't. These are generally more effective than chaff but are generally much more expensive and can get as big as small missiles, so a ship will usually have fewer of them if it has any at all.

These are decoys either fired underwater or towed behind a ship or submarine whose job it is to fool torpedoes into either going the wrong way or detonating early. Some are noisemakers which imitate the sound of a legitimate target, some are essentially "jammers" which flood the water with sound to confuse sonar, some form a "screen" of bubbles to try and provide active sonar with a bigger target than the submarine/surface ship, and finally some generate a magnetic field intended to fool a torpedo's detonator into thinking its found the target. Some incorporate more than one method. They vary in effectiveness.

During WWII these were the primary anti-aircraft weapons, but were rendered obsolete by the combination of carrier aircraft, long range missiles, point defense missiles and CIWS. These are still in limited use for defense against "low-slow fliers" like helicopters or hypothetical small kamikaze aircraft flown by terrorists.

* The US Mk 45 5" gun system can fire fragmentary rounds that have a radar fuse as a secondary air defense weapon, much like old-school flak.
* The Phalanx CIWS mentioned below has two versions. Block 1A can only engage air targets, and specifically incoming missiles, as its whole targeting system is automatic and radar aimed. Block 1B on the other hand has an infrared and electro-optical camera and can be aimed by the operator, so it is also useful against low and slow aircraft.
* The Italian 76mm Compact and Super-Rapid guns are the most popular naval guns currently afloat due to compact size and high rate of fire. The Super-Rapid in particular is considered by the Italian Navy to be good enough to act as a CIWS, especially once it gets guided anti-aircraft rounds.

Navies have been individually arming sailors since navies were invented. During the [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen Age of Sail]], boarding actions carried out by crewman with axes, cutlasses, and pistols were an important means of winning battles. While the invention of accurate long-range guns ended the days of daring boarding actions, most ships have a team of specially-trained sailors for boarding (ostensibly) unarmed vessels and for in-port security. As well as occasionally at-sea security, as seen on the night of October 7, 2009 when [[RuthlessModernPirates Somali pirates]] boarded what they mistook for a civilian tanker but was actually [[OhCrap a French Navy command ship]]. And on January 12, 2012 when [[TooDumbToLive they did it again, this time to a Spanish Navy replenishment ship]]. Boarding teams are usually at least as well-armed as the average infantryman on land and will typically have nifty things like ballistic vests that are also flotation devices, rope ladders with hooks and poles for getting up the side of ships, and tools for cutting through metal doors. Their weapons are generally more compact so as to be easier to maneuver inside cramped ships.

* The Soviet/Russian S-300/SA-N-6 "Grumble" and its successors (the S-300FM/SA-N-20 "Gargoyle").

* The Franco-British Aster-30 (the aforementioned Sea Viper in British service. Fired from the Sylver VLS, a modular system similar to the Mk 41.

The weapons you find on warships and submarines. [[IThoughtItMeant Not stuff that fires out of your belly button]].

The reason why we have [[TypesOfNavalShips Minesweepers]]. [[SeaMine Mines]], like their land-based brethren, are bombs that sit inert until they are triggered by some external stimulus. There are literally hundreds of types of mines, and they are all deadly. Any seagoing vessel or aircraft can be a minelayer, and all ships and submarines are vulnerable (or, as the saying goes, any ship can be a minesweeper [[GallowsHumor once.]]) The best ways to categorize them are:

As the name would imply, these missiles fly to their target in a ballistic arc. They are not nearly as accurate as cruise missiles but typically have much longer (intercontinental) range and response time and as such are today only carried by submarines and fitted with nuclear warheads. Each missile can be fitted with Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles (MIRV) which are warheads that can hit several targets independently, and they can be fired while submerged. The job of [[TypesOfNavalShips [=SSBNs=] or "Boomers"]] are to hide until such time as they are ordered to fire these, and usually carry 1-2 dozen of them. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Thankfully,]] no nuclear ballistic missiles have ever been fired in anger.[[note]]The German V-2, of course, was a ballistic missile, and ''has'' been fired in anger, but (1) it was armed with a conventional warhead and (2) it was never a particularly useful weapon. Also, although the Germans considered a submarine-towed launch platform, it was never used.[[/note]]

However, isn't easy (or sometimes not even possible) to reload at sea without an ammo ship and special crane. Your launch-to-impact time is also slightly slower, because with a rail or box system, the missile is already pointing at the target when it fires, whereas in a vertical launch system, the missile has to launch and then turn towards its victim. Modern naval [=SAMs=] generally compensate for this by {{Roboteching}}, some turning from vertical to horizontal flight so fast that they barely clear the railings on the side of the ship on their way out.

* The US RUR-5 ASROC ([=AntiSubmarineROCket=]) and its successor, the RUM-139 Vertically Launched ASROC (VLA) which has substantially increased range. Basically a Mk 46 torpedo with a rocket attached. The ASROC could also carry a [[PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower Nuclear Depth Bomb]] in case the ship ran into ''serious'' submarine trouble. The original ASROC's range was actually shorter than the Mk 46 torpedo it carried, with the advantage being that it could rapidly drop that torpedo directly above a submarine and thus give much less chance of evasion. VL ASROC on the other hand can actually fire on a submarine from outside the range of the sub's own torpedoes, which is a huge advantage ''if'' the submarine is detected that far out.

* The most (in?)famous of these is the US Tomahawk, which can be fitted with a single warhead, cluster munitions, or a [[PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower W61 nuclear warhead]].

* The Soviet/Russian Type 65-76 torpedo is the largest heavy torpedo ever deployed, with its DST92 variant having an even larger warhead than the WW2 Japanese Type 93 "Long Lance".

** The Iowa and Wisconsin were last used during Desert Storm in 1991 to shell Iraqi positions. The Iraqis realized that UAVs (some of the first used by the US Navy) were used to spot targets for the big guns, and eventually just started surrendering when the UAV flew overhead, rather than get blown to smithereens from a ship so far away they couldn't even see her.

Cruise missiles are flying, self-guided bombs. Many are closer to small unmanned aircraft filled with explosives than they are to regular missiles, being jet-propelled rather than rocket-propelled. They were [[OlderThanTheyThink first invented]] in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, but the earliest versions to see action were the German V-1 missiles in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. [[ImperialJapan Some nations forgot]] [[SuicideAttack the ''unmanned'' part.]] Modern cruise missiles will usually fly slower than other types of missiles (subsonic), [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin cruise]] to the target at low altitude for hundreds of miles, and then impact with "pick a window" accuracy on a target. They are able to be programmed to evade air defenses on their own, and some of these can be fitted with [[AtomicHate nuclear warheads]]. Ships or submarines equipped with Vertical Launch Systems can [[MacrossMissileMassacre pump out dozens of these at a time.]] They are used to strike at strategic targets either close to shore or far inland without endangering the launching unit very much.

A Surface-to-Air Missile ([=SAM=]) is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a missile which is launched from a surface platform and attacks an aircraft or missile.]] Invented in the 1950's, they vary from short-ranged, barely guided early models to modern missiles capable of hitting other missiles in mid air and doing so from hundreds of miles away from the launching ship. Unlike their [[AirLaunchedWeapons air-to-air counterparts]], naval [=SAMs=] generally use a command-guidance or semi-active homing scheme; that is, the launching ship either guides the missile the entire way to the target or illuminates the target with a radar beam, the reflection of which the missile homes in on.

* The Japanese 18.1"/45 caliber Type 94 guns of the ''Yamato''-class battleships were the largest guns ever mounted on a ship. They were officially designated as being [[BlatantLies 40cm (15.7")]] to conceal their true size. Their shells each weighed 1.5 tons.

* The US Mk 45 5"/54 caliber "lightweight" gun (and the 62 caliber version). Lightweight relative to earlier 5"/54 caliber guns, that is; the previous Mk 42 gun of the same caliber had a barrel that was some 50% heavier and a turret assembly nearly triple the Mk 45's weight. This comes at the expense of its rate of fire; at a maximum of 20 rounds per minute the Mk 45 is the slowest-firing ~5" gun currently in service.
* The US 6.1"/62 caliber Advanced Gun System, designed to restore "gun cruiser" like shore bombardment capability to the US Navy. Currently used only by the ''Zumwalt''-class destroyers. Given the ''Zumwalt'' class places a heavy emphasis on stealth, the barrels are retractable when not in use.

* The US RUR-5 ASROC ([=AntiSubmarineROCket=]) and its successor, the RUM-139 Vertically Launched ASROC (VLA) which has substantially increased range. Basically a Mk 46 torpedo with a rocket attached. The ASROC could also carry a [[PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower Nuclear Depth Bomb]] in case the ship ran into ''serious'' submarine trouble.

** The nine gun/three turret layout wasn't settled on until relatively late in the game, striking a balance of firepower (very heavy, long-ranged guns) and speed (more turrets or guns meant more weight to slow a ship down). Earlier designs carried varying numbers of guns in varying numbers of turrets, with one British dreadnought mounting ''fourteen'' heavy guns in seven turrets (named for the days of the week, natch. For those of you wondering, it's the HMS Agincourt).

** And then we have the planned [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uss_Zumwalt.jpg Zumwalt class]] destroyers. Note the even more dramatic absence of protrusions and random clutter, turrets into which the gun barrels are retracted when not in use, and the unconventional hull shape which is much stealthier but also less stable in rough seas. This design may also someday include a [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagneticWeapons railgun]], which will need even more clever engineering to conceal.

** The nine gun/three turret layout wasn't settled on until relatively late in the game, striking a balance of firepower (very heavy, long-ranged guns) and speed (more turrets or guns meant more weight to slow a ship down). Earlier designs carried varying numbers of guns in varying numbers of turrets, with one British dreadnought mounting ''fourteen'' heavy guns in seven turrets (named for the days of the week, natch).

* The US ASROC ([=AntiSubmarineROCket=]) and its successor, the Vertically Launched ASROC (VLA) which has substantially increased range. Basically a Mk 46 torpedo with a rocket attached. The ASROC could also carry a [[PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower Nuclear Depth Bomb]] in case the ship ran into ''serious'' submarine trouble.

* The US Mk 45 5" gun system can fire fragmentary rounds that have a radar fuse as a secondary air defense weapon, much like old-school flak.

* The US PHALANX system uses two radars (both contained in a tall white dome) and a 20mm gatling gun of the same type used by most American fighters. Due to its appearance often referred to by American sailors as [[StarWars R2-D2]] with a hard-on, and by British sailors as a [[Series/DoctorWho Dalek]].